Vyāhṛti

Vyāhṛti · vi-ā-hṛti, “the utterance”

Grammar: feminine noun, from vi and ā with the root hṛ (to take, to utter): “the utterance”. Mahāvyāhṛti, “the great utterance”, is used for the same words.

Meaning: the sacred utterances bhūḥ, bhuvaḥ, svaḥ and the rest, spoken with Oṃ before the Gāyatrī and in japa and homa. The text speaks of three vyāhṛtis and of seven.

In the scriptures: the Agni Purāṇa teaches the vyāhṛtis in the rite of sandhyā, in the vidhāna of the Vedas and in the rites of homa and pratishṭhā.

With Oṃ and the Gāyatrī. In the rite of sandhyā, Agnideva teaches that the three-pada Gāyatrī, joined first with Oṃkāra and the three eternal vyāhṛtis, is the mouth of the Veda. Gāyatrī-japa is better than the japa of the Rudra and the Kūshmāṇḍa mantras; there is no mantra for japa higher than Gāyatrī, and there is no homa equal to the vyāhṛti-homa. In japa, the Gāyatrī mantra takes this form: first “Oṃ”, then “bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ”, then the Gāyatrī, and “Oṃ” again at the end (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 215).

The seven vyāhṛtis. Of all the vyāhṛtis the ṛshi is Prajāpati, and all of them, separately and together, are in Oṃkāra, which is Parabrahma. For the seven vyāhṛtis, in order, the text gives:

These vyāhṛtis are used in prāṇāyāma and in homa (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 215).

The mahāvyāhṛtis. In the Ṛgvidhāna which Pushkara tells Paraśurāma, the three mātrās of Oṃkāra, a, u and m, are the three Vedas, the three devatās and the three fires, and the mahāvyāhṛtis beginning with bhūḥ are the seven lokas. Homa with the Gāyatrī joined with them gives every fruit, and the Gāyatrī and the mahāvyāhṛtis are all mahāmantras fit for japa (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 259). In the Yajurvidhāna, Pushkara teaches that the mahāvyāhṛtis joined with Oṃkāra destroy all pāpa and give every desire: the wise man performs a hundred homas with them and worships the devatās, and the desires of his mind are fulfilled. Other mantras, such as suparṇo’si and ā kṛshṇena, are used in the same way as the vyāhṛtis (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 260).

In the rites. In the pavitrāropaṇa, after the other offerings, the vyāhṛti-homa is performed in the order “bhūḥ svāhā” and the rest (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 34); and at the close of the rite of placing the pavitrakas, the pūrṇāhuti and the vyāhṛti-homa are performed (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 78). In the laying of the stones of a temple, which Bhagavān Hayagrīva teaches, oblations are offered with the three vyāhṛtis, “oṃ bhūḥ svāhā”, “oṃ bhuvaḥ svāhā”, “oṃ suvaḥ svāhā”, in order to Agni the lord of the world, to the graha Soma and to Śrī Mahāvishṇu (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 41). In the installation of wells, tanks and other water-bodies, the yajamāna bathes the mūrti of Varuṇa with well water while reciting the vyāhṛtis, offers madhuparka with the vyāhṛtis, and consecrates the caru of yava with the vyāhṛtis and the Gāyatrī, or with the mūla-mantra (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 64).

Related terms: Oṃkāra · Gāyatrī · Homa · Japa · Prāṇāyāma · Loka

Sources

• Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 34, 41, 64, 78, 215, 259–260