Shiva Roopa Gayatri and Vishnu Roopa Gayatri

[Sirona]

Namaste,

I am looking for the lyrics and translations of the Shiva Roopa Gayatri and Vishnu Roopa Gayatri. Moreover I'd like to know whether the (most common) Gayatri Mantra is addressed to the god Savitri or the Divine Mother. Thanks for your answers!

 

[Jainarayan]

I do not believe they are gayatri mantras. It looks like they are songs composed by Swami Vishwananda. If that's the case, the lyrics may not be available (Harry Fox Co. copyright and all that).

A gaytri is a certain meter of 3 lines of 8 syllables (not counting om). For example:

om narayanAya vidmahe
vAsudevAya dhimahi
tanno vishnu prachodayat

Let us meditate on Narayana
May VAsudeva increase our intellect
May Vishnu enlighten our minds

That's typically the meaning, same format used for any deity.

om tatpurushAya [a reference to Shiva's powers] vidmahe
mahAdevAya [the Great God] dhimahi
tanno shiva prachodayat

The Gayatri Mantra references Savitr, the sun, but Sri Gayatri is known as MataVeda, mother of the Vedas, the Goddess. It's both, depending on your pov.

 

[Aupmanyav]

The Gayatri Mantra references Savitr, the sun, ..

A common misunderstanding. There is a fine difference.

"One result of the advance of thought during the period of the RV. from the concrete towards the abstract was the rise of abstract deities. The earlier and more numerous class of these seems to have started from epithets which were applicable to one or more older deities, but which came to acquire an independent value as the want of a god exercising the particular activity in question began to be felt. We find here names denoting either an agent (formed with the suffix tr or tar), such as Dhatr 'Creator', or an attribute, such as Prajapati, 'Lord of Creatures'. Thus Dhatr, otherwise an epithet of Indra, appears also as an independent deity who creates heaven and earth, sun and moon. More rarely occur Vidhatri the 'Disposer', Dhartr, the 'Supporter', Tratr, the 'Protector', and Netr, the 'Leader'. The only agent god mentioned at all frequently in the RV. is Tvastr, the 'Artificer', though no entire hymn is addressed to him.

This god (Savitr) is celebrated in eleven entire hymns and in many detached stanzas as well. He is pre-eminently a golden deity: the epithets golden-eyed, golden-handed, and golden-tongued are peculiar to him. His car and its pole are golden. It is drawn by two or more brown, white-footed horses. He has mighty golden splendor which he diffuses, illuminating heaven, earth, and air. He raises aloft his strong golden arms, with which be arouses and blesses all beings, and which extend to the ends of the earth. He moves in his golden car, seeing all creatures, on a downward and an upward path. Shining with the rays of the sun, yellow-haired, Savitr raises up his light continually from the east. His ancient paths in the air are dustless and easy to traverse, and on them he protects his worshipers; for he conveys the departed spirit to where the righteous dwell. He removes evil dreams, and makes men sinless; he drives away demons and sorcerers. He observes fixed laws; the waters and the wind are subject to him. The other gods follow his lead; and no being can resist his will. In one stanza (iii. 62, 10) he is besought to stimulate the thoughts of worshipers who desire to think of the glory of god Savitr. This is the celebrated Savitri stanza which has been a morning prayer in India for more than three thousand years. Savitr is often distinguished from Surya (vii. 63), as when he is said to shine with the rays of the Sun, to impel the sun, or to declare men sinless to the sun. But in other passages it is hardly possible to keep the two deities apart. Savitr is connected with the evening as well as the morning; for at his command night comes and he brings all beings to rest.

The word Savitr is derived from the root su to stimulate, which is constantly and almost exclusively used with it in such a way as to form a perpetual play on the name of the god. In nearly half its occurrences the name is accompanied by devá god, when it means the 'Stimulator god'. He was thus originally a solar deity in the capacity of the great stimulator of life and motion in the world."
A Vedic Reader (Excerpts)

 

[Jainarayan]

@Aupmanyav I had a feeling there was an association between Savitr and Surya. There is also a connection to Narayana. The last mantra of the Surya Namaskar is (transliteration may be wonky, I put the dashes in for everyone's ease of reading):

ओं ष्री सवित्र्-सुर्य-नारायणाय नमः
oṃ ṣrī savitr-surya-nārāyaṇāya namaḥ
.
And if that's not Vishnu sitting in the chariot, I'm the Dalai Lama.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Yeah, in the later time, Savitr has been claimed by Vaishnavas to be Lord Vishnu. They disregarded his association with the sun.

 

[Shantanu]

Shiva is the god of tamasic guna so not to be invoked with mantra.