Gayatri

Gayatri (gāyatrī) is the feminine form of gāyatra, a sanskrit word for a song or a hymn. Gayatri is the name of a vedic poetic meter of 24 syllables (three couplets of eight syllables each), or any hymn composed in this meter. In Hinduism, it is one mantra in particular, and a goddess as its personification.

Mantra

The Gayatri Mantra (also called Savitri) is the most revered mantra in Hinduism. It consists of the prefix om bhur bhuvah svah, a formula frequently appearing in the Yajurveda, and the verse 3.62.10 of the Rig Veda (which is an example of the Gayatri meter).

Text

• in standard transliteration

oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ

(a) tát savitúr váren_iyam

(b) bhárgo devásya dhīmahi

(c) dhíyo yó naḥ pracodáyāt

• in roughly phonetical transliteration

om bhur bhuvah svah

(a) tat savitur vareniyam

(b) bhargo devasya dhimahi

(c) dhiyo yo nah prachodayat

Translation

Griffith (1896):

(a,b) "May we attain that excellent glory of Savitar the God:"

(c) "So May he stimulate our prayers."

word-by-word explanation:

• dhimahi 'may we attain' (1st person plural middle optative of dhā- 'set, bring, fix' etc.)
• tat vareniyam bharghas 'that excellent glory' (accusatives of tad (pronoun), varenya- 'desireable, excellent' and bhargas- 'radiance, lustre, splendour, glory')
• savitur devasya 'of savitar the god' (genitives of savitar-, 'stimulator, rouser; name of a sun-deity' and deva- 'god')
• yah prachodayat 'who may stimulate' (nominative singular of relative pronoun yad-, causative 3rd person of pra-cud- 'set in motion, drive on, urge, impel')
• dhiyah nah 'our prayers' (accusative plural of dhi- 'thought, meditation, devotion, prayer' and nah enclitic personal pronoun)

Goddess

Originally the personification of the mantra, the goddess Gayatri is considered the veda mata, the mother of all Vedas and the consort of the God Brahma and also the personification of the all-pervading Parabrahman, the ultimate, unchanging reality that lies behind all phenomena.

Gayatri is typically portrayed as seated on a red lotus, signifying wealth. She has five heads with the ten eyes looking in the eight directions plus the earth and sky and ten arms holding all the weapons of Vishnu.