learn and chant the Gayatri Mantra

Absolutely worth doing! The Mantra has calming qualities. I have heard several versions. There is an especially beautiful version by Deva Premal.

Om Bhur Bhuvah Svah
Tat Savitur Varenyam
Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi
Dhiyo yo Nah Prachodayat Om

To add blessings of Mother Laksmi to Gayatri…add “Srim” after the last OM. There’s meaning behind this.

Also, you can do this Gayatri:
Om Bhur
Om Bhavah
Om Svaha
Om Maha
Om Janah
Om Tapah
OM Satyam
OM
Tat Savitur Varenyam
Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi
Dhiyo yo nah prachodayat
OM

Not that hard at all. If you play it over and over again, the words and rhythm will just embed themselves into you. Really relaxing to listen and chant with, too.

I think I’ll have this goal down before Christmas. I already know half the chant, and have transliterated some of the words so there’ll be the added weight of knowing what I say when I say it. It’s not that long either, so hopefully it shouldn’t be too hard. :)

I found a recording and version that I like…mostly chant-like, but melodic enough for my taste. So, the “learn” part of this goal is more or less squared away.

The recording is a 45-min. long chant though, so I haven’t used it much. I have been chanting for maybe 5 minutes at a time now and then. Often when I’m doing the dishes. :) Not really a regular practice yet, though. I would like to do maybe 10 minutes of dedicated chant on a daily/semi-daily basis, perhaps working through the 45-min. long recording occasionally when I’m able.

I listened to the gayatri mantra on youtube last week and asked my boyfriend to chant it while I was driving, I can almost chant the first 2 lines now! Yay!

Funniculee, if you Google it you’ll find many pages on the web explaining Gayatri Mantra at great length, syllable by syllable, a bewildering variety of ways in which it can be translated, pronunciation guides, and downloads in Devanagari script. As to “how” you chant it, it really does not many any difference to its effectiveness; it is only a matter of your personal aesthetics. You can chant it in a monotone, or repeat it in a speaking voice, or make it sound like Gregorian chant, or make up a tune for it and play it on your guitar. It will work any way you do it. It is truly a UNIVERSAL mantra.

I found this wonderful mantra through the website of Vyaas Houston’s American Sanskrit Institute. I ordered his “Gayatri Mantra” CD and found it delightful (I can also recommend his “Songs of Shiva”). His version is the most beautiful I’ve heard anywhere, while remaining fully authentic. Gayatri mantra is an excellent grounding and centering exercise.

Thanks to Wendy and her wonderful advice here , I have been collecting a number of different recordings of Gayatri Mantra chant from emusic. Each has its own flavor and melody, but there are striking similaries among them.

I would say that I have learned the chant, at least all of the phonemes involved. I doubt that my pronunciation is that great yet, but I’m working on it. As for the melody/rhythm, well, I haven’t decide which version I’d like to use yet. Maybe I’ll use several.

The final challenge will be fitting chant into my schedule on a regular basis. My apartment is all wood floors and ill-fitting doors (old, unevenly settling house), and my roommate is a composer who needs quiet a lot of the time (plus she goes to bed early!). Not a lot of privacy. I want to chant, but I don’t want disturb anyone by doing it.

I first heard the Gayatri Mantra during a yoga class I took about a year ago. Immediately, I felt drawn to it, and went searching for a way to learn it. I’ve found that when I chant it, good things happen in my life, and at this time, the Gayatri is a part of my daily spiritual practice. It has become very beloved to me.

I put together a very simple informational page about it in my LiveJournal:

http://here-be-dragons.livejournal.com/269070.html

It’s a beautiful mantra, and I am very grateful that it came into my life when it did. :)

It’s sort of hard to know which would be best; most, I can’t preview before buying. And they’re not really cheap. Already checked the library (nothing).

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.