Gayatri Mantra and My Father

*Devnagri script begins -
ॐ भूर भुवः स्वः
ॐ तत् सवितूर वरेनियम
भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि
धियो यों-नः प्रचोदयात् ॐ*Devnagri script ends -

Aum Bhoor Bhuvaha Svaha
Aum Tat Savitoor Vareniyam
Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi
Dhiyo Yon-naha Prachodayaat Aum

I remember my mother teaching us when we were children, this divine Mantra called Gayatri. She asked us to chant it everyday before bedtime and whenever we were scared of the dark.Since then I have been chanting the Gayatri Mantra - never knowing the exact meaning of this verse. Do it because Mom has said it's the most powerful prayer of the Universe.
As I grew up, I came to believe that Gayatri was the goddess that was there in my mother's pooja mandir. It's a beautiful image with the goddess sitting on a white swan and the Gayatri Mantra printed below. But somehow, since childhood, I never could have that emotional feeling while praying to the idols. I got that feeling only when my mother or father told me stories about saints. They looked like real people and that's what made them very accessible to me. My mother told me stories about Virpur's Jalaram Baapa. I was so very enamoured by all the miracles performed by Him with the sheer faith in God. I even forced by mom to buy me a ring of Jalaram Baapa from Virpur. I 've never been without a ring with his image since then. Even now I have it on my finger. Though I don't possess faith in Him, I possess faith in Sai Baba and they are not different.

Thus, as childhood went by, the mind became more and more logical and seeking than before. I didn't know the exact meaning of the Gayatri Mantra till the year 2000. The only extra information gathered by me in all the years was that it was the Mantra of the Sun.

One day after returning home from work, I found my father reading some spiritual book. My father, Arun Bhatt, was an extremely well read man and his knowledge of Sanskrit was unbelievable. In fact, in college days, he was the only student to have taken up Sanskrit at St. Xavier's. I sat next to him and somehow we happened to talk about the Gayatri Mantra.

I can never, ever in my life forget the way my father explained it to me. He stood up and animatedly translated this Divine Mantra for me. And from that day on, I've never chanted it absent-mindedly. I always feel that Power when I recite it. This prayer is to the Sun, Aditya - that which has been there since time without beginning, shedding light of brightness and knowledge to all existence. It's a universal prayer - to no God of a particular religion. Gayatri - the mother of all Prayers. The word GAYA meaning the creator or Mother.
ॐ भूर भुवः स्वः
Aum Bhoor Bhuvaha Svaha
Oh! The Power that is above the Earth, Sky and even the Heaven
ॐ तत् सवितूर वरेनियमAum Tat Savitoor Vareniyam
That which is The Absolute Supreme
भर्गो देवस्य धीमहिBhargo Devasya Dhimahi
Oh! The Brightest One, I am basking in Your Light of Knowledge
धियो यों-नः प्रचोदयात् ॐDhiyo Yon-naha Prachodayaat Aum
Endow me with the Brightness of Knowledge and put an end to the darkness within me.

I still get a shiver down my spine when I visualise my father energetically emoting each line to me with tears in his own eyes. He was such a fantastic orator and would become so involved in whatever he wanted to put across. His eyes were moist with the Power of the Mantra that he was talking about. After his passing away, it's never been that I've chanted the Gayatri and not had his image in front of my eyes. Whenever I feel I am chanting it mechanically, I bring myself to an 'action replay' of my father standing up and explaining the Mantra. And immediately I'm all attention again.

My father also told me it was very important to chant it in The Vedic way, which is a particular tone and with particular breaks in recitation. He said the Vibrations that the sound of this Mantra created could also affect the mind and body. If you sing it in a sing-song way like Anuradha Paudwal's rendition, you are never going to feel that surging power within you.
Also, the syllable 'Aum' HAS to be there thrice in the Mantra according to the Vedas. That is the most correct way of reciting it.

It's been quite a while since I wanted to write about this, but never did so. Today, as I came to think of my father and how much I wish he were still alive, I thought I would write about how he will never die for me.

ॐ