Essence of Sandhya Vandanam

Essence of Sandhya vandanam – (part of a series)

You would recall that I had mentioned in my last blog about my fascination for what I called –a Gem- in our daily “Sandhya Vandanam”. I had been postponing the blogging of this for a long time, as the piece was not easy to capture. And when I did finally decide that the time has come, my earlier piece on “Rudra” simply refused to get off my thoughts. This made my efforts to blog the SV piece –which drew me to more gems- more and more difficult as these involved piecing them all together into a single cohesive essay. This was also likely to be very long.  

I struck a compromise; I would briefly touch on “rudra” and get on with the SV piece, without however compromising on the need to get all that fascinated me in SV and other texts which were relevant to the topic, regardless of the length of the piece. Here I go folks and hope you will have the patience to go thru this resultant labored piece.    

 “ Pranaanaam granthirasi Rudro maa vishaantakaha” is the original samskrit text. My romantic interpretation of this is :

“Rudra is located at the point where the individual and the Universal soul meet. In other words in one’s journey of absolution with Him it is “rudra” who is the link. The word “granthi” means a knot. The prayer invokes this Rudra to come and reside in one’s heart”. (Can there be a more apt inspirer to guide us to that final absolution with “thath” the Purusha..? Just a thought…)     

Let me now get back to SV. As I had said earlier in one of the blogs (Label SV July 24^th 2010 and page 101 of the book) SV is a nitya karma and is a “religious commandment”.  This is divided into two sections namely Poorva and Utthara bhagam; a kind of pro and epilogue with the main theme being the “Gayathri Mahamantra ”.

The main features of the prologue is first a kind of a 21-gun salute to welcome the rising Sun (Argyam meaning an oblation to a reverential God) and later the assertion that “this Sun is the Brahmn,and indeed I am verily that” (“Asaavaadithyo Brahma Brahmaiva Aham Asmi”). I tend to suspect that this part is more in the nature of a mechanical repetition of the ultimate truth as it is not easily conceivable that a boy of say 6/7 years who has just been initiated with “gayathri” would immediately grasp the profound import, let alone be in  consciousness with this truism. 

Once again a chance reading of the book “panchadasi” brought about some illuminating insights to this skepticism; a few verses from this roughly translate to:

“Even one who is not fully competent to perceive the self-effulgent non-dual, nature of Brahmn should contemplate Him thus constantly, and eventually over a period He will become a part of his consciousness. Let’s imagine one has to take out an underground treasure; since there is no alternative but to dig this out, likewise unless one constantly meditates on the non-dual relationship between individual and universal Self, absolution is not possible. While it is conceivable that even the unattainable becomes attainable in a meditation, why there is any doubt that constant meditation will ultimately lead to absolution with that “One” which is in that “Eternally Attained State”.

By introducing this profound thought into a simple procedure of a mere iteration of this profound truism as part of a daily ritual seems a fantastic idea when viewed in the context of a salvation from the birth-death cycle being the sole aim of a janma. Let me now get to the main theme – the gayathri mantra-

A mantra is defined as “one which protects the cogitative thinker”, and it is customary to eulogize the Deity connected with a “mantra” as a sort of an invocation. Here in our context it is “gayathri” and this starts with “ Aayathu varada devi…..” etc…….

The key words are (a) Aksharam – indestructible (b) Brahma – the non-dual brahmn (c) Sammitham (as evidenced by Vedantic doctrines and determined with utmost certainty) and Jushasva Naha /May (give us/me an Upadesa or initiate us/me).

The translation of the entire invocation would be:  

“May the giver of every conceivable boon, the mother of all Vedas, known by the name Gayathri, come and bless me with Her Grace, by initiating me with this mahamantra to  help me in meditating upon that ultimate brhma thathwam – indestructible, and as evidenced by  Vedantic doctrines and determined with utmost certainty – as the non-dual “one”.  

The usage of the word “jushashva” is to possibly emphasize that the upadesa is direct from the Deity. I am yet to see such a parallel elsewhere, and this is what perhaps makes gayathri the most potent mantra ( Na Gayathryaa paramo mantraha)

Though the meaning of mantra itself has been blogged earlier (Label Traditions and Samskaras – Upanayanam pages 32 &33 of the book version) I may be excused for not being able to contain myself and repeat this with slight modifications to the earlier versions as I am fascinated by its beauty. To draw a parallel with rudra gayathri, here the inspirer is Dheeyaha : the impellor of our anthahkaran ( Chith, Budhi, manas and ahankaram) . The full meaning therefore would be:

“May the impellor of our anthahkaran (Thought, Mind, Intellect and Ego) inspire us to meditate on the one who dispels darkness, the giver of the fruits of our actions, the ultimate object of desirous mumukshus, and the ever self -effulgent -Savitha- and realize in pure consciousness that me-savitha-and “thath” are all One- non-dual- Brahmn.  

