गायत्री मन्त्र

Gāyatrī Mantra

The Gāyatrī

Ṛgvedic mantra · gāyatrī metre
Vedic Sanskrit
Ṛgveda 3.62.10

Translation

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Svara

Jap

व्याहृति

ॐ भूर्भुवः स्वः ॥

oṃ bhūrbhuvaḥ svaḥ ||

ॐ — पृथ्वी, अंतरिक्ष आणि स्वर्ग.

ॐ — पृथ्वी, अन्तरिक्ष, स्वर्ग।

Oṃ — earth, atmosphere, heaven.

Word by word (English) & note

ॐ: the primal sound
भूः: earth
भुवः: the middle air
स्वः: heaven, the realm of light

Not part of the Ṛgvedic verse — prefixed in liturgical use.

तत्स॑वि॒तुर्वरे॑ण्यं॒ भर्गो॑ दे॒वस्य॑ धीमहि ।
धियो॒ यो नः॑ प्रचो॒दया॑त् ॥

tatsaviturvareṇyaṃ bhargo devasya dhīmahi |
dhiyo yo naḥ prachodayāt ||

सविता देवाच्या त्या वरणीय तेजाचे आम्ही ध्यान करतो, जो आमच्या बुद्धीला प्रेरणा देवो.

हम सविता देव के उस वरणीय तेज का ध्यान करते हैं, जो हमारी बुद्धि को प्रेरित करे।

We meditate on that most excellent radiance of the god Savitṛ, who shall stir our thoughts.

Word by word (English) & note

तत्: that
सवितुः: of Savitṛ, the vivifier
वरेण्यम्: most excellent, worthy to be chosen
भर्गः: radiance
देवस्य: of the god
धीमहि: we meditate upon
धियः: thoughts, understanding
यः: who
नः: our
प्रचोदयात्: may he impel, awaken

The verse turns from contemplation to petition in a single breath: the worshipper holds the sun’s light in the mind and asks that same light to move within the mind. What is asked for is not wealth or victory but clarity — which is why the Gāyatrī became the prayer of study and initiation. Dhīmahi is traditionally understood as ‘we meditate’; some philologists derive it from dhā and read ‘may we receive’.

Gayatri Mantra · shlokpath.com/chant/gayatri/

Translations stay close to the words; words we supply are in [brackets]. Where a line is read in more than one way, the note beside it says so. How we edit → Found an error in this text? Tell us.

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परंपराProvenance

Traditional attribution

विश्वामित्र

Ṛṣi Viśvāmitra

c. 1500–1200 BCE

Viśvāmitra is the seer of the third maṇḍala of the Ṛgveda, a ‘family book’ preserved by his lineage. Later tradition tells of a king who became a brahmarṣi through austerity — wisdom earned rather than inherited. In Vedic terms a ṛṣi is not an author in the modern sense but one who ‘saw’ the mantra; the hymns were composed and handed down orally, with extraordinary fidelity, for more than three thousand years.

Source

Ṛgveda 3.62.10

Text checked against

Ṛgveda 3.62.10 — accented Saṃhitā and pada text, Sanskrit Wikisource

Context

Addressed to Savitṛ, the sun in its power to rouse and quicken, the Gāyatrī is the most widely recited verse of the Vedas. It takes its name from its metre: three lines of eight syllables. In the Sandhyāvandana, performed at the day’s three junctions, it is the heart of the rite, and it is the mantra imparted at the upanayana. The opening ‘oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ’ — the three vyāhṛtis naming earth, atmosphere and heaven — is a liturgical prefix found with the verse in the Yajurveda, not part of the Ṛgvedic verse itself.

Recited