Gāyatrī — The Supreme Vedic Mantra
The Gāyatrī mantra (Ṛgveda 3.62.10) is the most revered mantra in the entire Vedic corpus — honoured across all four Vedas and all schools of Hindu thought as the mother of all mantras (mantrāṇāṃ mātā). It is composed in the gāyatrī metre (24 syllables arranged in three pādas of 8 syllables each), and its text reads:
Om bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ / tat savitur vareṇyam / bhargo devasya dhīmahi / dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāt
The mantra is prefaced by the mahāvyāhṛtis (bhūḥ, bhuvaḥ, svaḥ — 'earth, atmosphere, heaven') and the praṇava (Om), which together constitute its full liturgical form as recited in sandhyāvandana. The mantra's meaning, as traditionally understood, is: 'We meditate (dhīmahi) upon that (tat) adorable (vareṇyam) radiance (bhargaḥ) of Savitr (savitur), the divine (devasya); may that (yaḥ) impel (pracodayāt) our (naḥ) intelligences (dhiyaḥ).'
In Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta, the Gāyatrī mantra is understood to address Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa Himself — Savitr being one of the twelve Āditya forms of the sun, which is itself the arcā (visible icon) of Bhagavān in the sky. The Nārāyaṇopaniṣad and several Āgamic texts explicitly identify the Gāyatrī's deity as Śrīman Nārāyaṇa. Vedānta Deśika, in his Pāñcarātra Rakṣā and other works, affirms that the Gāyatrī's inner meaning — the meditation upon the luminous intelligence-granting radiance — refers to Bhagavān as the antaryāmin of the sun and the direct illuminator of all jīva-intelligence.
For the twice-born Śrī Vaiṣṇava, the Gāyatrī mantra is the heart of sandhyāvandana — the obligatory twilight worship performed three times daily (at dawn, midday, and dusk). At upanayana (the sacred thread ceremony), the Gāyatrī is formally transmitted by the āchārya to the student — this transmission (upadeśa) is itself called 'Gāyatrī upadeśa' and constitutes the single most important moment of Vedic initiation. Once transmitted, the student is bound to recite the Gāyatrī at every sandhyā for life. The failure to maintain this daily recitation is considered a prāyaścitta-requiring lapse.
The Gāyatrī's power lies in its function as a mantra of dhiyaḥ (illuminated intelligence): the sincere meditator prays that Bhagavān's radiance (bhargaḥ) impel his intellect toward right understanding (viveka), devotion (bhakti), and ultimately the vision of Bhagavān's feet. This framing — asking Bhagavān to illuminate one's own intelligence — places the Gāyatrī in perfect alignment with Viśiṣṭādvaita's teaching that the jīva is wholly dependent (para-tantra) on Bhagavān even for its own capacity for understanding and devotion. Note that the metre itself (gāyatrī) is treated separately in the Chandas entry of this dictionary.