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Gayatri Mantra is the embodiment of all forms of Spirit and does not belong to any particular sect of worship nor is it restricted to a certain community. It is universal in its scope. It contains in it the culture of no particular society, but the culture of humanity itself. The Gayatri is a treasure and heritage that belongs to Everyone without exclusion.
The mind perceives diversity. The intellect or Buddhi, realizes unity. Gayatri mantra explores this underlying unity in the diversity of things. It's through this vision of unity that we perceive divinity and sanctify our lives. Atman is one, but the forms that it indwells are many. Our lives are the embodiment of three gunas: rajas, tamas and satva: action, inaction and balance. These three attributes can also be applied to time. Within a 24-hour day each of the gunas typically spans eight hours. Traditionally, the Gayatri is chanted twice a day, during sandhya, the conjunction of two stages of time (basically sunrise and sunset). Sunrise is called pratah sandhya and sunset is known as madhyanna sandhya.
It is during satvic time or sandhya that we undertake our sadhana or spiritual practices. By these practices we sanctify our lives. Chanting the Gayatri at least three times in the early morning and three times in the evening is said to take care of all the ill effects of the day's karma. Clearly, by allowing time for spirit before the activities of the day, we are more conscious in our actions during the day. By allowing time for spirit at the end of the active day, we can more fully release the fruits of our actions and enter into restorative sleep. Before the sun rises, everything is enveloped in darkness. Just as the rays of the sun dispel this darkness, the chanting of Gayatri dispels darkness and ignorance.
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| The RealAudio© Gayatri mantra is from web page: http://www.cut.org/products/audio/sanskrit/sanskrit.html |