Gayatri Mantra – A Study

A Dissertation Submitted By Neha Racca

Under the guidance of Prof. N.V.C.Swamy & Dr. H.R.Nagendra

Abstract: The Gayatri occurs in the Rig, Yajur and Sama Vedas. It is a prayer to the sun, supposed to be recited ritualistically at dawn, midday and dusk. Even though the Mantra is known as the Gayatri, its real name is Savitri Mantra. There are thousands of Mantras in the Vedas set to Gayatri Chandas. However, the Savitri Mantra is so famous that it has come to be associated with the Chandas itself.

Here in this report I have tried to provide a bird’s eye-view of the subject. This work gives a brief summary of the various aspects of Gayatri Mantra.

The report starts with a brief description of Mantra yoga and japa, which includes Gayatri Mantra as japa. This is followed by the description of the Gayatri as personal mother and its inner meaning. Then the story of Vinvamitra is mentioned who was the rishi to whom Gayatri was first revealed.

The most basic of all samskaras namely upanayana and the significance of the sacred thread is given in detail. The use of Gayatri Mantra in the form of meditation and as the greatest step towards illumination is included in this report.

Then comes the Gayatri sadhana and how one can practice Gayatri meditation and the technique of japa with the beauty of the powerful kriya while chanting the Gayatri Mantra. The report closes with the benefits of the Gayatri Mantra in various aspects such as psychological, physical, spiritual etc. and tells us the way to get rid of our general problems.

An attempt has been made in this report to cover most of the major aspects of Gayatri Mantra and the different types of Gayatris to help in different ways. Still I believe since it is a very vast subject I must have left some aspects of the greatest Mantra Gayatri, but it gives almost everything in brief about our earliest and traditional Mantra ie. Gayatri Mantra and sandhya vandana.

Summary & Conclusion:  

1. Present study was designed to examine the possibilities of influencing the REG by Gayatri Mantra chanting (GM) in contrast to Random Thinking (RT) sessions in normal males: (a) before and after GM session & (b) before and During the GM sessions and (c) during and post sessions.

2. Present study further examined whether GM can enhance the capacity of individuals who can significantly influence the REG in comparison to Random Thinking.

3. Thirty males in the age group 18 to 25 years participated in Gayatri Mantra chanting (GM) on the first day and Random Thinking (RT) session at the same time on the second day and repeated them alternately for two more days to check the reproducibility of the results.

4. The pre, during and post sessions of GM and RT for 10 minutes each having same number of trials (ie. 10). The output display of Random Event Generator (REG) on a laptop computer was used to assess the influence of the state of mind associated with the above sessions.

5. The PRE – PRE comparisons show that pre-data do not differ significantly (p>0.1) between the two events showing a matching of initial data in both the events, as done for the base line comparison.

6. The pre-post data showed no significance in both the sessions although there was significant change in set 2 for GM session.

7. The PRE vs DURING data showed highly significant changes in GM group, though there was little significance found in RT group also in set 2.

8. The number of episodes in which the REG could be influenced significantly (mean value>101.00) was analysed next. The results showed that there was a highly significant increase in the PRE vs DURING data of GM. There was no significant increase but a decrease in the PRE vs DURING of RT, DURING vs POST in both GM and RT sessions showed no significance but, PRE Vs POST data showed highly significant decrease in the RT session compared to the GM session for both the set of experiment.

9. There was significant change between GM and RT sessions. While during gayatri mantra chanting the values increased, it decreased in the random thinking sessions. This shows significance between the two groups, during the sessions, when analyzed for both the data. However, we can see significant change in the pre-post session also in set 2 when analyzed for the all values.

The results indicate a distinct possibility of enhancement of the power of influencing the REG in Gayatri Mantra Chanting (GM) sessions compared to Random Thinking (RT) sessions.