Gayatri - Info

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Thu, 19 Sep 2002, Shrinivas Gadkari wrote:

> Namaste,
>
> Related to the gAyatrI are the seven vyAhritis:
> bhU, bhuva, sva, maha, jana, tapa, satya
>
> Of these, the first four are explained in the
> taittirIya upanishad (1.5). Any information on where
> the remaining three are discussed ?
>

I was looking for older references but didn't find any.  By the Puranas
and the Mahabharata all seven vyahrtis are mentioned and later writers
just take it for granted.

> Do jana, tapa, satya pertain to gAyatrI/sAvitrI
> at all ? Or do these refer to some other mantra ?

Yes they do as we practice it now.  Within the Vedic samhita text itself
(at least in Shuklayajurveda which is what I am familiar with) only the
first three are mentioned.  As well as the taittiriya as you noted, some
of the other upanishads (i.e brhadaranyaka and chandogya) as well as some
of the aranyakas mention maha as the fourth.

But it seems like a natural evolution of thought if we take bhu, bhuvah,
and sva to mean the earth, air, and heaven and maha to be the source of
the three worlds as mentioned in the upanishad we know from elsewhere that
maha can be divided into four--ahamkara, buddhi, manas, and prajna or
chitta. Prajna (= satya) is Brahman.


--
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
It's a girl! See the pictures - http://www.braincells.com/shailaja/