This post is about studying what the culture around this concept is, and is not about what the concept is, which is a different thing. The concept is more meaningful than the culture just as India has several metaphysical and mindfulness philosophies which are distorted by prideful people.
I was looking up the concept of people passing down their Manthra-s to their eldest son-s right before their death. I wanted to understand the rationale behind waiting till one’s last minute to pass down the Manthra, and why it is only given to the elder sons, and the relation between that and the other kind of passing down Manthra-s from a Guru to a disciple.
Then I found this post of FB:
AM I REALLY ELIGIBLE FOR GIVING GAYATRI MANTRA UPADESHA (BRAHMOPADESHAM) TO MY SON DURING HIS UPANAYANA ? READ COMPLETELY TO FIND OUT ELIGIBILITY AND SOLUTION !
Namaskaram
Just as plant dies if we do not water it regularly similarly if we do not repeatedly chant the mantra which is given as Upadesham to us, it become powerless, fruitless and yields zero results. What do I mean?Let us say a boy is due for his Upanayana and his father is supposed to give Gayatri Mantra Upadesham to his son during his son’s Upanayana and as a father let us assume he has never done Sandhyavandana and Gayatri Mantra Japam through proper methods as prescribed in Shastras, after his own Upanayana (father’s Upanayana) during his childhood then he loses the eligibility to give Gayatri Mantropadesha to his son. The way a battery which is never charged after the first charge cannot pass electricity / current, similarly the Mantra which is taken as Upadesha during our childhood during our Upanayana if we do not keep chanting becomes powerless. How can then a father without any power / eligibility give an Upadesha to his son?
The Vedic Rishis are so lenient and have proposed solutions for every problem in life including something like this.
The seed of the Gayatri mantra is sown in you during your Upanayana through Brahmopadesham (Gayatri Upadesham) in your ear (it is a secret mantra so it is transmitted only in the ear). Unfortunately today every person in every nook and corner is playing this mantra in the way they want which is against Shastras. If you have never performed Sandhyavandana and Gayatri Japam in Sandhyavanadana regularly each day for many years, the seed / Mantra becomes dormant but not dead. Also Gayatri mantra cannot be chanted anywhere any place as per our wish is bus / train / while walking etc. It has rules and regulations of chanting to be followed as written by our Rishis. The solutions are as below
Start Sandhyavandana / Gayatri Japa as many months / days before as possible before your son’s Upanayana date in order to increase the power of the mantra in you so that you can pass it on to your son. The Sandhyavandana procedure given to us by our Rishis followed by Gayatri Japam. Try to do it religiously at least twice a day morning and evening as many months / days before your son’s Upanayana. Charge yourself with the power of Gayatri Mantra in order to give Mantropadesha to your son and bring back the seed of Mantra from dormant to a live (jagrut) one.
Dharma Shastra also mentions the father whose son’s Upanayana is planned should perform at least 12,000 additional Gayatri Japa for Brahmopadesha Yogyata Siddhi (Gayatri Upadesha Yogyata Siddhi) of his son. This 12,000 japas is additional to what is done during Sandhyavandanam by him. Now this 12,000 can be done in parts over a few days / months, but with a special Sankalpa and after he performs Sandhyavandanam. You can enrol in our training camps on this subject. So this has to be done separately and not as a part of Sandhyavandana. Sandhyavandana and Gayatri Japa in Sandhyavandana you would do as it is daily, but for Upanayana seperate additional Japas should be done with special Sankalpa (feel free to contact us if you need any advice on it). If you start early i.e., few months before Upanayana it will be easy for you and last minute load won’t come. Also people who can should increase this special additional Gayatri Japa upto 24,000 in count as Gayatri Mantra has 24 letters. Especially those who never did Sandhyarandana in life should do 24000 japa not 12000. It will result more merits. But minimum should be 12,000 for sure as per Shastras.
Also before Upanayana the father and son both are advised to perform “Kricchras” which is a type of “Prayaschitta” (expiation) which can be done by the father, but difficult for the son. Therefore Dharma Shastra advises to perform a Go-danam (Cow as Danam) as a “Pratyamnaayam” (replacement of performance of the tough Kricchra) and Brahmana Bhojana (feeding Brahmins) before Upanayana of the son.
Remember after Upanayana of your son, if you don’t perform Sandhyavandana he will not perform Sandhyavandana. You have to be role model to your son and teach him the merits of Nitya Karma (daily duties of Brahmins) rather than shunning it away or expecting him only to do it. Now a days children themselves have become lazy and don’t believe in Vedic Karmas. As a parent we need to be strict with them after Upanayana and allow no compromise on Nitya Karmas. Because the son will not realize the importance of it as a child but he will thank you when he grows up for making him do Sandhyavandana and Gayatri Japam. As Gayatri Devi protects him throughout his life if he keeps doing the Japa, in all his endeavours and bestows success to him in every step.
