[Advaita-l] Gayatri Mantra in Advaita

[Raghav Kumar Dwivedula]

Namaste Ganesh ji
An informal but very meaningful answer by Śrī Chandraśekhara Bhāratī
Mahāsvāminaḥ to your question is presented in the book “ Dialogues with the
Guru” where it is shown that Gayatri mantra can be everything from simple
upāsanā to nididhyāsanam of nirguṇa brahman.

Om
Raghav

Quote from-
https://www.vedanta.gr/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/ChandrashekBharati_Dialogues-with-The-Guru_RK-Iyer_ENA5.pdf

-

The Sandhya Worship

A touring Educational Officer once met His Holiness and

said,

"I have occasions of being in constant touch with young

boys, mostly Brahmanas, studying in schools which I have to

inspect. I have found that even the boys who perform their

sandhya do so more as a form than as real worship. I shall be

very grateful if Your Holiness would give me some valuable

hints which I could convey to them."

His Holiness: I am very glad to see that you are not con-

tent with mere official routine of inspection but desire to

utilise the occasion for the betterment of the boys. It will be

well if all educationists, inspecting officers or teachers, real-

ise that they have been entrusted with the very grave re-

sponsibility of training up young men in the most

impressionable period of their lives. In my opinion they are

really to blame if they confine their attention only to the

prescribed text books and neglect the spiritual side of the

young generation.

D: I always keep that end before me and I don't miss any

opportunity of talking to the boys and giving them some use-

ful advice. It is mainly with a view to do that work better

that i request Your Holiness to give some practical sugges-

tions.

HH: Even if the boys to whom you propose to convey such

suggestions may not benefit by them, you will certainly be

benefited.

D: Certainly.

15Dialogues with The Guru -- Sri Chandrashekhara Bharati Swamigal

HH: You may therefore, for the present, ignore the boys

and ask such questions the answers to which are likely to be

useful to you.

D: The first question which suggests itself to me is with

reference to the sandhya worship. What is the deity or

upasya devata in the sandhya worship?

HH: Before we consider that, please tell me what you un-

derstand ordinarily by the sandhya worship?

D: By sandhya worship we mean the worship of the rising

Sun, the setting Sun or Sun in the mid heavens.

HH: Quite so. Comprehensively speaking, you mean wor-

ship of the Sun?

D: Yes.

HH: You tell me that sandhya is the worship of the Sun and

yet you ask me what is worshipped in the sandhya. Don't you

think it is an unnecessary question?

D: Put so, it may seem an unnecessary question, but my

real question is, what is the Sun that is worshipped?

HH: What do you understand ordinarily by the Sun?

D: We mean the bright celestial orb in the sky.

HH: Then it is that bright celestial orb that is worshipped.

D: But that orb is, according to science, mere inert mat-

ter in a state of high combustion and is certainly not worthy

of being worshipped by intelligent beings like ourselves. It

can neither hear our prayers nor respond to them. I cannot

believe that our ancestors were so ignorant as to address

16Dialogues with The Guru -- Sri Chandrashekhara Bharati Swamigal

their prayers to a mere burning mass of matter

HH: I quite agree with you. They could never have been so

foolish.

D: What then did they see in the Sun to justify their pray-

ers being addressed to it?

HH: You said just now that addressing of prayers to inert

matter cannot be justified by reason.

D: Yes.

HH: What then must be the nature of the entity to which a

prayer is addressed?

D: The primary condition is that it must not be mere in-

ert matter, but must be endowed with intelligence.

HH: And the second condition?

D: That it must be able to hear our prayers and be power-

ful enough to answer them.

HH: Quite so. If our ancients were not fools and yet ad-

dressed their prayers to the Sun, their conception of the Sun

must have been quite different from that of mere inert mat-

ter, in a state of high combustion.

D: Yes, they must have also postulated of it intelligence,

the capacity to hear us and the ability to help us.

