This month we will be chanting the Gayatri Mantra in class:
Om bhur bhuvah suvaha
Tat savitur vareniyam
bhargo devasya dhimahi
Dhiyo yo nah prachodayat
-Rig Veda 3.62
Translation:
Om, we meditate on the glory of that being who has produced this universe, may he/she enlighten our minds.
Listen here to a classical version of the chant. Listen here to a Deva Premal version.
The Gayatri mantra is a beautiful and ancient chant from the the Rig Veda, an ancient Indian collection of Sacred Sanskrit hymns. This mantra is dedicated to the Savitur, the sun deity. "Om bhur bhuva suvah" is the opening incantation of the Gayatri Mantra to pay homage to the interconnectedness of the earth (bhur), the atmosphere (bhuvah) and the heavens (suvah).
Some people are uncomfortable when I bring up the spiritual aspects of yoga. Especially when there is an indication of a deity as mentioned in the translation of the Gayatri mantra above: "We meditate on the glory of that being, who has produced the universe, may he/she enlighten our minds." I often talk about surrendering our will to a Divine Will or to a higher power. Who or what produced the universe? I don't really think that there is a he or a she that can enlighten our minds. But what is that power?
It is how Krishna describes himself to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita:
I am the taste in water,
the light in the moon and sun
The sacred syllable Om
in the Vedas, the sound in air.
I am the fragrance in the earth,
the manliness in men, the brilliance
in fire, the life in the living,
and the abstinence in ascetics.
I am the primal seed
within all beings, Arjuna. -BG 7. 8 - 10
These don't describe a god as a he or a she, but the forces, wonders and beauty of the natural world and the mysteries that surround us. There is a wonderful description of the idea of a higher power in the book of Job, when Job is crumbling under all of the bad things that have happened to him and he questions Divine Will. God's response to Job is, "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundations? Have you ever given orders to the morning or sent the dawn to its post?"
To me, this is what chanting the Gayatri means: celebrating whatever force it is that causes flowers to bloom, the sun to rise an for me to be alive.