[MannoFr]

I came across this in a mailing list .. the below was what one member replied (posted with permission) : its a tad long.

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Interesting to know but i have a little different "Scientific" reason which acts as a pointer to the meaning...as i believe the "meaning" is beyond logic and reason......

I have a different understanding of the mantra which may or may not be correct and appropriate but surely original to a certain extent as i kept thinking about a reason why to do this "Sandhya vandanam"? What does it signify? So i read a lot of physics, quantum mechanics and astronomy....
so, bare with me for the following reasons...

OM:

1. There is some thing called CMB {Cosmic microwave Background} which is considered to be the sound/light wave which must have originated when the big bang occurred. Around 1960s two people {of course US guys} found out that CMB does exist now and it's wavelength has become too elongated so beyond visual or audio levels of humans....But the beauty of CMB is, it is uniform in all directions of the universe and in any location...That stunning discovery is a parallel to "OM"..In my humble opinion, it is that all pervading, waves of light and sound, though not seen or heard was intuitively addressed in this mantra as "OM"....

2. Note that OM is actually "AUM"..... Because, it is also to express the limits of our expression. Or in other words, it is the boundary conditions......"AUM" is the combination of "Aaaa" produced when the mouth is completely open and lips are wide apart, "Uuu" Produced when lips are intermediate position, and "Mmm" Produced when lips are tightly closed and sound is generated from with in....

So "AUM" is the beginning, middle and end of all available set of sounds which any thing on this universe can produce..Any other sound produced must lie with in .."Aaa" or "Uuuu" or "Mmmm".

"BHUH, BHUVAH, SVAH" :

3. This in my opinion addresses different layers of consciousness rather different forms of the universe as explained in your previous email. There are actually seven layers of conscious states which are known in vedas.... we utter that in our Pranayamam "Om Bhuh, Om Bhuvah, Om suvah, Om Mahah, OM Janah, Om Tapah, Om Satyam .

4. But after Svah, all the other four layers that follow are very subtle and Svah can address them as well and sufficient to consciously realize the others....

5. So, up till here, we mean, OM is all pervading entity uniformly across all space and in time, and Bhuh, Bhuvah, Svahah are different layers of consciousness in an ascending order towards illumination and enlightment..

6. Bhuh refers to the worldly consciousness, Bhuvah refers to Dream like consciousness, Svah is Space and time transcended consciousness {Can be called state of bliss}.

Putting together:
We meditate upon YOU [ Bhargo devasya dhimahi], who is the creator of BHUH, BHUVAH, SVAH [Tat savitr varenyam], who is also manifested as OM....[ This is to be understood bit indirectly. Since OM as a cosmic light/wave sound exist, it has to be HIM behind it's creation. ] to lead us in right direction towards you.[Dhiyoyonah pracho dayath]

Deducing by induction:

==> here, they are not appealing to the intellect. It is the intellect which help them reason out the existence of OM, BHUH, BHUVAH, SVAH. Intellect stops there. It can't help you any more.

==> So, Having understood via the intellect about the existence of supernatural supreme creator of OM, BHUH, BHUVAH, SVAH, we take the route which is beyond reason and logic....That is by complete surrender with out questioning to the all pervading manifested force to push your energy to a state of bliss and complete detachment....

So, Gayathri manthra is just the starting point of the journey.....It stimulates the intellect to reason out and then on investigation and analysis, the student is convinced to completely surrender to the ONE. When he surrenders, there is again a long arduous journey to the complete state of bliss......{Which only the choosen ones can take}


Thanks for patiently reading so far....There are lot of contemporary scientific evidences which conjure with our believes and practices..... "Planck's Constant/God particle === Brahman", "Issues of probability and statistics === Fate/Free will", "Theory of everything ==== Advaita" ... Etc etc....

But again..all the scientific pursuit of knowledge will only take up till a point...It will help us know the path...but traveling the path is beyond science, beyond rituals, beyond religion, beyond mantras, beyond BEYOND....
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The below was my reply to the above:

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Great! This actually made a bit more sense to me . The music of the heavenly spheres is properly a metaphor (and one that is older than the Vedic civilization), since sound needs a decently populated medium to travel through, and space is not generally viable to it.

The seven spheres of consciousness Bhuh->Sat, which I think are the seven heavens in Hindu mythology, could also be references to the seven chakras of the Kundalini.. with Muladhara being earth, and Sahasrara being Satya Loka (that of Brahma I guess .. but then Brahma is also a sentient being being who still goes through birth/death.. but probably the closest to the one without birth-death).

But the point that I most agree with is that these are not facts of a physical observable universe that we are dealing with here, but these are to be read as metaphors to the Transcendent reality that lies beyond all forms and thoughts and concepts.

The parallels between the scientific theories which have come out of the quantum theory and those in Hinduism/Buddhism are astonishing (one may read books like "The Tao of physics" for example), but the similarities fade to a large extent when one probes deep into both sides of the equation. Science wants to describe the physical observable universe using sets of equations, but the spirituality is actually talking about the That which cannot be talked about. While relating these two things might be interesting, I find them to be missing the whole point of the spiritual exercise, which is not to describe or involve in material observable reality, but in fact to point the finger of the mind to the moon of the Transcendent which the mind cannot touch.
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Love and Light.