HH: The 'us' including not only all those who are now living

to raise their hands in prayer to the Sun, but also the genera-

tions, past and future, infinite in number though they may

be?

17Dialogues with The Guru -- Sri Chandrashekhara Bharati Swamigal

D: Of course.

HH: The entity that is worshipped as the Sun is therefore

one whose intelligence or ability knows no limitation of space

or time.

D: It must be so.

HH: You have now got your answer to the question as to

who is worshipped in the sandhya? It is an intelligent Being,

omniscient and omnipotent in the matter of hearing and re-

sponding to its votaries.

D: Your Holiness then means that it is a deva who has his

habitation in the solar orb?

HH: Quite so. He has not only his habitation there, but the

solar orb itself is his physical body.

D: Your Holiness means that the deva enlivens the solar

orb, just as we do our physical bodies?

HH: Just so.

D: If then he is embodied just like us, how does he hap-

pen to have such high intelligence or power as to merit our

obeisance?

HH: He attained that status by virtue of the appropriate

karma and upasana done by him in a previous life.

D: Does Your Holiness mean that he was at one time just

like ourselves and that he attained that status by his en-

deavour?

HH: Yes.

18Dialogues with The Guru -- Sri Chandrashekhara Bharati Swamigal

D: Then he is no more than a jiva, which I aIso am. Why

should a jiva make prostration before another jiva, howso-

ever superior?

HH: Why should your son or pupil respect you and why

should you show respect to your superior officers? Are not

both of you jivas?

D: No doubt we are. But we respect our superiors as it is

in their power to help us or injure us, if they so desire.

HH: That is a very low kind of respect. Anyhow, taking

even that kind of respect, we must respect Surya devata if it

is in his power to help us or injure us, if he so desires.

D: Of course.

HH: Being a jiva as much as your superior officers, he will

help you if you appeal to him for help or injure you if you ig-

nore or despise him. In your own interest then, you are

bound to worship him and secure his goodwill.

D: But I need not court the favour nor fear the displeas-

ure of my superior officer, if I carry out the duties of my of-

fice faithfully.

HH: Quite so.

D: If I preserve that attitude, there is no reason why I

should propitiate my superior officer.

HH: Certainly not.

D: Similarly, if l carry out strictly the duties enjoined on

me by the sastras, I need not propitiate any other jiva, be

he the highest devatā .

19Dialogues with The Guru -- Sri Chandrashekhara Bharati Swamigal

HH: Quite so.

D: Then, should I not give up the worship of Surya devata?

HH: Certainly you may, unless of course such a worship is

part of the duties enjoined on you by the sastras.

D: How can that be?

HH: It is true that an honest and strict officer in perform-

ing the duties of his office need not mind the pleasure or the

displeasure of his immediate superior. But the mere fact that

he thinks it necessary or obligatory to perform those duties

properly, shows that he has as the ultimate end the pleasure,

or avoidance of the displeasure of a still higher officer who is

superior to him as well as to his immediate superior. Even if

he has no personal acquaintance with that higher officer, he

always has in the background of his mind an undefined

power, call it the King or the Government, when he performs

the duties of his office. And that power has the ability to be-

nefit him by a recognition of his services or to punish him by

taking note of his delinquencies. Further, that power rules

both him and his immediate superior officer. If therefore that

power requires him to behave in a particular manner towards

his superior officer, he cannot afford to disobey that injunc-

tion, for if he disobeys, not only does he incur the displeas-

ure of that officer but also of the higher power.

D: That is so.

HH: Similarly, if a power which rules both you as well as

Surya devata requires you to conduct yourself in a particular

manner towards that deva, you cannot afford to neglect that

injunction, but must conform to it or take the risk of incur-

ring the displeasure of that deva as also of the higher power.

20Dialogues with The Guru -- Sri Chandrashekhara Bharati Swamigal

D: It is no doubt so. But in that case, in prostrating my-

self before Surya devata, I shall be really worshipping the

higher power even when my worship may seem addressed to

the Surya.

