Gayatri Sadhana

There was this person in Canada – and I am telling you his real-life story, which I witnessed over a period of time. When I first met him in India, he was a devout worshipper of the Mother Goddess and ardently chanted the Gayatri mantra. He was the first one whom I saw who actually had Gayatri siddhi. Siddhi is when a mantra becomes your own and you become the mantra; the energy of the mantra works through you, lives in you, benefitting other people. He blessed and helped many people sail through difficult circumstances in life.

When I first met him, this man’s radiance was extraordinary. He had such a beautiful, effulgent face; you could look at him all day, and still feel as if you were receiving the love, warmth, divinity, and grace that flowed from him. Those were the days when I did a lot of astrology – I was 15 years old then.

This sadhaka’s dedication was phenomenal. He had been chanting the Gayatri mantra, 16 rounds, every day. One round of chanting is 108 times. Every day for roughly 40 years, he never missed his chanting routine.

I’ll digress for a moment to tell you a little incident from his life. The factory where he used to work got a big order once, so they asked everybody to put in half a shift more each day. That way, two people could do 12 hours’ work each in different shifts, so the factory could have 24 hours of production. This was back in the early nineties.

He said to his boss, “Look, I am sorry, I cannot stay back, because at 3 pm I have to leave. I have to do my own thing then – it’s my personal time.”
“You have been with this company for 20 years,” his boss said. “You know how big this order is for us. And it’s not as if we’re not paying you. We will pay you double the usual amount for the overtime. All we are asking is that you extend your workday for four hours, and only for eight or nine weeks.”

He said, “Sorry, I can’t do that.”
“That’s not going to sit well with anybody. You’re the supervisor. What kind of example are you going to set?”
“I’m sorry, I need to put food on the table, but I cannot stay beyond 3 pm.”

The manager became quite upset. The matter went to the department head, and he had a meeting. He said the same thing and then it went all the way to the CEO. Because he had been working at the factory for 20 years, they couldn’t just fire him. They needed people with the technical know-how who could fulfill the order.

“I’m at my wits’ end,” the CEO said. “Why do you have to go at 3 pm? Why can’t you stay back for four hours, just for a few weeks? Tell me, what is the problem? Won’t you be happy if this company grows?”
“It’s a personal thing,” he replied. “I have to go and meet somebody.”
“You don’t exactly look like a teenager in love. Whom do you have to meet every day that you can’t miss? Can’t you meet him or her at 7 pm?”
“I must reach home by 4 pm when I sit down and have my meeting.”
“But with whom?” the CEO asked, a bit flustered. “Whom do you have to meet?”

I am not adding any of my own words. This is exactly how I heard this from the man himself.

“Well, I have to meet the person who gave me this job,” he said.
“This is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard,” the CEO said, throwing his hands in the air. “What are you talking about? I gave you this job. This is my damn company!” Then the CEO thought, perhaps there was some agent involved. This guy is a poor immigrant, so there must have been an agent who is taking a commission or some work from the employee that he is unaware of. “Oh, I get it! Is there some kind of agent in between us? But, I gave you this job myself.”

“No, there’s no agent, but I can tell you whom I must meet at 4 pm every day.”
“Pray tell,” the CEO said, exasperated.
“Do you know Jesus?” this man asked.
“If you mean Jesus Christ, then, of course, I know him.”
“Well, I go home to meet his father. I pray to Krishna.”

For 40 years this person had never missed his routine of Mantra chanting. Every day, he chanted 16 rounds of the Gayatri mantra and two rounds of the Hare Krishna Mahamantra, followed by reading one chapter from the Bhagavad Gita. He was a householder and worked a full-time job until he was 60 years old. This is the level of self-discipline and faith that is required if you really want to succeed on the path of mantra sadhana.

The CEO, for the record, marked on his file to never bother this guy again: Let him do whatever he wants to do after 3 pm; let him go where he wants to go, in his own time. He worked up until he retired from this company, by the way. Look at his faith. So often, we think that people who are just mediums in our lives are our everything, that without their grace we won’t live. That’s not true. They are simply the medium. ‘Ja par Kripa Raam ki hoi, taa par Kripa Kare sab koi.’ (If the Divine is in your favor, the whole world will be too.)

