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It is believed that the Gayatri Mantra was written about 2500 to 3500 years ago and featured in the Rig Veda, an ancient collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns.  The mantra may have been chanted for many centuries before that.

It is said that this sacred prayer spirals through the entire universe from the heart of the chanter, appealing for peace and divine wisdom for all.  The Gayatri Mantra inspires wisdom in us.

The Gayatri Mantra will protect you from harm wherever you are traveling, working, or at home.  Chanting acts to raise not only your vibration but also the space in which you chant and will bring peace to your body, mind and soul.  The Gayatri mantra will protect your body and improve your power of speech.

It is believed that reciting the Gayatri mantra at least three times during morning, noon, and evening will help to reduce the effects of the wrong acts one does every day. It is like buying goods for cash, instead of getting them on credit. There is no accumulation of karmic (result of action) debt, since each day’s karma (action) is atoned for that day itself by reciting the Gayatri mantra.

The mantra opens up your heart and when both our minds and our hearts open, we open ourselves up for new possibilities.

The cyclic enunciation of this mantra stimulates the subliminal power centers in the subtle body. The pressure on tongue, lips, vocal cord, palate and the connecting regions in the brain generated by continuous enunciation of the twenty-four special syllables of the Gayatri Mantra creates a resonance (or a vibration) in the nerves and the ‘threads’ of the subtle body.

It is significant that the prolonged repetition of the Gayatri has a cumulative effect on our bodies and our minds.  Our minds are sharper, our immune system is stronger, and our hearts are open.  When our energy centres, including our main Chakras, are activated by the vibrations of the Gayatri mantra, this has a positive and healing effect on our life force energy – on our Prana.

Ten Benefits to Chanting the Gayatri Mantra

  1. Calms the mind: The vibrations help to release relaxing hormones. The syllables are devised to help a person concentrate and thereby calms the mind.
  2. Improves immunity: The pressure on tongue, lips, vocal cord, palate and the connecting regions in the brain generated by the continuous chanting of the Gayatri Mantra creates a resonance in and around your head. These vibrations stimulate the hypothalamus (a gland that is responsible for the release and functioning of a number of bodily functions including immunity) that then functions more efficiently. Experts say that this gland is also responsible for the release of happy hormones and therefore is the key player in the mind body connection — so the happier you are, the stronger your immunity.
  3. Stimulates the chakras: Chanting helps stimulates your chakras or the extrasensory energy centres. The chakras align themselves with certain essential lymph nodes and organs of the body that help in the proper functioning of the entire body. This in turn helps strengthen your immune system as the vibration align all your chakras, maintaining wellbeing.
  4. Increases concentration and learning: When you chant the Gayatri Mantra the vibration first activates the third eye, throat and crown chakras. These three chakras help improve concentration as they directly relate to the brain and pineal gland (crown chakra), eyes, sinuses, lower head, the pituitary gland (third eye chakra) and thyroid gland (throat chakra). When activated the vibrations help stimulate the associated glands improving concentration and focus.
  5. Improves your breathing: While chanting the mantra you are required to take deep controlled breaths that when done regularly, helps improve your lung function and breathing.  Deeper breathing helps oxygenate the entire body keeping you healthy and can help as a therapy for asthma.
  6. Helps keep your heart healthy: Chanting a mantra significantly slows down a person’s breathing, which helps synchronise and regularise the heart beat, helping it stay healthy.
  7. Improves the working of your nerves:As you chant the mantra the pressure that is exerted on your tongue, lips, vocal cord, palate and the connecting regions in and around your brain create a resonance or a vibration that helps strengthen and stimulate the functioning of your nerves. It also stimulates the proper release of neurotransmitters that help in the conduction of impulses.
  8. Helps beat damage caused due to stress: Chanting also helps beat stress-related oxidative damage. Not only does it help your body build a stronger immune response but it also helps reverse the damage done by constant stress on your body.  Regular chanting helps keep stress at bay.
  9. Strengthens the mind and keeps depression at bay: Chanting of this mantra helps stimulate your brain, keeping you calm and more focused. The Gayatri Mantra also gives a person relief from stress making them more resilient.  The chanting of a mantra helps stimulate the functioning of the vagus nerve, which is a common form of treatment for people with depression and epilepsy. Apart from that the vibrations from chanting the mantra stimulate the pineal gland and help in the release of endorphins and other relaxing hormones, that help keep depression at bay.
  10. Gives your skin a glow:The vibrations also stimulate vital points on the face that help increase circulation and get rid of toxins from your skin.  Apart from that the deep breathing also helps oxygenate your skin making it look younger and glowing.

Chanting before meditation can help:

  • To create a shift from sound to silence
  • To resonate with the positive vibrations – chanting charges up the atmosphere with positive vibrations and in such a space, meditation becomes natural and effortless.
  • To bring the mind to the present

The Gayatri can be listened to, chanted, or even thought. There is power and potency in all three approaches.  Choose the approach that you are most comfortable with.