HH: What of that?

D: If I am able to conceive of such a higher power who

rules even the Surya, that power is really the worshipped

entity although to all appearances the worship is addressed

to the Surya only.

HH: Quite so.

HH: But Your Holiness said that it, was Surya devata who

was worshipped?

D: Yes. It is correct so far as persons who are not able to

conceive of a higher power are concerned. To those however

who can conceive of that power, He is the real upasya. That

power is called Hiranyagarbha. He enlivens and ensouls not

only the Surya, but all devatas . He enlivens and inhabits not

only the solar orb but all things. He is the cosmic personality

who is the soul of all things.

D: I suppose just as we have the sense of “I” in our phys-

ical bodies, so does that cosmic personality has the sense of

"I" in the entire cosmos.

HH: He has.

D: If so, the difference between Him and me lies not in

the presence or the absence of the sense of “I” but only in

the degree, the range or the magnitude of that sense. Mine

is restricted, His is extended.

21Dialogues with The Guru -- Sri Chandrashekhara Bharati Swamigal

HH: It is so.

D: if it is the sense of "I" that is responsible for the

concept of a jiva, he must be as much a jiva as myself.

HH: Quite so. In fact He is called the First Born.

D: Then, even if this higher power happens to belong to

the category of Jivas, just like myself, the same objection

which I mentioned against the worship of Surya devata holds

good in his case also.

HH: What then would you like to worship?

D: A transcendent power which is not a jiva.

HH: Have it then that it is such a transcendent power that

is worshipped in the sandhya. We give Him the name of

lswara, the Lord, or the antaryami, the inner ruler.

D: But I have heard it mentioned that the terms 'Lord' and

'Ruler' are only relative terms which are used in regard to

Him when we want to describe Him in relation to the uni-

verse, which is 'lorded over' or 'ruled' by Him.

HH: Yes, it is so.

D: It cannot be that we can have no conception of him

apart from his relationship of some sort to the universe. His

relationship to the universe can at best be only an ex-

traneous circumstance. In His essence, He must have an in-

dependent existence quite unrelated to anything else.

HH: You are right. We call that unrelated essential exist-

ence Brahman.

D: If it is so, that must be the real object of worship

22Dialogues with The Guru -- Sri Chandrashekhara Bharati Swamigal

rather than the relative aspect called lshwara.

HH: It is even as you say. It is really the unqualified Brah-

man that is worshipped in the sandhya.

D: I cannot really understand Your Holiness. You first said

that it was the solar orb that was the object of worship, but

when I pointed out that it was only inert matter, you said

that it was Surya devata that was the object of worship;

when again I pointed out that he was only a limited jiva like

myself, you said it was Hiranyagarbha, the cosmic soul, that

was the object of worship: when once again I pointed out

that he was after all a jiva, however cosmic his sense of 'I'

may be, you said that lswara the Lord and Ruler of the uni-

verse was really the object of worship; and lastly when I

said that even he is but a relative aspect of Brahman, you

said that the object of worship was Brahman itself.

HH: I did say so.

D: But I fail to see how all these statements can be recon-

ciled.

HH: Where is the difficulty?

D: The object in a particular worship can be only one.

How can it be the solar orb or the deva enlivening it or Hir-

anyagarbha or Iswara or Brahman at the same time?

HH: I never said that it was the solar orb or the devatā and

so on.

D: Does Your Holiness mean to say then that the object of

worship is the solar orb and the devatā and Hiranyagarbha and

Iswara and Brahman all put together?

23Dialogues with The Guru -- Sri Chandrashekhara Bharati Swamigal

HH: Nor did I say anything of that sort.

D: How then am I to understand Your Holiness' state-

ments?

HH: When did I tell you that the upasya was Surya?

D: When I mentioned that the physical mass of burning

matter cannot be the object of worship.

HH: Before you mentioned it, I said that it was even that

mass that was the upasya.

D: Yes.

