MEDITATING ON GAYATRI MANTRA  

By Kewal Ahluwalia

AUM bhuur bhuvah swaha tat savitur varenyam

bhargo devasya dhimahi dhiyo yo naha prachodyat.

Swami Dayananda Saraswati (1824-1883), the founder of the Arya Samaj contributed a lot in popularizing the Vedic prayer generally known as "Gayatri Mantra". He quoted this mantra in his most famous book "Satyarth Prakash" (Light of Truth) as well as in many other books e.g. "Sanskar-Vidhi" etc. He explained it with word to word meaning and showed that this is an excellent prayer one can have for Almighty God. He also recommended to the members of the Arya Samaj that this prayer to be recited everyday with deep thinking on its meaning while meditating. That is why almost all the members of the Arya Samaj know this mantra with its meaning, (more or less). (If not here is meaning in brief)

"Oh God! Thou art the Giver of Life, 
Remover of pain and sorrow,
The Bestower of happiness,
Oh! Creator of the Universe,
May we receive thy supreme sin-destroying light,
May Thou guide our intellect in the right direction."

Swami Dayananda is remembered as a great man and a great seer, scholar and reformer he is still a great source of inspiration for betterment of life and revival of the Vedic dharma, but he is  a MAN, not GOD. That is why he is not worshiped.