I was 11 years old when my parents arranged my ‘Upanayana’ or the sacred thread ceremony. My head was shaved and my Guru, who was also my Jathamoni (my father’s elder brother), gave me the Gayetri mantra and explained it to me in great details.
Om Bhur Bhuvah Svah
Tat Savitur Varenyam
Bhargo Devasya Dheemahi
Dhiyo Yo Nah Prachodayat
I was first told about the word meaning of every
word –
·
Om: The universal sound representing supreme consciousness.
·
Bhur: The physical realm (earth).
·
Bhuvah: The mental or atmospheric realm.
·
Svah: The spiritual or celestial realm.
·
Tat: That (referring to the Supreme Being).
·
Savitur: The divine light or Sun God.
·
Varenyam: Worthy of worship.
·
Bhargo: Divine radiance or spiritual illumination.
·
Devasya: Of the divine.
·
Dheemahi: We meditate upon.
·
Dhiyo: Intellect or understanding.
·
Yo: Who.
·
Nah: Our.
· Prachodayat: May inspire or guide
And then it was all summed up for me thus - We meditate on
the divine light of the Supreme Being, who creates and sustains all
worlds. May that light illuminate and guide our intellect.
I was told that this mantra is a meditative practice that
aligns the practitioner with universal consciousness and recitation purifies
the mind, enhances focus, and fosters inner clarity. By invoking the divine
light, it helps awaken higher consciousness, dispel ignorance, and cultivate
wisdom and self-realization. I knew all along that this is our Dharma, but there is no English equivalent of this word, and certainly not 'religion'.
As an 11 year old kid, though it left me
overwhelmed, it did not sink in then. But today, when I look back, in the autumn of my life all that the mantra offers makes a lot of sense. There are many
illusions in life, which we often consider real. Illusions of all kinds give us pause,
either to look at them and understand them or in order to protect ourselves
against something unfamiliar or intimidating. However, illusions are not just
visible, but they exist in our psyche, and like optical illusions, they can
cause our brain to become confused, to stop, and to avoid taking action until
they dissipate. The illusions of life will never fade until you understand them
and are able to see beyond them. We humans often use illusions as
"excuses." It is highly recommended that you see the truth that
awaits you beyond them. Let us delve into a few life’s choicest illusions:
1. The feeling of not
having enough time to do the things you want to do
This
illusion is one of the greatest because it makes us believe that eventually
we'll have time later in life. The reason this is an illusion is because time
is relative, having one free hour a day can seem as though one has no time to
do anything, but to someone else, it can be seen as time to devote to what is
important to them. Therefore, the secret is simply to understand what is
important to you and what is not, and to put it into your daily routine instead
of things that are not important, such as idly watching television or
browsing social networks.
2. Trying to take
shortcuts in life
Although
it is possible to take shortcuts while walking, when it comes to life this
concept does not exist, at least not if you plan on experiencing a happy and
productive life. Every goal in life has several milestones leading to it, and
only if you pass through each of them will your life go as planned. Try to
enjoy the journey to your goal and all of your small achievements, rather than
seeing them as wastes of time. In fact, they make reaching your goal all the
more satisfying. Taking the longer route will allow you to grow, improve, and
develop enough to reach your goal in the best way possible.
3. Thinking that you
have control over life
It
may frighten you to hear that you have no control over anything in your life
apart from your thoughts, but those thoughts will also make you look at things
in a positive or negative way. Think of it this way: Your smartphone has access
to the Internet, but it does not control the entire network and you can only
see and respond to the information in the virtual space – similarly, your
existence takes place mainly within your head, and everything that happens
around you is not under your control. You can control what you are looking for
in real space and how you respond to what you see, but not what happens at any
moment. Your responses are within your control, that too if you do not lose
your head in rage or fear or excitement, the stimuli to excite your respone was
never under your control.