HH: I never mentioned that it was the solar body or the

deva as an alternative. To one who cannot conceive of an en-

livening soul, the upasya is the physical mass; to one, how-

ever, who declines to accept inert matter as an object of

worship, I said the upasya was Surya devata. The upasya is

ever one, but its exact nature varies with the competence of

the worshipping aspirant. The upasya gets further refined

when even the concept of a devatā does not satisfy the enquir-

ing devotee. We say then that it is Hiranyagarbha. When

even such a concept seems meagre or unsatisfactory, we tell

the devotee that he is really worshipping the Supreme Lord

himself When he begins to feel that even the Lord-ness is a

limitation of His essential nature, we tell him that it is the

infinite Brahman itself that is really worshipped. Where is

the difficulty?

D: Does Your Holiness then mean that it is not possible to

definitely say what the object of worship in the sandhya is

except with reference to the mental equipment or intellec-

tual advancement of the worshipper?

24Dialogues with The Guru -- Sri Chandrashekhara Bharati Swamigal

HH: How can there be an object of worship if we ignore

the worshipper? The nature of the worshipped necessarily de-

pends upon the nature of the worshipper.

D: How?

HH: Take me for example. All of you show me respect. But

the object of respect, though it is, roughly speaking, myself,

does differ with each one of you. Ordinary people respect me

and like to see me surrounded by glittering paraphernalia;

their attention and respect are claimed by those articles

rather than by my personality. Such people will show the

same respect to others who have similar paraphernalia. Their

homage is not therefore really paid to me but only to the

paraphernalia. Some others respect me for the position that I

hold or for the Asrama in which I am. Such people will

equally respect others who are or may come to be in such a

position or in such an Asrama, their homage is therefore not

paid to me but to my position or to the Asrama. And some

others may not care what position I hold or in what Asrama I

am, but give me homage wherever I go and however I may

be; their object of respect is my physical body. A few others

will not mind if my body is dark or ugly or even diseased, but

will nevertheless give me homage if by purity of mind and

character or by the power of my intellect and learning or by

any spiritual merit that I may possess I command their re-

spect. Very few indeed will respect me for the spark of divine

intelligence which inheres in me, as it does in all of you.

D: Of course it is not possible to say that all the devotees

that approach Your Holiness are of the same mental equip-

ment.

HH: Quite so. But, ordinarily all these people, whether

25Dialogues with The Guru -- Sri Chandrashekhara Bharati Swamigal

they really tender homage to the paraphernalia or to my

status and Asrama or to my body or to my mind or to my in-

tellect or to the divine spark in me, prostrate before me to

show their respect. Can you tell me, apart from any refer-

ence to the several devotees, to whom or to what they pros-

trate?

D: It is no doubt very difficult to answer.

HH: Similarly, with every kind of worship. Externally

viewed, there will be no appreciable difference between the

one who respects me for the paraphernalia and another who

respects me for the divine spark in me. Externally viewed,

there will similarly be no appreciable difference between the

devotee who in his blind faith is content to address his pray-

ers to the luminous Sun and another who turns to it as a vis-

ible symbol of the infinite Brahman. The question as to what

is the upasya in the sandhya worship can therefore be

answered only in this way.

D: I now understand how in the simple worship of the Sun

all possible stages in spiritual perception have been

provided for.

HH: It is not only this, for you will find if you consider the

matter still further, that all the three ways known as karma,

bhakti and Gyana have been given places in the daily wor-

ship, but that is a different matter. Simple as the sandhya

worship seems to be, it is sufficient to help us on to the

highest stages. It is as useful to the highest aspirant as it is to

the beginner. It is a folly, therefore, to belittle its value or to

neglect it in practice.

26


On Fri, 23 Jan 2026 at 8:58 AM, Ganesh Chandar via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Pranams. (my first message in this form) 🙏
>
> How does a student of Advaita interpret the Gayatri Mantra?
>
> Thanks
> Ganesh
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