(Note: The paroksha word “thath” is left un-expanded and not further qualified such as “known as Purusha, narayana, etc…” -Just a thought again-). 

And now to the epilogue: it starts with a farewell to the invoked deity a la “Beating Retreat” style with an eulogy, and ends with that prayer “ Adhyaanoh Deva savithaha prajavatsavihi saubhagam para dushvapniyugam suva Vishwani davaha savithaha durithaani paraasuva yadh badhram tanma aasuva…

The key words are (a) Dushvapniyagum (dual- relationship- with-Lord kind of a .bad dream) Durithaani (The sins which prevent dawn of wisdom) Prajavath sowbhagam – the guru with son-like disciples and Bhadram (Heavenly blissful tathwa gyanam sans ignorance and false knowledge. (the word used is “mangalam”). Before I get to the full translation of the verse, for the profound import to sink in, a slight detour is necessary.   

In describing the Brahmn, it is said that - He is beyond words and thought - “Yatho Vaacho Nivrathanthe ….Appraapya Manasa saha”.. However in kathopanishad it is said that He can be realized only thru mind -“mansaiva idham aapthvyam”-.  In our SV prayer the reference is to a bad dream –namely as one sleeps and is in a dream witnessing a huge drama, so is our “jeeva” (individual soul enshrined in a human body and imparting to it a life, motion and sensation) sleeping and dreaming about self, his house, his father, etc.

“Maya” (the illusion that the unreal Universe is existent and as distinct from the supreme spirit) is beginning-less. The jeeva which is sleeping under the influence of this “maya” once awakened by the grace of a guru, realizes it’s one-ness with that “ neither born, nor ignorant, without false knowledge non dual” Universal soul. And the kathopanishad mind which is capable of grasping this truth is further elaborated in another Upanishad namely “Amrita Bindu”; it says that there are two kinds of minds one pure and another impure. A mind full of desire is impure, and the one desire-less is pure. 

Thus the prayer is for a pure mind, to wash away all that barriers-to-wisdom kind of sins from one’s thoughts. The tathwa gyanam is nothing but bliss – “mangalam” in Samskrit. In one sloka it is said that since brahmn is an asylum for all that are heavenly, and is embodiment of propitiousness, it is termed as that “ultimate Bliss”. By desiring “bhadram” one is actually seeking “Brahma Gyanam”  ( see the beauty of the word Bhadram?)

The full verse will thus translate to “Oh Savitha, impel our Gurus to inspire us to be able to rid all our ignorance and false knowledge about “self”, as bad dreams. And let all that are sinful that come in our way of self- realization be banished and only good ones that aid in acquiring that blissful tathwa-gyanam (essence of wisdom) permeates our thoughts.

With this prayer we sprinkle a few drops of water where we had meditated, wet our ring finger with this and apply this in the space between the two eyebrows as a protective shield.

Let me now recap to capture the essence and the beauty of this daily ritual: First we herald the rising Sun with a 21 gun salute, contemplate for a moment on the truism that the Sun and I are none other than that “Universal one”, invoke the Deity Gayathri and transcend to a level of meditation in realization our union with the supreme spirit, come back to the unreal world and send the deity off with a ceremonial eulogy, and finally pray that all evil thoughts go away and only pure thoughts permeate all through to aid us in realizing ourselves in blissful wisdom… (And wear this thought as a shield).

Imagine starting at say around the age of 6 odd, and doing this routine every day by the day. I cannot but daresay that an extremely great civilization must have existed at some point in time. And as legatees we can justifiably be proud of this heritage.

Finally the punch-line; once one reaches the ultimate stage of liberation we rid ourselves of these rituals automatically just as a well ripened fruit rids itself of bondage. In other words since these rituals are purely for the purposes of aiding the process of realization, once at the stage, you have to discard them. Like for instance if you have to cross a river, you need a boat. But once across you don’t carry the boat along with you. ( From Panchadasi and other texts.)  

Isn’t this profound? Surely ponderable, if you have had the patience of reading it through. 

Love Vichu