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Now, we enter into a new subject altogether, a meditation on the mystical, and to a certain extent linguistic, meaning of the Gāyatrī Mantra in the Veda.
The Gāyatrī is a Mantra well-known to people. Gāyantam trayati gāyatrī: One who protects that devotee who by singing, chanting or reciting, resorts to this Mantra is Gāyatrī. This is a Mantra with twenty-four letters, three feet and three quarters. The fourth quarter is a mystical one about which the Upaniṣhad will be mentioning something very special towards the end. Now, how do we contemplate the feet of Gāyatrī? It is a Mantra - you must remember this. It is a chant of the Veda which has twenty-four letters. Particular methods of meditation on the correspondence between the letters of the different feet of Gāyatrī with certain other visible phenomena in life are prescribed here. Here again we are in the realm of poor language. Bhῡmir antarikṣaṁ dyauḥ: Bhūmi is earth; Antariksa is atmosphere; Dyau is heaven. Dyau is supposed to be a two-lettered word. It is a compound and not a single word. Bhūmi, Antarikṣa, Dyau - earth, atmosphere and heaven - are designated by three words, three appellations, epithets or names, and these names are constituted of eight letters. Similar is the case with the first foot of the Gāyatrī Mantra, which is of eight letters. So a correspondence is established in meditation between the eight letters of the first foot of Gāyatrī and the earth, atmosphere and heaven, so that the first foot of Gāyatrī is made equivalent to the entire visible world. These three worlds - the physical, the atmospheric and the celestial - are supposed to be designated again by what is called the Vyahritis. Vyahritis is what precedes the chant of Gāyatrī. Bhur, Bhuva, Svah - these are the three words which are called Vyahritis. They correspond to the three worlds - the physical, the atmospheric and the celestial. So is the first foot of Gāyatrī, which is formed of eight letters. So, here a symbolic meditation is prescribed. What is the meditation? Contemplation on the first foot of Gāyatrī Mantra as all the three worlds themselves. 'One who meditates on the first foot of Gāyatrī, in this manner, by identifying its letters with the three worlds, attains to the three worlds. He attains to the Supernal status of Mastery over the earth, atmosphere and celestial realms.' Sa yᾱvad eṣu triṣu lokeṣu, tᾱvaddha jayati: Whatever is there in these three worlds, that this person will get. Who will get? One who meditates in this manner on the first foot of Gāyatrī by conscious identification of this foot of Gāyatrī with the three worlds. How is this correspondence established? 'By the thought that the eight letters of the first foot of the Gāyatrī are the same as the eight letters of the three words, Bhūmi, Antarikṣa and Dyau, meaning earth, atmosphere and heaven.'
It is very difficult to conceive all this, but these are the ways in which some of the Rishis in ancient times practiced contemplation. It does not mean that we are to take each and every prescription as intended for ourselves. The Upaniṣhad is not a single teaching. It is a body of varieties of teachings. Various types of meditations are prescribed, and when an initiation is given in a particular method of meditation, a particular chosen technique only is taken up, not the entire body. But we are studying the Upaniṣhad for the purpose of information and edification of our own mind, so that the mind may get purified and become fit for any type of meditation as would be conducive to our temperament. They are very hard things to imagine. You cannot imagine even one of them when you actually sit for meditation, but they are very effective techniques. The confidence with which the sage of the Upaniṣhad tells us that mere contemplation on this correspondence between the letters of the first foot of Gāyatrī and the letters in the three words, Bhūmi, Antarikṣa, Dyau, will cause the meditator to go to the realm where he becomes a master of the three worlds, is indeed miraculous. You can imagine what mystery is hidden behind these meditations!
Ṛco yajῡmṣi sᾱmᾱni: There are three Vedas - Ṛg, Yajur and Sāma. The plural of these is given here as ṛco yajῡmṣi sᾱmᾱni. 'The Ṛco, Yajus and the Sāmān - here again you have eight letters.' These have to be set in correspondence with the eight letters of the second foot of the Gāyatrī. This is another kind of meditation. 'What happens to the one who meditates in this manner, concentrating his mind on the correspondence between eight letters of the second foot of Gāyatrī with the three Vedas? He becomes a Master of the three Vedas, and attains to realms which are accessible to anyone who is a Master of the three Vedas.' Whatever is capable of being achieved through the three Vedas, that one achieves through this contemplation on the second foot of the Gāyatrī Mantra alone, just as one attains to mastery over the three worlds by contemplation merely on the first foot of the Gāyatrī.
Now the third foot is mentioned. Prᾱṇo'pᾱno vyᾱnah: There are the three essential energies in the system - Prāṇa, Apāna and Vyāna. The letters are eight here, again. 'Prāṇa, Apāna, Vyāna mean three energies in our system and the epithet names of these energies are formed of eight letters.' 'They have to be set in correspondence with the third foot of the epithet which is also constituted of eight letters.' Then what happens? A new miracle takes place.
