Gayatri Notes

(from Satya-Narayana dasa, Tattva-Sandarbha classes; tape 4, side B)

--SB is the best of all pramanas or means to acquire valid knowledge, because it represents the essence of Vedic literature. Gayatri is known as the essence of the Vedas, and SB is based on Gayatri.

--Section 19 begins. First Jiva Gos. gives the reason why SB was written, then he will analyze how it contains explanation of Vedanta Sutra & Gayatri mantra.

--gayatri mantras will always have the word "dhimahi" in them. Vyasa cannot put the gayatri directly, because gayatri is a vedic mantra, only to be chanted by dvijas. Puranas can be studied by anyone. So he has put the gayatri in his own words.

--janmady asya yatah: refers to savituh. savituh refers to the root ______? to give birth. That is also the meaning of janma. It signifies the appearance, maintenance and destruction of the material world. (other meanings are also there...)

--tene brahma hrda: refers to pracodayat. pracoda means inspire; Krsna inspired brahma in the heart. "...which form identical explanations regarding the substratum of the entire universe and the ability to inspire the workings of the intellect (is known as ?) the gayatri."

--visargo 'mrsa: om bhur bhuvah svah. Visarga means the three types of creation (namely bhur, bhuvah, and svah).

--svarat (self-luminous, self-effulgent, not taking its power from somewhere else): devasya = devudyotame = to shine, to be effulgent.

--param: varenyam: supreme, the best.

--satyam: bhargah: the effulgent, or the maintainer, which exists...

--the word "dhimahi" is plural: it signifies that it (SB) is meant for all, not limited like Vedas to only the dvijas.

(section 22)...

--Visnudharmottara Purana explains that the purpose of gayatri is to meditate on the Supreme Lord...

...

--Agni Purana says that gayatri is for worshiping the Supreme Lord (not, as commonly thought, for worshiping the sun).

(Jiva Gosvami has written a small book explaining gayatri: "gayatri-vivrtti-vyakhya")

--"That light mentioned in the gayatri is the supreme Brahman, for the word 'bhargas' refers to the light of consciousness. (the Lord is compared to light because light is self-luminous -- it needs no other light to illuminate itself. The Lord is also like that. The Lord illuminates everything. We can understand everything by the mercy of the Lord, and the Lord can be known only by His mercy, not from something else.) That light is Lord Visnu, the source of our origin, preservation and dissolution of the universe. There are some who repeat the name 'siva' in place of visnu, some 'sakti' some 'surya' or some other god, while the agnihotri priests repeat the name 'agni'...verily it is Visnu who has assumed the form of agni and the rest and is praised in the Vedas etc. as 'brahman.'"

(Brahma-gayatri is sometimes refered to as savitri-gayatri) --Agni Purana:..."Let us meditate on the eternal, pure, supreme brahman, the everlasting light and the highest Lord, thinking, 'I am the light, the supreme brahman' -- in order to attain liberation." (not "I am the same brahman" but "I am of the same quality -- I am like -- parambrahman") "na devo devam arcayet": one cannot worship a divine person if one is not himself divine. therefore bhuta-suddhi.

NOTE: Srila Jiva Gosvami has written a work called

"Gayatri-vyakhya-vivrti", a commentary on two chapters of Agni Purana which deal with the Gayatri mantra (Ch. 216 & 217).