Gayatri Mantra: Lyrics and Meaning, Chanted by Umesh Guruji

The Gayatri Mantra is one of the oldest and most loved mantras of India, a verse of the Rig Veda. Here Umesh Guruji chants it in Varanasi in two long, slow phrases, again and again: you can simply listen, or chant along with him.

The Gayatri Mantra in Sanskrit

ॐ भूर्भुवः स्वः
तत्सवितुर्वरेण्यं
भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि
धियो यो नः प्रचोदयात्

Gayatri Mantra lyrics in English letters

Om bhur bhuvah svah
tat savitur varenyam
bhargo devasya dhimahi
dhiyo yo nah prachodayat

Gayatri Mantra meaning

Om. Earth, sky and heaven. We meditate on the glorious light of the divine Sun, worthy of worship: may it awaken our minds.

For Umesh Guruji, Gayatri is Mother Gayatri, the supreme light from which everything comes. Chanting the mantra is a prayer to that light: give light to my mind, wake up my mind. He teaches that its syllables touch twenty-four chakras in the body, and he explains how in the lesson The Meaning of the Gayatri Mantra.

How to chant it

Slowly, many times, in the same melody, as Umesh sings it here. A mantra is the same positive vibration repeated again and again. The best time, he says, is early morning, at sunrise, when there is a lot of cosmic energy around.