Ity aṣṭᾱv akṣarᾱṇi; aṣṭᾱkṣaraṁ ha vᾱ ekaṁ gᾱyatrai padam: etad u haivᾱsyᾱ etat. sa yᾱvad idam prᾱṇi, tᾱvad ha jayati: 'You become a Master of all the worlds constituted of living beings.' Wherever there is Prāṇa operating, there one becomes a ruler, a master, which means to say, in the entire living world one becomes pre-eminent in every respect. One becomes the chief, a lord over all, as it were, among the realms that are living, provided he contemplates on this correspondence between the letters of the third foot of Gāyatrī with the three energies within the system - Prāṇa, Apāna, Vyāna.
Etad evam padaṁ veda. athᾱsya etad eva turīyaṁ darśatam padam: Generally, people do not know that there is any such thing as the fourth foot of Gāyatrī. Nobody chants the fourth foot. It is a mystical appendix, as it were, to the normal chant. The fourth Pada is not given in its entirety in the original text for some unknown reason. Parorajāsé-sāvadon is the fourth Pada, which is beyond all Rajas. But the Upaniṣhad tells us that this fourth foot is very important. It is something like the Amātra aspect of Prāṇava, the soundless aspect of Om which is spiritual in its nature, which is Consciousness in its essentiality. Some such thing is the character of this fourth foot of Gāyatrī. While the three feet of Gāyatrī may be said to comprehend everything that is temporal, the fourth foot is non-temporal. It represents an absolute state. It is a special feature of this mystical aspect of Gāyatrī recitation into which very few people are initiated. Generally, initiation is not given into the fourth foot, but is only given in the three feet. Turīyaṁ darśatam padam: 'The fourth foot is apparently visible', really not visible. One cannot understand what this fourth foot is. As I mentioned to you earlier, you cannot understand what fourth dimension means. To us it is only a word without any sense, but it conveys every sense and every meaning from its own point of view. Likewise is this fourth foot of the Gāyatrī Mantra which is apparently visible, says the Upaniṣhad, but really not visible to the eyes, which means to say that its meaning is not intelligible to the mind. It is something very mystical. Parorajā parorajāsé-sāvadon is the fourth Pada. 'It is above the dust of the earth. It is superior to all that is manifest as creation. It is not material at all, and therefore it is called Paroraja.' It is super-physical. Ya eṣa tapati: 'The one that shines before us', the Sūrya, or the sun, is the supreme reality, the great superintending power, the deity behind this fourth foot of Gāyatrī. He has to be meditated upon through the recitation of the fourth foot.
Yad vai caturthaṁ tat turīyam; darśatam padam iti, dadṛśa iva. hy eṣaḥ; parorajᾱ iti, sarvam u hy evaiṣa raja upari upari tapati: 'The meditation here is on the sun, on the Puruṣha in the sun, not merely on the physical orb of the sun.' This is a spiritual energy that is resplendent in the sun that is the object of meditation here. The deity, the divinity which is superior to the physical form of the sun, that deity, that Puruṣha, Hiranmaya Puruṣha, is the object of meditation during the chant of the fourth foot of Gāyatrī Mantra. Sūrya is, thus, mystically involved in the chant of the fourth foot of Gāyatrī. 'Such a person who contemplates in this manner on the inward meaning, or the inner significance of this fourth foot, is glorified in this world, endowed with all prosperity, becomes renowned in every respect and shines like the sun himself, as it were. One who knows this becomes that - ya evaṁ veda.'
Saiṣᾱ gᾱyatry etasmiṁs turīye darśate pade parorajasi pratiṣṭhitᾱ: 'The entire Gāyatrī Mantra is really rooted in the fourth foot.' It is the Prāṇa Śakti, it is the essence, as it were, of the whole Gāyatrī. It is the ocean into which the river of the Gāyatrī Mantra enters. It is the ultimate meaning of the Gāyatrī. Just as the non-temporal, or the meta-empirical, or the spiritual includes within itself all that is temporal and manifest, so is the fourth foot inclusive of all the meaning that is contained in the first three feet - satye pratiṣṭhitam.
Cakṣur vai satyam, cakṣur hi vai satyam: Here again we are brought back to the old type of meditation which was mentioned earlier in a different context. 'Satya is truth, and one has to contemplate the fourth foot of Gāyatrī as ultimate truth', the truth that is symbolically represented by 'actual perception of values through the eyes which are presided over by the sun', which again is the deity of the fourth foot of the Gāyatrī Mantra. One can meditate on strength. The more you move towards reality, the more also you become strong, the more also you are able to perceive things clearly. The capacity to visualise things in their truth is coincident with increased energy and power or capacity. So, one is expected to meditate on Śakti, or Bala, or power, or energy, which follows automatically in the wake of this meditation. Gāyatrī also is called Sāvitri. Sometimes people call the Gāyatrī Mantra, Sāvitri Mantra. The Upaniṣhad says both mean one and the same thing. What you call Gāyatrī is the same as Sāvitri. It is Sāvitri because it is connected with Sāvitri, or the sun. It is Gāyatrī because it protects whoever chants it. Gyatrī nᾱma. sa yᾱm evᾱmῡṁ sᾱvitrīm anvᾱha, eṣaiva sᾱ. sa yasmᾱ anvᾱha, tasya prᾱnᾱṁs trᾱyate: 'Your Pranas are protected by this Mantra. Therefore it is called Sāvitri; therefore also it is called Gāyatrī.'