A very high level Vedic Karma like Upanayana which initiates the boy into Gayatri Upadesha cannot be done lightly or just thinking that it is just another ritual and we need to just get over it as a formality. The entire future growth, protection and progress of the boy can be decided by the perfection of Upanayana Karma and the boy’s performance of Sandhyavanadana post Upanayana which is very crucial without which the boy suffers from various problems in future in his life, as the spiritual support is will be Zero due to non performance. Imagine you take a Mantropadesha of the most powerful Mantra today in the Universe, extolled in 1000s of pages in the Vedas and Shastra by our Rishis and on Upanayana day evening or from next day you / your son just leave it without performing Sandhyavandana and Gayatri Japam ever. Then what is the use of Upanayana and Mantropadesha? Many unfortunately do not realise the value of Gayatri Mantra and its Upasana and what wonders it can do to you and your family. Finally Upanayana then will remain as a show and a family get-together for the public and relatives that’s all.
Veda Ghosham aims to educate people on such important Dharma Shastra rules which are taken very casually in the current world and finally when people suffer then they seek refuge of various means of getting out of the problem and spend huge amount of money searching for remedy to get out of their problem.
From the last para, it feels like they hook people on these Dharma Shaasthra-s which are horrendous and bigoted. Of course, if you can follow bigotry, then your intellect needs to be distorted in prior, and that seems to be the reason people follow these procedures.
And power of Manthra? What is that, in this context? What kind of Manthra-s would be passed down in a Vedic Upanayana that would have any utility in Vyavahaarika Sathya? Aren’t these the same people who follow the same Vedaanta tradition based on Brahma Soothra-s, whereby Adi Shankara wrote in Saundarya Lahari that all 64 Shaaktha Tanthra-s should not be followed in Kali Yuga?
Apparently, one should not chant the Gayathri Manthra unless:
(1) Their Yagyopaveet ceremony (Upanayana (initiation)) has been performed. (2) Only a Braahmana, Kshathriya and Vaishya can chant the Manthra.
The Gayatri mantra is a very powerful mantra . One should not chant it unless their Yagyopavīt ceremony has been performed, and they are regularly doing Sandhya vandanam. One should also observe brahmacharya, or atleast only engage in sexual activity for the Creation of children.
I don’t get why peaple think it’s “gatekeeping ” to say this. It’s for your own good. There are certain rules to chanting the Gayatri. Otherwise it will yeild the opposite fruits of what you want. Just as one should not take powerful medicine without the proper guidance and permission of a doctor , one should not chant more powerful mantras like the Gayatri without properly following the rules and having recived guidance from a legit guru.
If you are not initiated, your Yagyopavit sanskar is not done, you aren’t observing 3 times daily Sandhya vandanam and brahmacharya, don’t chant it. Better to chant hare krishna mahamantra, Panchakshari mantra (Om namah shivay) or the Surya namaskar mantra (which is addressed to the same deity as the Gayatri mantra), as these mantras don’t require initiation. You can also just chant the name of your Ishta devata.
Only if you observe all the above listed requirements, you may chant the Gayatri at the Trisandhya timings (dawn, dusk and noon). Or at whatever time and however much your guru instructs you. Otherwise please avoid doing so.
Only brahmin, khatriya, vaishya male with upanayan can chant vedic mantra. Other doing it can be fruitless, there is non vedic but puranic equivalent gayatri mantra.
Mantras chanted by the uninitiated do not give the required effects. Some of the asuri shaktis (demonic entities) are waiting for people do mistakes like this and steal the effects of the karma.
As for the Gayatri it is unique in the sense it is passed down from father to son. This is probably the only mantra like this, if a guru initiates one into the gayatri that is like adopting the disciple. His gotra and things would probably change too.
You can say the Gayatri like a prayer without intonations, up to 3 times (some say 10 times).
Typically, only people who are initiated have the adhikAra (sanction) to chant it with intonations. Because getting the intonations right needs a proper guru. So Youtube videos won’t probably give you the proper initiation.
Also you need to be initiated into your veda shakha, that your family follows, not some random shakha. Each shakha has different way of chanting it.
If you are a vaishnava, typically the moola mantra should also be initiated along with the Gayatri. Because both are said together, with the mUla mantra being 3x of Gayatri.
It is not gatekeeping if someone says, you need to get training with using a shotgun, otherwise you’ll end up blowing your feet off.
I heard a story from my guru, of someone who was initiated into the Gayatri and chanted it a large number of times. The people who initiated him did not check if the disciple had yogyata (capability). Well he ended up with uncontrollable anger problems and, ended up killing or crippling people.
Nobody is saying you should not get initiated into the Gayatri, if you find a proper guru. Irrespective of your caste or origin you could get initiated into it, if you find a proper guru, who identifies your capability.
But before doing something that you are going to regret, please gain some knowledge and follow proper procedure is what they are saying.
Even rAvaNa was initiated into the Gayatri and look what happened ?