A very senior bureaucrat once wrote to me, saying, “The chief minister used to love me, but now the CM is against me, and I am being framed,” and so forth. He was very keen that I get his email, so I wrote him one line in return: “Did you do anything wrong?”
He replied, “No.”
I wrote back: “You don’t have anything to worry about. Drop all your fears.”

A few days later I got another email from him that read, “It’s miraculous! I don’t know how it happened, but just yesterday evening, I managed to meet the cabinet secretary and the principal secretary. Everybody is on my side, and people who were against me are now saying that I was actually doing the right thing. But I just need to be back in the good books of the chief minister, because he’s the man, after all.”

I replied, “You have missed the point completely. The chief minister is not the maker of your destiny; he is just the medium. You just focus on doing the right thing, and the right things will follow automatically.”

It’s worth remembering here that when your faith is strong, no adversity in life can shake you. Otherwise, every little incident becomes a huge episode. Each minor hurdle, every small challenge looks like a mountain to climb, which it isn’t. You have made it into a mountain, but it is nothing. Keep doing what you have to do, and you will make your own way.

In any event, when we chant a mantra such as the Gayatri Mantra, we are not asking any supernatural being to help us. Instead, we are invoking our own latent energy; we are invoking the power within us. Associating it with a deity of some kind is a matter of meditation; of better focus, visualization and manifestation.

This is an excerpt from my new book The Hidden Power of Gayatri Mantra where I’ve shared various steps and also the brief method of invocation for those who are pressed for time. Although heavily edited, it’s based on the discourses I gave in my Gayatri Sadhana camps. Before you grab your copy, please do know that this book is essentially a concise version of The Ancient Science of Mantras with an exclusive and magnified focus on the Gayatri Sadhana, its origin, and invocation. I thought this disclaimer was important so you don’t end up with a book and say to yourself, “I already knew all this.” What? Do you still want to read it? Here are the links then:

Amazon.in (India)
Amazon.com (rest of the world)

For a deeper understanding, the most frequently asked questions on Gayatri Sadhana are answered below in the list. You can also learn more and listen to 108 chants of Gayatri Mantra in Om Swami’s voice to enhance your mantra meditation.

Peace.
Swami

Here are some question-answer recordings from the  Camp. 

Is it possible to do Gayatri Sadhana without initiation or with the absence of a guru in life?

Video Timeline
0:09 Does one need a guru on the spiritual path
04:16 What is the best time for chanting
06:26 Why do we use a Gomukh for the Jaap mala

If one's job involves traveling how can they perform sadhana? Why is the long form of the Gayatri Mantra not chanted as often as the short form of the Gayatri Mantra?

Video timeline
0:09 How can one practice chanting when their job requires traveling
11:45 What is the best form of Gayatri mantra to chant
12:48 How to chant Gayatri Mantra on your chakras
14:33 Can one do Purascharana multiple times
17:29 Is there a specific technique to realize God

The purest Gayatri Mantra in its truest form is: “Om Bhur Bhuvaḥ Swaḥ – Tat-Savitur Vareñyaṃ – Bhargo Devasya Dheemah -Dhiyo Yonaḥ Prachodayāt”.

How to synchronize breathing with Gayatri Mantra chanting? What is the benefit of infusing chanting in breathing?

Video timeline
0:09 How to breathe during mantra chanting
1:39 Why is spirituality more prevalent in the East compared to the West
5:33 Music as an example of Meditation
6:30 Importance of structure

Can one use a Sri Yantra for Gayatri Sadhana? Is initiation by a guru mandatory to be successful in Gayatri Sadhana?

Video Timelines
0:09 What is the Importance of Yantra in Gayatri  Sadhana?
3:56 Do we need a picture of Goddess Gayatri for Gayatri Sadhana?
5:11 If God is one, how does this relate to different deities and different energies?
6:09 What is more beneficial a guru mantra or any other mantra?

How can I benefit from Gayatri Sadhana?

Video Timelines:
0:12 Power of devotional sentiment in chanting
1:47 Why do we pray to Mother Earth ( Prithvi Puja) in Gayatri Sadhana?
2:59 How to do Prithvi Puja ?
4:10 Types of energies and their representation in yantra in Gayatri Sadhana
5:46 Who will never benefit from Gayatri Mantra?