Gāyatrī Devī

Gāyatrī Devī is the vedamātā, the mother of the Vedas. She appeared in the form of a gopikā (cowherd girl) during Brahmā’s mahāyajña at Puṣkara. Indra found her while searching the earth for an unmarried woman of virtue. She was brought to the yajña, and Bhagavān Viṣṇu gave her the name Gāyatrī.

Brahmā married her by gāndharva vivāha so that the yajña could go on with a yajamanī (the wife of the yajamāna, the one who performs the ritual) at his side. Sāvitrī arrived late and cursed the devas in anger. Gāyatrī then answered each śāpa (curse) with her own varas (boons). She declared that she dwells in the aṣṭākṣara (the eight-syllable mantra), that she is the mother of all the Vedas, and that she fills the whole universe.

Discovery at Brahmā’s mahāyajña

Brahmā performed his supreme mahāyajña at Puṣkara at the start of kṛtayuga. The ritual needed a yajamanī to sit beside Brahmā. The adhvaryu (the priest of the yajña), Bṛhaspati, sent word to Sāvitrī, Brahmā’s dharmapatnī (lawful wife). She delayed. She was busy with household arrangements and wanted to wait for all the devīs to come with her.

The auspicious muhūrta (hour) was passing and the yajña fires were already lit. Brahmā had to find a yajamanī at once. He told Indra to search the earth for a kanyā (maiden) of pure virtue. Indra went over the earth and found every woman already married, except one. She was a beautiful gopikā selling milk, curd and butter in the open. She had black eyes and a golden complexion, and her form drew the eye of everyone who saw her. Indra saw that she was unmarried and of virtuous bearing, and he brought her by force to the yajña.

The name given by Viṣṇu

The gopikā was brought before Brahmā. She felt awe and a natural pull towards him. She knew him as the supreme creator, the paramātman of the universe. As she stood before the assembled devas, Bhagavān Viṣṇu said:

“Let this mahānubhāvurālu be known by the name Gāyatrī.”

With this naming by Bhagavān Viṣṇu, the cowherd girl became Gāyatrī Devī. The three worlds would always worship her through the Gāyatrī mantra.

Marriage to Brahmā

With the approval and blessing of Bhagavān Viṣṇu, Brahmā married Gāyatrī by gāndharva vivāha. This is a lawful form of marriage among divine beings. Bṛhaspati then led her to the patnyīśāla (the seat of the yajamanī), holding a mṛga‘s horn. She wore a silk garment and the mauñjī-mekhalā (the sacred cord of initiation). She took her seat beside Brahmā with the poise of a true pativratā (devoted wife). The great yajña went on for a thousand divine years.

Gāyatrī’s family, the gopas, came to the yajña in distress when they heard that she had been taken. Bhagavān Viṣṇu comforted them:

“Your daughter has reached the place that even great yogis and veda-reciting brāhmaṇas cannot reach. You are blessed. I myself shall descend among your lineage, and your kinswomen will sport with me.”

The gopas bowed and left content. Gāyatrī sent word through her family:

“I have come here and stood before Brahmā. The first of all beings, the paramātman, has become my husband of his own will. Do not grieve.”

The confrontation with Sāvitrī

After the yajña had begun, Sāvitrī arrived with all the devīs. She saw the gopikā, Gāyatrī Devī, seated in her rightful place beside Brahmā, and her anger blazed. Sāvitrī gave five fierce śāpas, against Brahmā, Indra, Viṣṇu, Agni and the brāhmaṇas. She then turned to the other devīs who had come with her. She cursed Lakṣmī for her fickleness, and she cursed Śacī (Indrāṇī) with future humiliation.

Sāvitrī turned to curse Gāyatrī. Bhagavān Viṣṇu stepped in and led the distressed devīs to safety. Sāvitrī withdrew to Jyeṣṭha Puṣkara and made her home there. Gāyatrī, as the yajamanī, then rose to speak to the assembly.

Gāyatrī’s varas

Gāyatrī had seen the cursing. She turned each śāpa into a chance for grace and gave a vara to each one who had been cursed.

