Gayatri Mantra
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Yoga Techniques and Fitness
Overview
In this lesson, we explore the significance and practice of the Gayatri Mantra.
Objective
Be familiar with the significance of the Gayatri Mantra and various ways to describe and translate it.
What You'll Get
Describe the Gayatri Mantra and other names or ways of describing it. Translate “Gayatri.” Describe the three states of consciousness spoken of in the Gayatri Mantra. Provide the words of the Gayatri and their pronunciation. Give a few translations of the Gayatri. Describe the Goddess Gayatri. Explain why there are sometimes different mantras called the Gayatri Mantra. While the most common form of the Gayatri speaks of three states of consciousness, there is also a longer form of the Gayatri. Note the number of levels addressed in the longer form.
Introduction
Overview
- Also known as the Savitri Mantra, the Gayatri Mantra is found in the Rig Veda (3.62.10).
- It’s cited in Vedic texts, in the Bhagavad Gita and in the Pali Canon, a Buddhist text.
- It is one of the oldest Sanskrit mantras and is highly revered.
- It is a meditation on spiritual light, a prayer to the realm of truth / sacred source to illuminate / liberate / enlighten our intellect.
- It is considered “supreme in bestowing enlightenment.” (Thomas Ashley-Farrand)
- Rolf Sovik explains that the Gayatri is a sandhya meditation, thus traditionally chanted at dawn and sunset. The Sanskrit word sandhyameans junctures, referring to the junctures of day and night, or the twilight hours. Other sources include noon along with sunrise and sunset as the transition times during which the mantra is traditionally chanted.
- “It is best chanted a minimum of three times each session.” (Roger Gabriel)
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