[Peptobismol]

Did any one know about this before?? Pls post your opinions

Yes, I have read the whole thing here...

http://thetripurafoundation.org/node/74

[tgs]

Gayatri Mantra Explained!


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.
Ombhur bhuvah swah
Tat savitur varenyam
Bhargo devasya dheemahi
Dhiyo yo nah prachodayat
The literal meaning of the mantra is:
O Ishwara! 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 importance 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 around the earth and the earth moves around the sun along with the moon. All planets around the sun. Each of the above bodies revolve around at its own axis as well. Our sun along with its family takes one round of the galactic center in 22.5 crore years. All galaxies including ours are moving away at a terrific velocity of 20,000 mile s 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 Ishwara, because this sound is available in all the three periods of time, hence it is set (permanent). Therefore, it was the first ever revolutionary idea to identify formless Ishwara with a specific title (form) called upadhi. Until that time, everybody recognized Ishwara 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 heard 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 (Ishwara), 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 Ishwara, Vishvamitra suggested. He told us that we could know (realise) the unknowable formless Ishwara 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 riverbank 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 (Ishwara). 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 realize 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 to HIM as under:
D) DHIYO YO NAH PRACHODAYAT:
Dhiyo (intellect), yo (who), nah (we all), prachodayat (guide to right Direction). O Ishwara! 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 Ishwara.) That Ishwara (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 us in the 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 of 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) Realizing 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

Did any one know about this before?? Pls post your opinions

[Fegasderty]

Originally Posted by PARAMASHIVAN Did any one know about this before?? Pls post your opinions

Yes, I have read the whole thing here...

http://thetripurafoundation.org/node/74 hmm, I was sent this by email.. hence i could not post the source..
interesting stuff, esp about the scientific calculations

Perhaps sudhama sir can elaborate on this further

[MannoFr]

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

------------------------------------------------------
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....
----------------------------------------------------------

The below was my reply to the above:

-------------------------------
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.
--------------------------

Love and Light.