I feel sort of silly admitting this, but I found out about the Gayatri Mantra by way of Battlestar Galactica.

I didn’t watch this show until recently – don’t have cable, and don’t want it – but after a lot of convincing from fanatical viewers, I’ve started catching up on old episodes via DVD. So far, I am pretty impressed. I haven’t found any science fiction TV series (or even movies) that I liked much since ST:TNG. Farscape was kind of fun, but I can take it or leave it, and frankly everything else (other Star Treks, Stargates, and of course the travesties that were the new Star Wars movies) has been mildly disappointing. Battlestar is filling a long-existing void.

But that’s really beside the point. The point is, I was really drawn to the music from BSG’s main title sequence, from the very first time I heard it. Every time it came around at the beginning of subsequent viewings, I listened to the whole thing. I even REWOUND to the title a few times to hear it again. Something about the lyrics really compelled me to listen. I did not recognize the language (I don’t speak Sanskrit), but it struck a chord with me anyway.

Well, I did some research, and it turns out that there a very good reason that I was so compelled to listen to this music over and over again. The lyrics are a version of the Gayatri Mantra. According to the brief research I’ve done so far, this mantra is one of the most central Hindu mantras, second only to the most basic, OM. Lots of translations of it, some literal and some more general.

Anyway – now that I know what it is, I can’t get it out of my head. Right now I hear it in terms of the BSG title music, but I would like to learn some proper ways of chanting it, and perhaps use it for the purpose of meditation and focusing.