The Gayatri Mantra and the Brahmin

When you are a kid then you are used to taking exams very seriously because if you don’t take them seriously then you loose face in the neighborhood. Wherever you go you find people staring at you as if each one of them has a Xerox copy of your report card. This feeling is even more gripping when your competitors are your dad’s colleague’s children. I still remember the bone chilling experience when my mom or my dad used to come back from office and we used to get marks for papers like Social Studies or Hindi, the two were the subjects which I was not interested in. I was thankful when I got an option after my 8th grade to leave Sanskrit as one of the subjects.

I would like to tell you a small incident which made me hate Sanskrit even more, it was when I was in 8th grade the final year after which I thought I’ll get rid of this subject all my life (Although I am least entitled to say such things about Sanskrit because I am a Brahmin, I know I can see your eye brows getting curled in surprise that how can a Brahmin guy get rid of Sanskrit). As a matter of fact the only Brahmin instinct left inside me at that point in time was that I was a vegetarian with eggs as an exception. Coming back to the Story, sorry for loosing the track of the story (See!! Again I am doing the same, cut the crap and get back to the story or else!!).

It was again a usual day of school for any 8th grade student. The next class was of our Hindi cum Sanskrit teacher Mr. Amrish Kumar Singh, all I could say about him is that one day some parents went to the Principal that sir his Hindi is too tough to be understood by the children of 10th grade. So he went back to the class and asked the students in the class “Kyo ji balko aur balao, Kya tumhe meri hindi itni klaisthe lagti hai”(English translation: Children do you find my Hindi a bit complicated), there was a murmur in the class and a girl raised her hand “Sir I have a doubt”. Ambrish Sir said “Bolo Balike”, the girls said “Sir Can you tell me what’s the meaning of klaisthe”. Bang!! It was then Mr. Ambarish realized that his hindi was indeed difficult for students like us. He entered the class on that day and pretty usually I put the Math notebook in the desk so that I can solve some sums during his class.

The class continued it was usual till the time a guy cited the copy of Akhand Jyoti Magazine on the teachers table and asked “sir what’s this?”, seeing the interest of the other people in the class Mr. Ambarish flaunted the magazine in the class so that everyone could get a view of it. Then he said “Children this is a monthly subscribed magazine of Gayatri Samaj”, the moment I heard the gayatri samaj and the name of the magazine I stood up and said “Sir this is the same magazine for which my Grandpa has gone for a lifetime subscription”, Ambarish Sir said “Yes that’s true, your grandpa only suggested me to read it regularly, Have you got any chance to read it anytime”, I said “No Sir”.

He said “That’s fine, come here and recite gayatri mantra in front of the class and explain to them what’s the meaning of gayatri mantra”. This was the moment I had always been running away from, I told “Sir I don’t know Gayatri Mantra”. He came to me bent to an angle of 90 degrees so that my face is at a comfortable height for him to Slap me. Then there were 6 sounds of claps which was nothing but the sound produced as a result of impact between my face and Ambrish Sir’s hand. I bet when somebody slaps 6 times in succession at the same place you don’t feel the pain but you feel a kind of itchiness. Before I could realize his fingers were impressed on one side of my face. His next line was “You idiot you being a Brahmin and a grandson of a person who reads the complete Ramcharitmanas through 1 day is not knowing gayatri Mantra”, I felt as if I should hit this guy back but I was shivering with pain and anguish. All I could do is that I picked up my bag took out the note book in which I was taking sums and ran out of the class then from the school. The bus used to wait for us at about 500 meters I ran to the bus as if I it was Oasis in mid of desert. This was the day after which I never spoke to the teacher except for exchanging the answers in the class.

That day when I returned back to home I told my mom the whole story she was amazed at the fact that how come I still didn’t know Gayatri Mantra. Only person who supported me and which took me by Surprise was my Grandfather lending me support when this was topic of discussion on dinner table. I started respected him even more from that day onwards, next day morning he told me that it was not my but his mistake that he didn’t teach me about it and he made me recite Gayatri Mantra and told me the meaning of it.

With All due respect I will end this post by Posting Gayatri Mantra along with its Meaning:



ॐ भूर्भुवः स्वः ।
तत् सवितुर्वरेण्यं ।
भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि ।
धियो यो नः प्रचोदयात् ॥

Translation:
"O God, Thou art the giver of life, the remover of pain and sorrow, the bestower of happiness; O Creator of the Universe, may we receive Thy supreme, sin destroying light; may Thou guide our intellect in the right direction."



Thanks
Dibyendu