Gayatri Sadhana - The Truth and Distortions
Quick Overview
Ever since the beginning of the Vedic Era chanting and contemplation of Gayatri Mantra and performance of Gayatri Yagya have been considered the most potent means of invoking the divine energies, latent in the deeper layers of consciousness, for the refinement, upliftment and wellbeing of individuals and the society. However, with the passage of time, especially during the dark medieval ages of feudalism and foreign domination, there came about a general all-round decline of ethical, moral and social values. As a result, Vedic rituals, modes of worship and prayer also underwent gross distortions at the hands of the entrenched priestly class. These ‘merchants’ of religion, through their perverted interpretations of the scriptures, ordained that Gayatri Sadhana was the exclusive prerogative of male members of one particular caste, the Brahmins; and all other Varnas (castes) were forbidden to do Gayatri Sadhana. Women were strictly forbidden to take up Gayatri Sadhana. The priestly class ruled that if any woman dare do Gayatri Sadhana, great misfortune will befall her. They also declared that the Gayatri Sadhana, according to scriptures, was a secret doctrine and the Mantra could not be chanted audibly. Such retrograde orthodoxy and the pomp, pelf and ostentation that was introduced into the rituals and modes of worship led to the undermining of faith in Vedic Dharma amongst the vast masses who otherwise swore by Hinduism. They also alienated the educated classes from their religious roots.
Product Description
About a century-and-a-quarter back, the Arya Samaj Movement initiated and founded by Swami Dayanada Saraswati, took up the uphill task of resurrecting Gayatri Sadhana and Vedic Yagya in their pristine purity and succeeded, to some extent, in establishing a powerful platform for challenging and countering the exploitation and perversion of religious rites by entrenched vested interests. However, the Arya Samaj Movement had its own limitations. It could not make the vast majority of the believers in Hindu Dharma to accept the idea of invoking Divinity through impersonal Gayatri Sadhana, as from very ancient times common people had been worshipping and praying before idols of various deities – in their homes and temples. It required the ‘Bhagirath Prayatna’ (Herculean effort) of a Yug Rishi to re-establish scripturally enjoined Gayatri Sadhana amongst the masses of all castes and classes (both men and women) – majority of whom were idol worshippers. It was against this back-drop that there appeared on the scene, a sage-seer, Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya, the founder of Gayatri Mission. Born in 1911, it was his fourth re-incarnation to consciously carry forward the mission of spiritualisation of humanity that he had initiated and promoted during his three earlier incarnations as : Sant Kabir, Samartha Ramdas and Ramakrishna Paramhamsa. His own awakening to the mission of his life occurred like a flash of lightening at the tender age of 15, in 1926, on the sacred day of Vasant Panchami, when his Gurudev, Shri Sarveshwaranandaji, who has been doing tapascharya for the spiritual wellbeing of humanity in his astral body in the remote Himalayas for the past hundreds of years, appeared before Acharyashri, and revealed to him the purpose of his birth.