4. Waiting for
happiness from an external factor
Your
existence takes place primarily in your mind, and everything that changes in
your feelings is due to your reaction to what is happening around you. However,
many people hope that something will happen in the outside world that will
affect their inner feelings for the better, but that is not how happiness works.
You may be temporarily happy and even ecstatic if you win the lottery, but if
you don’t know how to manage your feelings properly, the large sum of money can
also be a heavy burden which will be a source of suffering - suddenly you’ll
fear being robbed or losing all the money. So, each situation can bring with it
positive and negative thoughts, and you must simply decide that you want to be
happy in order to be happy - it will come with time as long as you decide that
you want IT, and not something that will bring it. You have to choose to be
happy, other people can please you from time to time but they can’t force
happiness in you.
5. Attempting to
control other people
The
human psyche is often afraid of any kind of change since a regular routine
keeps us confident that bad things won’t happen to us, even if our situation is
not positive – if we’ve been able to manage so far, we’ll probably be able to
manage going forward. So when you try to change other people who have become
unconsciously accustomed to a particular behavior or routine, you can expect
some resistance on their part. They may know that they have to change, but it
is mentally difficult for them to even begin thinking about the process.
Moreover, the change you try to apply to another person probably applies to
your values, but not necessarily to their values, so you must understand that
you can’t change other people, but you can change the way you see them. If you
understand their motives and have open conversations about things that bother
you, you can change your perspective, and you will also see a change in others
without them actually changing - the real change has taken place in you.
6. Waiting for a source
of inspiration or energy
You
may want to do something but you are waiting for the right moment, for example
being inspired to write or motivated to exercise. Ironically, waiting for an
external source of inspiration or motivation creates a vicious cycle that never
ends, where those external elements are reluctant to arrive because they come
only through an action that begins with you! The process of writing itself is
what inspires the writer, and exercising is what provides motivation. If you’ve
done these things in the past you probably already know the feelings that come
with them, sitting five minutes in front of a writing page stretches over hours
and exhausting exercise makes you more alert and energetic. Do not wait for an
external source to arrive, because it won’t. Remember that the change in the
way you feel begins only within you.
7. Believing that
failure is a final and undesirable stage
Failure
only exists if you want to achieve something and can’t achieve it, but its
definition depends only on how we relate to it. Failure is not necessarily a
bad thing, rather, it’s like a dead end in the maze- if you navigate a maze and
hit a lot of dead ends, you’ll eventually start to map it out and understand
where you stand and how to get out. Therefore, every failure you experience
tells you about a stage or something in your path that is not right, so you
have to take a step back and correct it. Life itself is a big maze, and our
failures can hurt our sense of success, but they help us reach it as long as we
learn from them.
8. Feeling that you are
not good enough to succeed
This
is the basis of all our fears. We fear our death because we do not know whether
we will be satisfied with our lives when that moment comes, and also the death
of our loved ones, because of fear that we won’t be able to cope with this
situation. These are extreme examples of the fundamental fears that exist in
every person's life, but this also happens with any other fear, and there is a
little test that can help you know whether you’ll be able to deal with a
situation well or not: Just ask yourself if you are already in a situation that
you think you can’t handle – if the answer is yes, then that means you can get
through it. You’ll never need to carry more than you can hold because you
already carry the heavy sense of fear, and if you want to relieve yourself,
give up that fear. You may need to lean on others sometimes, but your friends
and family are part of the toolbox that makes you capable of dealing with
everything in the right way.
So,
back to the Gayetri Mantra, it is a prayer for illumination, guidance, and spiritual awakening,
connecting the practitioner to the divine light that sustains all life and
consciousness. It helps us to see clearly through the illusions and ambiguities
of life. It calms the mind, reduces the stress, purifies the aura, enhances our
concentration and memory, and attracts harmony in life. If life is throwing
googlies at you only a calm and collected mind will help you to play it
correctly and Gayetri Mantra brings that calm.
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