To Indra: When enemies capture and imprison you, Brahmā himself will go to the enemy’s abode and set you free. After that, you will enjoy unchallenged rule over the three worlds.

To Viṣṇu: You will come down into the mortal world as Bhṛgu’s śāpa decrees. You will suffer separation from your wife and great sorrow. Even so, you will defeat your enemy, be united with your wife in the sight of all the devas, and rule for eleven thousand years. Then you will return to Vaikuṇṭha covered in glory. The people of the world will reach liberation through you, born as Rāma.

To Rudra: Even if your liṅga falls because of the śāpa of the ṛṣis in Dāruvana, those who worship the liṅga with devotion will reach svarga (heaven). Worship of the liṅga on the banks of the Gaṅgā with bilva leaves in the morning brings Rudraloka. The fruits of liṅga-pūjā are greater than the fruits of agnihotra and of all yajñas. When you are pleased, all the devas are satisfied.

To the brāhmaṇas: Those who satisfy you at tīrthas and sacred places will reach the state of Vairāja. Those who satisfy you at śrāddha become equal to the devas of the devas. The devas receive havis (the offering) through your mouths. The pitṛs receive kavya through you. You hold up the three worlds. A single prāṇāyāma (breath control) makes you pure. At Puṣkara especially, those who give you annadāna (gifts of food) satisfy all the devas. Feeding one brāhmaṇa at Puṣkara gives a result a koṭi (ten million) times greater.

To Lakṣmī: You will be present with those who earn rightly. Your kaṭākṣa (glance) brings nobility, righteousness and honour to those on whom it falls. Where you are, jāti (caste), family, character and dharma all flourish.

To Śacī (Indrāṇī): Nahuṣa will take Indra’s throne and demand you. Agastya will curse him, and he will become a serpent. A descendant of his line will come and free him from the śāpa. Your husband Indra will return. Together you will perform the aśvamedha and enjoy mahārājya (great rule).

Gāyatrī also gave a general vara to all devīs. Even those who stayed childless because of Sāvitrī’s śāpa would not suffer grief.

Gāyatrī’s declaration of herself

Gāyatrī spoke to the assembled brāhmaṇas and devas and declared her highest nature:

“I am established in the aṣṭākṣara (the eight-syllable mantra). I pervade the entire universe. I am the mother of all the Vedas. I am adorned with all sacred words. O ṛṣis, those who recite me with devotion will attain siddhi (spiritual power). Among all mantras, I am the chief. One who recites even a single Gāyatrī mantra daily becomes the foremost among all brāhmaṇas. Even one who has eaten forbidden food, traded in everything, or acted wrongly becomes blessed by Gāyatrī-japa. Even where Sāvitrī’s śāpa works, my mantra-japa cancels it. Those who do the three-times-daily japa (trikāla-sandhyā) with homa (offering into the fire) will reach svarga with twenty-one generations of their family.”

She named these powers of Gāyatrī japa:

• Three recitations remove brahmahatyā (the pāpa of killing a brāhmaṇa).
• One hundred recitations remove the pāpa (sin) of ten lifetimes.
• Six thousand recitations remove all pāpa (sarva-kilbiṣa-nāśa).

Rudra’s Gāyatrī stuti

Rudra saw Gāyatrī’s great grace in cancelling all the śāpas, and he heard her declare herself the vedamātā. At the end of the yajña, he composed a stuti (a hymn of praise) in her honour. This Rudra-kṛta Gāyatrī Stuti stands in the ślokas at the close of Chapter 17. It is held to be supremely sacred and fit for pārāyaṇa (full recitation).

Her nature in the Purāṇas

The Padma Purāṇa shows Gāyatrī as the living reality behind the Gāyatrī mantra. She is not only the devī of that mantra. She is the mantra itself, the aṣṭākṣara in which she is “established” (sthita). Her varas at Puṣkara answer Sāvitrī’s śāpa: where the śāpa holds back, the vara frees.

The Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, in its Prakṛti Khaṇḍa, names Sāvitrī herself as the vedamātā and the fourth form of Mūla Prakṛti.

Sources

• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Sṛṣṭi Khaṇḍa, Chapters 16–17
• Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Prakṛti Khaṇḍa