The Gayatri Mantra: An Esoteric Interpretation
The Gayatri Mantri is one of the most ancient mantras known to mankind. This mantra has been chanted since the times of antiquity.
Maha Atma Choa Kok Sui once said that when we chant the Gayatri Mantra, the Solar Logos (Solar God) sends angelic beings to protect the Mantra practitioner. The Gayatri Mantra is an invocation to the the Solar Angel within us and also to the angelic beings of the sun working with the Solar Hierarchy. One just has to read a book by Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov to grasp the importance of the Sun in Spiritual development. Not the Physical Sun, but the Spiritual sun which is veiled by the physical Sun.
When we look at the Sun all we see is a ball of Light. However, according to esoteric Science the true Sun exists behind this ball of fire. The true essence within us, our Soul/Solar angel is from this spiritual Sun. The Solar Angel connects us to the Solar Parabrahman. This is one of the secrets of the Gayatri Mantra that is not revealed to the public. Anyone sincerely following the spiritual path can chant the Gayatri mantra every day.
Those who practice Surya Yoga or the Yoga of the Sun will immensely benefit by chanting the Gayatri Mantra. It is like doing a Solar Invocation and communicating with the solar hierarchies working in the inner world.
‘The rays of the sun can be likened to little wagons filled with provisions. They travel at great speed to earth where they deposit all their treasures – the sun’s power is not only merely energy on the physical plane. Light is a living spirit which comes from the sun and has a direct contact with our spirit.’- Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov
Chanting the Gayatri Mantra after proper understanding, with right concentration by focusing not only on the mantra but also between the gap, with right breathing and rhythm can have a very profound effect on one’s psyche. It can recharge oneself with solar emanations, purify one’s aura of harmful tamasic energy and expand one’s consciousness by aligning the personality with the Soul or the Solar Angel within.
In some parts of India there is a superstition that only a Brahmins can chant this mantra. But if one reads the books of Paramahansa Yogananda, Brahmin is merely state of consciousness. It has nothing to do with caste. One who cultivates yoga, purifies their incarnated soul, lives a pure and holy life is a Brahmin. In simple words an aspiring Yogi who is seeking God is a Brahmin. So every serious spiritual aspirant can chant this mantra. This is a short esoteric Interpretation given to us by Theosophist CW Leadbeater:
“The Gayatri is perhaps the greatest and most beautiful of all the ancient mantras. It has been chanted all over India from time immemorial, and the Deva kingdom has learnt to understand it and respond to it in a very striking manner– a manner which is in itself most significant, as showing that, in an antiquity so remote that the very memory of it has been forgotten, the altruistic use of such mantras was fully comprehended and practiced. It begins always with the sacred word Om, and with the enumeration of the planes upon which its action is desired– the three worlds in which man lives, the physical, the astral and the mental; and as each plane is mentioned, the Devas belonging to that plane flock round the singer with joyous enthusiasm to do the work which by the recitation of the mantra he is about to give them. Students will remember that in India Shiva is sometimes called Nilakantha, the Blue-Throated, and that there is a legend connected with that title. It is interesting to note that some of the Angels who respond when the Gayatri is chanted bear that characteristic of the blue throat, and are clearly first-ray in type.
531. This wonderful mantra is an invocation to the Sun– of course really to the Solar Logos, who stands behind that grandest of all symbols; and the great shaft of light which immediately pours down upon and into the reciter comes as though from the physical Sun, in whatever direction that Sun may happen to be. This shaft of light is white tinged with gold, and shot with that electric blue which is so often seen in connection with any manifestation of the power of the first Ray; but when it has filled the very soul of the reciter it promptly shoots from him again in seven great rays or cones having the colours of the spectrum. It is as though the singer acts as a prism; yet the colour-rays which dart forth are of a shape the reverse of what we usually find in such cases. Commonly when we send out rays of spiritual force they spring forth from a point in the body– the heart, the brain, or some other centre; and as they shoot out they steadily broaden fanwise, as do those shining from a lighthouse. But these rays start from a basis wider than the man himself– a basis which is the circumference of his aura; and instead of widening out they decrease to a point, just as do the rays of a conventional star except that they are of course cones of light instead of mere triangles.
532. Another remarkable feature is that these seven rays do not radiate in a circle in all directions, but only in a semi-circle in the direction which the reciter is facing. Furthermore these rays have a curious appearance of solidifying as they grow narrower, until they end in a point of blinding light. And a still more curious phenomenon is that these points act as though they were living; if a man happens to come in the way of one of them, that point curves with incredible rapidity and touches his heart and his brain, causing them to glow momentarily in response. Each ray appears to be able to produce this result on an indefinite number of people in succession; in testing it on a closely-packed crowd we found that the rays apparently divide the crowd between them, each acting on the section that happened to be in front of it, and not interfering with any other section.”
