The Gayatri Mantra: Protection for the Thinking Mind

1.Om 2.Bhur 3.Bhuvah 4.Svaha

5.Tat Savitur 6.Varenyum

7.Bhargo Devasya 8.Dimahi

9.Dhiyo Yonah 10.Prachodayat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P26ZvKY--KY

1.Om contains all that follows, like an umbrella or womb

This Mantra is effective on three planes: 2.the ground, 3.the world, and 4.the ideal

or, 2.substance, 3.effect, and 4.cause.

5. That effulgence that appears in my world as the radiance of the sun 6. is worthy of worship, beyond me and so is superior to me. (Inner realization of humility is the ground of the protection and illumination offered by this mantra, I generate humble receptivity by noticing that the inner light of the sun, a flame, an inspired moment, a mind and all the other bright things share a common thread.  They are not different, may I be like them, humble, radiant, serving without reward, simply by existing in their true nature of illumination.) 

7. The radiance that I notice has a divine origin; that means it is beyond any human intelligence.  Effect cannot comprehend cause and so the appropriate relationship is to notice, pay attention.  8.This is meditation. ( A thirsty person does not emulate water, they drink it until their thirst is quenched. Posturing is not friendship. Humility is the ground of both, recognize the vulnerability of the body for fluid, recognize the desire of the person for companionship.Meditation on divine radiance "tat savitur", "bhargo devasya" is to say, 'I am a light being, the light is replenished by the light.  The glow of intelligence is fed by the 'light behind all lights' and it comes into me when I drink it through meditation...which is simply noticing it until I am through). This is the realm of action, the world, honest participation in 'effects'. There is only truth, so the only choice available to a person is to participate in it or avoid it.  Noticing the light is full participation in the light and the effects of Light on light are spontaneous.

9. Noticing the source of light (tat savitur) is the action of light in my own mind and it leaves a residual effect or object because the mind becomes what it worships; what it notices. "Dhiyo yo nah" is 'that which acted on my mind...please don't take my word for it, I am still trying to comprehend this tiny phrase in the mantra).

10. I offer this 'object' as a prayer to the intelligence that enlivens, energizes, actualizes this mantra so that I may be illumined.) 

This Mantra of illumination and protection is like a house, vehicle, or Mer-ka-ba. 

It has a floor "tat savitur varenyum", humility, which is symbolized by the posture of lying down, resting, receiving, becoming low.

The walls, inquiry, shape daily patterns.
On the ground of acceptance one can act.  Walking is the posture associated with action, "doing" by directing attention toward the core of attention itself. 

The roof or ceiling of the house is symbolized by the sitting posture; sitting is an "honest" posture because the body is expressed as "standing on its' tail".  The arms and legs are allowed to be passive while action is contained in balance, the beginning of neural reality plugged into earth, the head in polar contrast, capping the spine. Prayer, or the humble recognition of the need for animation through the agency of "the fire within" is the ceiling on realizing the gifts of the mantra. 

The great mantras, like the gayatri, the mahamryunjaya mantra, om namah shivaya, om mani padme hum, and others, are mandalas, Geometries, mazes, that can bind up time with idle repetition, or free the mind through awareness.