The origin of Gayatri

The origin of Vedmata Gayatri

Vedas means Supreme Knowledge. Rik, Yaju, Sam and Atharva are four branches of knowledge. Spiritual well-being and fulfillment, self realization, peace of mind, Brahma, Nirvana, dutifulness, love Tapas, compassion, beneficence, generosity, service etc. fall under Rigved. Generosity, velour, courage, gallantry, self defense, leadership, fame, victory, power, dignity etc fall under Yajurved. Samved deals with games, sports, amusement, recreation, music, arts, literature, sensual enjoyment, beauty, harmony, poetic imagery dynamism, refined taste, gratification etc. Wealth, prosperity, accumulation of money and resources, medicines, good grains, materials, metals, buildings, vehicles, animals and similar other materials of worldly wellbeing fall within the purview of Atharva Veda.

If the subtle and material internal and external activities and imaginations of any living being are seriously and scientifically examined, it will appear that its entire consciousness moves within these four spheres. The current of knowledge of all living being flows only in the four direction of - (1) Rik- spiritual wellbeing and fulfillment, (2) Yaju- velour, (3) Sam- enjoyment and (4) Atharva- prosperity. Rik is also known as righteousness, Yaju as liberation (Moksha), Sam as sensual pleasure (Kam) and Atharva as prosperity (Arth). These are four faces of Brahma. Brahma has been described four-faced, because although having only one face, there is outflow of four currents of knowledge from his mouth. Although supreme knowledge or law which is called Veda is one, it manifests in four different aspects. This is the secret behind the four aspects, four stages of human life (Ashrams) and four social divisions (Varnas) have been formed. Childhood is the s tage of playfulness and self development; youth of raising a family and earning money; Vanprastha of virility and Sanyas of doing welfare activities. According to this fourfold division, Brahman is Rik, Kshatriya is Yaju, Vaishya is Atharva and Shudra is Sam.

These four kinds of knowledge are off-shoots of that creative consciousness of Brahma which has been described in the ancient scriptures by the name of Gayatri. Thus Gayatri is mother of four Vedas and it is therefore, called Vedmata. Just as water manifests in four different forms of ice, vapor (cloud, dew, fog etc.), air (Hydrogen, Oxygen) and liquid, and fire manifests in the forms of burning, heat, light and movement, so also Gayatri manifests in the form of four Vedas, four kinds of knowledge, Gayatri is the mother and four Vedas her progeny.

This much about the subtle form of Vedmata Gayatri.  Now let us consider its gross form. Before creating this four Vedas, Brahma created Gayatri Mantra consisting of twenty-four letters. Every letter of this Mantra is instinct with a superbly refined subtle conscious energy field from which have emanated the four Vedas and their branches and sub branches. A great banyan tree lies hidden in the interior of each of its seeds. Which it sprouts and develops into a tree, gets embellished with innumerable twigs, branches, leaves, flowers and fruits. As is the growth of a tiny sees in a tree several thousand million times bigger than its origin, so have the twenty four letters of Gayatri bloomed and manifested themselves in the stupendous, all-encompassing Vadic literature.

T he origin of Grammar lies in the fourteen sounds produced by Shiva's Damaru ( musical percussion instrument) Mahadev ,once in ecstasy, played his favorite instrument Damaru which produced fourteen sounds. Pamini, the celebrated pioneering Grammarian of ancient India, created his great grammatical treatise on the basis of these fourteen sounds. Since then, its interpretation and elaborations have assumed so huge a form that they can constitute a library of grammatical literature. Similarly, the twenty-four letters of Gayatri Mantra have manifested in each and every branch and sub-branch of Vedic literature. Gayatri is the Primordial World and Vedic Richas (Stanzas) its detailed interpretations.