– C.W Leadbeater
The Masters and the Path
“The spiritual statement by Shri Krishna, to be found in the Lord’s Song, the Bhagavad Gita, was an announcement, preparatory to the coming of the Christ. In that Song He says:
“Whenever there is a withering of the Law and an uprising of lawlessness on all sides, then I manifest Myself. For the salvation of the righteous and the destruction of such as do evil, for the firm establishing of the Law, I come to birth in age after age.”
In the lawless and wicked period of the Roman Empire, the Christ came.
Another instance of a notable and most ancient invocation is to be found in the Gayatri where the people invoke the Sun of Righteousness in the words: “Unveil to us the face of the true spiritual Sun, hidden by a disk of golden light, that we may know the truth and do our whole duty, as we journey to Thy sacred Feet.”
To this we should also add the Four Noble Truths, as enunciated by the Buddha and which are so well known to all of us, summarising as they do the causes and the sources of all the troubles which concern humanity. There are many translations of these truths to which I have referred; they all convey the same longing and appeal and they are all essentially correct as to meaning.”
– Holy Master DK, Through AAB
Rays and Initiations
A literal translation of the Gayatri verse proper can be given as:
“May we attain that excellent glory of Savitr the god: So may he stimulate our prayers?” —The Hymns of the Rigveda (1896), Ralph T. H. Griffith.
According to Swami Vivekananda, the meaning of the Mantra is translated as “We meditate on the glory of that Being who has produced this universe; may He enlighten our minds.”
The Gayatri Mantra as written in RV 3.62.10 is:
Oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ
tát savitúr váreṇ(i)yaṃ
bhárgo devásya dhīmahi
dhíyo yó naḥ pracodáyāt
In order to chant the Gayatri Mantra few things must be remembered. A spiritual practitioner must preferably chant the Gayatri Mantra during the day although it also works at night. For benefiting the most it should be chanted early in the morning when the sun rises. The practitioner should chant the mantra with a mind that is serene and calm. The practitioner must chant the mantra rhythmically and not only be aware of the chanting but also the gap between two mantras. It is not necessary to chant this mantra 108 times or more. There is no fixed number. Even if the practitioner chants the mantra 18 times, it must be done correctly. Always Quality over Quantity. Furthermore, the breathing must be rhythmic and not erratic. Visualization should either be of the Sun or the practitioner can chant this mantra while watching the morning sunrise. Thoughts about worldly things and other personal worries must be absolutely not entertained during the chanting. The mind should be alert and attentive. The practitioner can also do few cycles of pranayama before chanting this mantra. That will be very beneficial. About the Gayatri Mantra, Swami Sivananda wrote:
“Gayatri is the mother of the Vedas and the destroyer of sins. There is nothing more purifying on the earth as well as in the heaven than the Gayatri. The Japa of Gayatri brings the same fruit as the recitation of all the four Vedas together with the Angas. This single Mantra, if repeated three times a day, brings good (Kalyan or Moksha). It is the Mantra of the Vedas. It destroys sins. It bestows splendid health, beauty, strength, vigour, vitality and magnetic aura in the face (Brahmic effulgence).
Gayatri destroys the three kinds of Taapa or pain. Gayatri bestows the four kinds of Purushartha viz. , Dharma (righteousness), Artha (wealth), Kama (desired objects) and Moksha (liberation or freedom). It destroys the three Granthis or knots of ignorance, Avidya, Kama and Karma. Gayatri purifies the mind. Gayatri bestows Ashta Siddhis. Gayatri makes a man powerful and highly intelligent. Gayatri eventually gives liberation or emancipation from the wheel of births and deaths.
The mind is purified by constant worship. It is filled with good and pure thoughts. Repetition of worship strengthens the good Samskaras. “As a man thinks, that he becomes. ” This is the psychological law. The mind of a man who trains himself in thinking good, holy thoughts, develops a tendency to think of good thoughts. His character is moulded and transformed by continued good thoughts. When the mind thinks of the image of Gayatri during worship, the mental substance actually assumes the form of the image. The impression of the object is left in the mind. This is called Samskara. When the act is repeated very often, the Samskaras gain strength by repetition, and a tendency or habit is formed in the mind. He who entertains thoughts of Divinity becomes transformed actually into the Divinity himself by constant thinking and meditation. His Bhava or disposition is purified and divinised. The meditator and the meditated, the worshipper and the worshipped, the thinker and the thought become one and the same. This is Samadhi. This is the fruit of worship or Upasana.”
"You are not worshiping the physical Sun; you are worshiping the Parabrahman within the sun. Not only you are worshiping the Solar God, you are also worshiping the Solar Shiva, the Solar Vishnu and the Solar Brahma because they are all part of the Solar Parabrahman. When you pray to the Solar God, you receive a lot of blessings. Repeating the Gayatri Mantra helps to develop the intuition of Buddhic Intelligence."
