Scientific Interpretation of The Gayatri MantraA Scientific View of the Gayatri Manthra

A Scientific View of the Gayatri Manthra by 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 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 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 sat (permanent).

Therefore, it was the first ever 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 of galaxies acts
as
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.

(3) The God could be realized 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).


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