GAYATRI. From the Sanskrit Goi, to sing, an invocation used by Hindus as a prayer. That usually alluded to under this term is considered to be the most sacred verse in the Vedas. In the nature-worship of the Vedas, the sun was worshipped under the designation Savitri. This prayer is supposed to be known to Brahmans only. They are taught it when they receive the sacred string, and they are enjoined never to communicate it to any other sect. Its Sanskrit words are, — O'm I Bhurbhuvrt ssuvalid, O'm I Tatsa vit'hru varennyam, B'hargo devassya dhimahi dhiyo yonaha pracho dayath. O'm! earth, air, heaven, O'm I 'Let us meditate on the supreme splendour of the divine Sun. May he illuminate our minds.' Professor Wilson's literal translation of it is : We meditate on that desir able light of the divine Savitri (the suu) who influences our holy rites.' Sir William Jones, Cole brooke, Wilson, and Benfey have each given interpretations of it, all somewhat differing. The Gayatri, called by Sir William Jones the mother of the Vedas, and in another place the holiest text of the Vedas, is expressed by the triliteral monosyllable Aum. Sir William Jones thus inter prets it : Let us adore the supremacy of that divine Sun, the godhead who illumines all, delights all, from whom all proceed, to whom all must return, whom we invoke to direct our understandings aright. in our progress towards his holy seat.' And in another place he defines that divine Sun as n.ot the visible material sun, but that divine and incomparably greater light which illumines dehghts all, from whom all proceeds, to which all must return, and which can alone irradiate not our visual organs merely, but our souls and our intellects.' Mr. Colebrooke again thus explains
it : that effulgent power which is Brahm himself, and is called the light of the radiant sun, do meditate, governed by the mysterious light which resides within me for the purpose of thought. I myself am an irradiated manifestation of the supreme Brahm.' These are, however, mere scholastic or theologic comments, to suit the theological doctrines of the various Hindu. sects, for there is no doubt that the Vedic doctrine was. a nature-worship, and the quoted Sanskrit wordE are an invocation to the sun. Gayatri is a form of inetre, and thence applied to this verse in the Vedas, which is repeated inaudibly in the daily morning worship of the Brahmans. Bunsen thw interprets it :— We remember with longing the bright beams ol Savitar: May he prosper the handiwork of our piety f For sustenance we supplicate the divine Producer : That he may deign to bestow on us our portion, do w( beseech him.
All who are wise of heart, adore God the Begetter, Bringing him offerings of a devout heart, with hymn: of praise.' The extreme importance that the Hindus attact to the supposed profundity of the Gayatri, rendev it a text of more curiosity than readers will b( able to discover in the words themselves, in eithel their ordinary or recondite allusions. Sir W Jones says that the Gayatri is called the inothei of the Vedas.'