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A scientific interpretation for Gayathri mantra

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lakshmi.srinivasan • August 2, 1999 


Just came across this interpretation for Gayathri mantra.

Gayatri Mantra: A scientific view - Dr Tanmaya
>
>
>Gayatri mantra has been bestowed the greatest importance in Vedic
>dharma.This mantra has also been termed as Savitri and Ved-Mata, the mother
>of the Vedas. The literal meaning of the mantra is:
>
>O God! You are Omnipresent, Omnipotent and Almighty. You
>are all Light. You are all Knowledge and Bliss.
>You are Destroyer of fear, You are Creator of this Universe,
>You are the Greatest of all. We bow and meditate upon Your
>light. You guide our intellect in the right direction.
>
>The mantra, however, has a great scientific import too, which
>somehow got lost in the literary tradition.
>The modern astrophysics and astronomy tell us that our Galaxy called Milky
>Way or Akash-Ganga contains approximately 100,000 million of
>stars. Each star is like our sun having its own planet system. We know that
>the moon moves round the earth and the earth moves round the sun along with
>the moon. All planets round the sun. Each of the above bodies revolves 
>round
>at its own axis as well. Our sun along with its family takes one round of
>the galactic centre in 22.5 crore years.
>All galaxies including ours are moving away at a terrific velocity of
>20,000 miles per second.
>
> And now the alternative scientific meaning of the mantra step by
>step:
>(A) Om bhur bhuvah swah:
>Bhur the earth, bhuvah the planets (solar family), swah the Galaxy.
>We observe that when an ordinary fan with a speed of 900 RPM
>(rotations Per minute) moves, it makes noise. Then, one can imagine, what
>great noise would be created when the galaxies move with a speed of 20,000
>miles per second. This is what this portion of the mantra explains that 
>the
>sound produced due to the fast-moving earth, planets and galaxies is Om.
>The sound was heard during meditation by Rishi Vishvamitra, who mentioned 
>it
>to other colleagues. All of them, then unanimously decided to call this
>sound Om the name of God, because this sound is available in all the three
>periods of
>time, hence it is set (permanent). Therefore, it was the first
>never revolutionary idea to identify formless God with a specific title
>(form) called upadhi. Until that time, everybody recognized God as formless
>and nobody was prepared to accept this new idea. In the Gita also, it is
>said, "Omiti ekaksharam brahma", meaning that the name of the Supreme is 
>Om,
>which contains only one syllable (8/12). This sound Om heard during samadhi
>was called by all the seers nada-brahma a very great noise), but not a 
>noise
>that is normally beyond a specific amplitude and limits of decibels suited
>to human hearing. Hence the rishis called this sound Udgith
>musical sound of the above, i.e., heaven.They also noticed that the
>infinite mass of galaxies moving with a velocity of 20,000 miles/second was
>generating a kinetic energy = 1/2 MV2 and this was balancing the total
>energy consumption of the cosmos. Hence they named it Pranavah, which
>means the body (vapu) or store house of energy (prana).
>
> (B) Tat savitur varenyam:
> Tat that (God), savitur the sun (star), varenyam worthy of
>bowing or respect. Once the form of a person along with the name is known
>to us, we may locate the specific person. Hence the two titles (upadhi)
>provide the solid ground to identify the formless God, Vishvamitra
>suggested. He told us that we could know (realize) the unknowable formless
>God through the known factors, viz., sound Om and light of suns (stars).A
>mathematician can solve an equation x2+y2=4; if x=2; then y can be known 
>and
>so on. An engineer can measure the width of a river even by standing at 
>the
>river bank just by
>drawing a triangle. So was the scientific method suggested by
>Vishvamitra in the mantra in the next portion as under:-
>
>(C) Bhargo devasya dheemahi:
>
>Bhargo the light, devasya of the deity, dheemahi we should meditate. The
>rishi instructs us to meditate upon the available form (light of suns) to
>discover the formless Creator (God). Also he wants us to do
>japa of the word
>
>Om (this is understood in the Mantra). This is how the sage wants us
>to proceed, but there is a great problem to realise it, as the human
>mind is so shaky and restless that without the grace of the Supreme
>(Brahma) it cannot be controlled. Hence Vishvamitra suggests the way to 
>pray
>Him as
>under:
>
> (D) Dhiyo yo nah prachodayat:
>
> Dhiyo (intellect), yo (who), nah (we all), prachodayat (guide
>to right Direction). O God! Deploy our intellect on the right path. Full
>scientific interpretation of the Mantra: The earth (bhur), the planets
>(bhuvah), and the galaxies(swah) are moving at a very great velocity, the
>sound produced is Om, (the name of formless God.) That God (tat), who
>manifests Himself in the form of light of suns (savitur) is worthy of
>bowing/respect(varenyam). We all, therefore, should meditate (dheemahi)
>upon the light (bhargo) of that deity (devasya) and also do chanting of Om.
>May He (yo) guide in right direction (prachodayat) our (nah)
>intellect dhiyo So we notice that the important points hinted in the 
>mantra
>are:-
> 1) The total kinetic energy generated by the movement galaxies
>acts as an umbrella and balances the total energy consumption of the
>cosmos. Hence it was named as the Pranavah (body of energy). This is equal
>to 1/2 mv2 (Mass of galaxies x velocity2).
>
> 2) Realising the great importance of the syllable OM, the other
>later date religions adopted this word with a slight change in accent, 
>viz.,
>amen and Ameen.
>
>3)The God could be realised through the saguna (gross), upasana
>(method), i.e., a) by chanting the name of the supreme as OM and
>b) by meditating upon the light emitted by stars (suns).
>
>
>

AdiyEn
Lakshmi Narasimhan