Gayatri Mantra, Nav Rasas, Awakening

Back in 1989, I saw a Meg Ryan movie - Innerspace - in which a tiny human in a tiny ship is floating around in the human body.

Saw it again a few days back and it set me thinking - what if we are in a similar situation - what if the cosmos is a living environment...?

I believe it is impossible that the Cosmos is a dead machine.

So would scientists who expounded the 'living systems theory'.

To them it's evident that living systems are not limited only to the bodies of humans or animals and other phenomena that traditional science classifies as 'living'.

If the cosmos is not alive, how come we are? Can a dead machine create and sustain life?


This blog entry is on the gayatri mantra, a popular hindu prayer to the cosmos.

ॐ भूर्भुवः स्वः ।
तत् सवितुर्वरेण्यं ।
भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि ।
धियो यो नः प्रचोदयात् ॥



Om Bhoo bhuvah svaha
Tat savitur Varenyam
Bhargo Devasya Dheemahi
Dhio yo nah Prachodayaat

Table reproduced from Shanti Mayi

Sanskrit	Translation	English Version
OM	All of existence. Perceptive vibration of the cosmos. The Almighty. Life.	Throughout the experience of Life
BHOOR	Coming. The physical world. Vital energy.
BHUVAH	Going. The mental world. Destroyer of suffering.
SVAH	Balance. The intellectual world. Embodiment of happiness.
TAT	That; indicates the three planes of experience, isness, pure being, God.	That essential nature
SAVITUR	Radiant brilliance shinning forth from nowhere. Bright, luminous, like the sun. Knowledge. Male principle.	illuminating existence
VARENYAM	Adorable. Venerable. Supreme.	is the adorable
BHARGO	Permeated with Magnificence. The destroyer of sins.	One.
DEVASYA	Divine. Intrinsically pure and brilliant.
DHEEMAHI	Meditation-focused, absorbed. Receiving.
DHIYO	Intellect.	May all beings perceive through subtle and meditative intellect
YO	Who
NAH	Us (Out of one into many; Yo-Nah: Female principle.)
PRACHODAYAAT	Inspire, enlighten and ignite.	the brilliance of enlightened awareness.

Here is a simpler translation:

ॐ	OM	Symbol of the Brahman
भूः	Bhoo	Bhu-Loka (Physical plane)
भुवः	Bhuva	Antariksha-Loka (Astral plane)
स्वः	Svaha	Swarga-Loka (Celestial plane)
तत्	Tat	That; Transcendent Paramatman
सवितु	Savitur	Of the Sun
वरेण्यं	Varenyam	Fit to be worshipped or adored
भर्गो	Bhargo	Light, Illumination
देवस्य	Devasya	Divine
धीमहि	Dheemahi	Let us meditate
धियो	Dhiyo	thoughts
यो	Yo	Which
नः	Nah	Of us, Our
प्रचोदयात्	Prachodyat	Enlighten; Guide

“The Cosmos is the giver of life, the remover of myopia, the bestower of sanity; I pray to the Cosmos to bless us with enlightenment and awakening and dazzle us with its intelligence.” - My interpretation.

The meaning is awareness of the environment around us, in all its forms and flavours, at all its scales, humble or huge, and the appreciation that it enlightens.

The sanity, the illumination that exists...tries to come to us through our environment. Sometimes we are given sweets. Sometimes chillies. By universal wisdom. Perhaps so that we may awaken spiritually.

In fact, hindus say we are given the entire Nav Rasas. And through these Nav Rasas, which are sometimes tough, sometimes soft....life toughens us, shapes us, awakens us, illuminates us.

It would be great to look upon the different elements of the environment as *one unified conduit of the Cosmos* through which it sends the Nav Rasas to awaken us.

WHY PRAY FOR AN AWAKENING? AREN'T WE AWAKE?

We could be awake, as awake as is possible, but, it's also possible that we are asleep, experiencing MAYA...according to hindus and buddhists.

And maya is considered to be the state of suffering, by both hindus and buddhists, who feel that awakening is required.

We could be a bit like the mythological KumbhKaran who needed a lot of tough treatment from the environment before he finally woke up.

Summary :
This mantra wants to show us the amazing, dazzling splendour of the infinite cosmos. Instill in us that it is nothing but eternal, infinite cosmic wisdom that is playing with us through our surroundings, using various means, to wake us up from deep spiritual sleep.

If indeed infinite cosmic wisdom is operating in our lives...all that has ever happened, all that is happening, and all that will ever happen - every tiny bit of it - it is all perfect. Often it is tragic. But the tragedy is also perfection and necessary for our illumination.


PART 2

BOOK PASSAGE:
Passage from Rob Brezsny's book "PRONOIA":
Many of us are essentially asleep, even as we walk around in broad daylight. We are so focussed on the restless narratives and repetitive fantasies unfurling in our heads that we only dimly perceive the larger story raging in all of its chaotic beauty around us.

To have any hope of permanently breaking out of our fuzzy trance, we require regular shocks. A single jolt might cause us to briefly come to attention and see the miracle of creation for what it is, but once the red alert has passed, we relax back into our fixation on the dreamy tales our mind never stops telling us.

In the course of its conspiracy to shower us with blessings, life does its best to provide us with a steady flow of healing shocks. Bt because it tends to err on the side of tenderness, its prods may be too gentle, allowing us to ignore them. Gradually life will up the ante, trying o find the right mix of toughness and love, as it encourages us to wake up.

But our addiction to phantasmagoria is tenacious. The stream of voices pretending to be thoughts, even when they are racked with torment and terror, are perversely entertaining.

And we may avoid responding to the kind shocks for so long that life may have to resort to stronger shocks.

It doesn't have to be this way. We could cultivate in ourselves a sixth sense for the wake up calls life sends us. We might develop a knack for responding with agile grace to the early, gentler ones, so that we would not have to be visited by the more stringent measures.

There is another possibility: With hungry intent, we could seek out and hunt down invigorating jolts. We wouldn't wait to have our asses kicked, but would kick our own asses -- over and over again, with a creative ingenuity that would be the envy of a great pronoiac novelist or musician or film maker. Who knows? We might even master the art of inducing shocks that feel a little good.

And an interesting Rob Brezsney speech: