Earth Magic | Summer Solstice | Gayatri Transmission with Sreedevi Bringi

Transcript

Shri Davyy, we want to we want to welcome you and open the gallery view and see everyone who's here because people are coming in from all over the world and you all can pour your blessings in your names and where you're coming in from. We have friends from the Rosa Yoga Collective, the teacher trainers, many of the teachers and students from around the world. We have friends from the Rosa yoga 300hour teacher training happening right now um down in Venice Beach and globally online too. And we also have a lot of our priestess sisters here in the ritual mystery school. And they're here really to learn the guyry mantra for the gateway of the solstice in the earth magic in the wheel of the year and to really have these deep teachings with you. And we have friends coming in that are through Nuropa and through you and through the extended family and community of the great Bakti hearts of all these teachers and friends that you have taught and that just you know you for you're really like bring the power of the shine all the way through. You're the shocki shine and so excited to be in this journey with you and thank you for also just all the generosity of your spirit and your teachings for these last 3 three and 1/2 years. It's really carried us as a collective like the power of your teachings, the power of your heart has really carried um us and uplifted us and helped us to go so much deeper. So we are grateful and all praise to you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh Sienna, my heart is full as I acknowledge your greeting and your it is indeed the goddess Shaki that shines through us, flows through us and connects us. And since I was a child, I have I had longed for this connection to everything there is. And my mother used to say even that even when I was five or six years old, I would touch a flower or try to have a butterfly land on my hands and say, "I want to be that. I want to be that. I want to be that." And then I you know when they took us to the ocean for the first time how we ran into the water and put my hands out and said I want to be that. So there was this something the yearning within us. That is the shi of longing. The itashi ita in in Sanskrit I c h a it shaki is is nothing but pure longing. longing for us to fully experience from where we are. That sacred connection to ultimate reality to that consciousness that undergirds and drives and manifests everything from a grain of sand to to my hair to the butterfly to the flower and to you and me and all of the the whole line of life that we have come through over hundreds of millions of years to be here today in this form to be able to speak and sing and write. And this is what defines us as humans aspiring to be on this path. and goddess Gaitatri and her cosmic sound body being the Gaitri mantra in complete gratitude to the solar deity Surya you know surya namaskcara namaskcara is the same as namaste except in namaste we are honoring I am honoring you namahhate means salutations to You namahhate two words become one when we say namaste but namaskcara is is one word and it is the attitude of honoring with the salutation. It is the form of the salutation that is inward. So it is surya namaskcara and namaskcara of course we say namaskcara as an everyday greeting in India too same as namaste both are interchangeable um and in Hindi they'll say namaskar but um so when we say surya namaskar the salutations and the honoring of the solar deity it is not merely the outer physical form of this giant nuclear reactor that we call the sun that we know is going to blast away for another six billion years um before this before the solar system will will shut down into some other form. Um but it is that radiant eulgent consciousness that impregnates the physical body of the sun. So in Vic texts from the Rigveda and the earliest the earliest outpourings of hymns by the sages. All of the the the the planetary celestial bodies and all of the five elements were all glorified as deities. And this trend came also from Mesopotamia, from the old Persian Empire and and the old religion of Zerastrianism. And and so in waves as the Indo-Uropeans did their settling and migrations, these same deities were honored in in in all of these traditions and the Egyptian as well. So in the Mesopotamian tradition the the sun lord was called mitra and and mitra is one of the Sanskrit names for the sun. Agni when we say agny the the fire principle but agny is another name for the for the sun god and and then ignite in in Latin comes from that. So, so the connections go on for us to honor and be in gratitude to this solar consciousness that is deeply embedded within the physical body of the sun. So the source of our life, the source of all life on earth, all life on on everywhere on this on this solar system and the source of every breath. So with every breath with pranayyama uh we can take the gaitri mantra and we can in fact we should begin that way do three gri mantras uh with nadi shoddana. So as we since it's high noon or beyond in most places right now we'll use the left nostril for the evening and and uh the lunar side of our of our being. So inhaling I'll just walk you through it first. Inhaling from the left and this is of course your alligator clip or the Vishna mudra on the soft cartilage on either side of the nose. So inhaling from the right nostril hold. Exhaling from the left hold. Inhaling from the left, hold. Exhaling from the right, hold. So, let's do three of these and then you begin to add the Gaitri mantra, but we shall restrict ourselves to simply the opening invocation. [Music] Say that after me. [Music] I want one or two people at least maybe um to unmute so I can get a response as well. Good. So just that opening invocation which is an invocation as we focus on our attention on on the lord of the sun in his form as savvitra say savvitra savvra that's what becomes in the gaitri mantra savvium savv means of savvra So savvitra is his name as the power of manifestation. Surya is his name for being the source of all life. Sabitra is the power of manifestation and the feminine of that the sun rays and how we would imagine the radiance filling our beings when we are conscious of all that then that's the feminine form so the goddess savvitri almost the same as goddess Gri we'll be going into that a little bit the connection of three goddesses Saraswati, Savvitri and Gaatri. So this mantra we're chanting can be called the savvitri mantra as well. It's often called that especially in North India. Um but both names are equivalent the gyri mantra the sitri mantra and as we focus on bringing down the radiance of the lord of the sun in his form as sitra the manifest manifesting power. Then we open this the Gaitri mantra with immediately invoking the three realms of consciousness. So we say again repeat. [Music] So that becomes one word that combines three words. That sound represents bhu loca or the physical gross universe. Anda that sound represents loca or the intermediate manifesting universe what we might call the subtle plane. So the the gross or physical plane, the subtle plane and then the third one ora both are correct. Suvah or Swaha that represents the celestial yet to manifest plane of consciousness called swarloa, the celestial realm, heavenly realm. So Then together they become. So in that invocation to those three realms of consciousness and to the deities and inhabitants of those three subtle realms. The physical universe that has manifested. the intermediate subtle universe that is still manifesting and the celestial universe or the causal plane that is yet to manifest. All three are called upon with that invocation. But that itself is not the Gaitri mantra. That is an invocation that can be used any time. But when chanting the gaitri mantra, it is always used. So that we open to the locas, those three realms first and the sun's radiance lighting up those three realms of the universe. Then we go into the adoration, the gratitude, the honoring and the yearning, that longing, that shy of longing, the shaky that permeates the Gaitri mantra. saying we meditate it doesn't say I am going to meditate or we are going to meditate it it starts right it starts I mean it doesn't start with the word but the word is can be simultaneously a command let us contemplate let us meditate or the present moment awareness As we meditate, there is a collective energy that is already instilled. The whole mantra is impregnated with this collective consciousness that is yearning to know itself. The one reality that wants to know itself because in all manifestation it has forgotten itself. So the yearning of the Gaitri mantra that gradually rises up our condalini spinal current to open us up and to open the hood of the hoods of the condalini maybe five or seven. In the Gaitri mantra, we often visualize seven hoods because there are seven locas or seven realms. And invoking those seven realms is called the long gri. And invoking three realms is called the short gaitri which has been popularized in the west. And the gaitri mantra itself is that yearning and the calling out. Oh your manifesting power savvitra your divine radiance is what we are contemplating your aulgent you're adorable radiance venium baha bargo is grammatically is baha baha is it think of like just like a broiling the broil smiling inner core of the sun. But as it comes outwards, you have the shining radiance and each each thrust of that sun the the the cosmic rays as they as they move out from the sun are just broiling and at the same time radiating with divine eulgence that is to be adored. All of that is contained in that word vinium that boiling radiance. We meditate or let us meditate. Vinium that that ultimate reality that in Sanskrit is the same as that in in English when we say that that one that that oneness that which is beyond all description unfathomable unknown that is what we are calling on that and then linking that ultimate reality to uh is is like a possessive noun. What does the what does Savvitra possess? who possesses that radiance that we are meditating on means of the dity or divine the divine radiance. Then we go to the ending of it. Dyaha is our purified awareness, our intuitional minds. Think of the word samadhi. Think of the word dana for meditation. Think of the word dharana for concentration. What Patanjali gives us among the eight limbs, the subtle limbs, dharana, dana, samadhi, what is common to all that is the sound da da da. And here you have dya. So that the sound embodies within it intelligent consciousness rising up from the earth. We are the ones that that innate intelligence consciousness of all creation, preservation, dissolution of the universe is rising up through the condalini and to that purified awareness. Oh Lord of the sun in your form as the manifesting powers savvitra propel us inspire us illumin us and that is a command in this mantra prach that prefix pra is just like the prefix in the Latin prefix when we say profusion That which is being impelled, that which is being propelled, that which you know if you use the metaphor of light, then that which is illuminating. But the metaphor of light is not used directly in the Gaitri mantra. It is it is a hidden metaphor. It's all about shakpi and though it doesn't use the word shakpi, it's all about that energized consciousness to be activated by this mantra. So that word prach that command prachat that longing that comes in begging for that illumination. May I be one with you because I know that I am you. So as I know that I am that I am I am that those are words that come in the oponyishads in a commentary on the on the gyri mantra that the sage is declaring the sage called vishua mitra friend of the universe mitra as friend mitra is also the lord of the sun but in this sense it's used as and vishua is the universe so vishua mitra a friend of the universe so that sage who wrote many great Sanskrit texts and hymns and was an advisor a spiritual advisor to several kings he received a vision in which goddess Gaitri blesses And she dictates the Gaitri mantra and tells him to teach it to all who can receive. And that this is the way humanity will learn to link consciously with the most powerful presence in our lives, the presence of the Lord of the Sun. And there is the complete identification of the physical sun with the spiritual sun. The physical sun as this as the spiritual lord of the solar system as the giver the source of all self-realization and self-illumination. So it's in this context that the Gaitri Mantra so preciously received by sage Vishu Mitra was given in writing and then added to the rega our earliest written Sanskrit liturggical texts. Reg means inner seer. So the rishi all rishies or sages were the term means the inner seers those who could see from within those whose third eye was opening. So Vishu Mitra received the Gaitri mantra so that it could be spread to all who can receive. And in the early days of the Vic period say somewhere between 1500 to about 700 800 BC women there were women sages as well called rishika and they also wrote many hymns in the Vedas and they were also teachers and had both female and male students and both girls and boys used to be initiated into the recitation of the Gaitri mantra. And a ceremony that is done by the initiated ones three times a day called the sa vandana. Vandana is gratitude. Sandhya is like like twilight and pre-dawn. Those times of the day when it's not complete darkness and we're just coming into the dawn. So that is one sya and then the other saya. Sya is also a bridging a bridging element. So the other sya is at twilight. So sunrise, sunset and then noon when the sun is right in the highest point for us. So this is the triad of the movement of the sun where the gaitri mantra um is chanted and I'm going to teach you one or two practices that are done as part of that sa vandana the honoring of that in between consciousness where transformation can happen what patanjali calls The present moment awareness is very possible on a on a physical level we can attune ourselves just at sunrise just at sunset and also at noon. So um but as the as in the course of you know Indian history as uh the times became a little more uh stricter and more patriarchal then um girls and women were not taught the gaitri mantra or schooled in Sanskrit or the vic traditions anymore and so that is all being reclaimed since the 20th century. So in our family then my mother and my aunts were the first ones to learn not only yoga but also the gaitri mantra and um and and the men continued to do the the tradition of the three times honoring the sun using the gaitri mantra and some sacred water. So this is something of the history and the background that's important for the west to know because we don't realize how much has gone into making the gaitri available to all that there have been forces within India for about 200 years. First of all opening the gaitri mantra reception and initiation to women and to girls then to the lower classes because it was restricted to the three upper classes particularly brahinss number one because you know we grow up learning Sanskrit and we grow up chanting from the Vedas and and therefore the guy three mantra is automatically the first mantra you learn from the Vedas and um so to so I was in that tradition that was allowed um and I didn't even know that it had been blocked because I was a child post independence you know 1947 was independence of India and the British were really pushing equality of women for for education and before that had been uh over 600 years of strict Islamic rule so India coming out of the strict Islamic rule into more of the modernization uh under under the British and then opening into our own Hindu universe. How do we how do we um in the modern contemporary world stay as Hindus and what are we going to reclaim from so much of our heritage that uh part of it which had been suppressed for several hundreds of years. So in that coming out of it, women, minorities, children, uh all casts and people of other faiths, other other nationalities are all included and that is how the west takes it for granted that you can sit and chant the gaitri mantra. So there there is such a beauty in knowing that there has been a deep struggle to bring this egalitarian opportunity to receive this shaky of the gaitri mantra. Let's pause for a moment and just offer that gratitude. Visualize the sun above your head. and the rays of the sun coming downward to touch each of the seven chakras. Feel the cerebral spinal fluid flowing up and down the spinal cord. There's a golden shining sparkling fluid. The texture of honey moving up to the center of the brain and spilling inside the brain. That wonderful lifegiving cerebral spinal fluid. Now linking the guide shaky the manifesting power of the sun through illumination through radiance through consciousness and then the flow of the condalini downwards. Visualize that cerebral spinal fluid flowing downwards and along the spine is spreading like like rivers. to fill the whole spine and moving into the limbs, moving into the face, moving into the hands and feet. That up and down flow from the center of the brain to the tip of the spine. The coxigial plexus moving up and the rays of the sun above being drenched at that glorious brilliance, that electrifying brilliance. Feel the warmth. Feel the direct focus, that sharpness, that focus of the source and then that spreading of the surya shaky. She who is savvitri surya shaky spreading within us. Bringing your palms together at the heart chakra. Now inviting the sun to step down gently, gently gently bringing that golden luminous orb of light into the heart chakra. This is where Lord Vishnu, the deity of preservation is identified with the sun, the lord of the sun as the surya, the cosmic being who has been blessed by Surya himself. Surya Narayana luminous source and the rays of golden light spreading from the heart chakra around us radiating moving out in waves as the shaki of goddess Sitri herself Surya's manifesting power. Breathing, inhaling in, bringing the sun down, establishing in the heart chakra. As you breathe out, the rays of the sun, golden, luminous, warm, radiating in all directions, spreading our sense of presence, gratitude, receptivity, joy, the innate joy of who we are as conscious spiritual beings. In vanta we call it satan s chit and ananda s in existence chit the consciousness ananda the bliss the innate bliss of consciousness is radiating from our heart centers where we have established the surya chakra the wheel of fire that is The sun himself luminous and radiant and soft. And as we hold our hands, we let us repeat. You repeat the gaitri mantra after me. Just an oral transmission here. Later I'll show you the words on the slides and so on. That's [Music] [Music] the [Music] On that high note, that high note is that energy of activation, that propelling, propelling yearning. Feel that reaching up to the sun itself. I want to be one with you. I want to be one with that. As you feel the power of this visualization, mentally do a gaitri mantra. Now on the next one, the third round of the Gaitri mantra, disperse it. with the radiance in all directions as you are chanting it. Now a gentle attention back to the golden luminous orb of the sun. Move it up through this golden pillar of light that passes through the spinal current. Moving it up through the forehead to the crown chakra and back up to the sun above us wherever you can visualize the sun. And a soft golden orb continues to stay in our heart chakra. So at this point I also want to teach you the surya mandala. It is among the yantras. It is one of the simplest. So here I have it on an index card and you can copy it down. So there's a central bindu. That's important. There's a central golden pulsating dot. So when you think about coloring it, it's the colors I'm wearing, red and gold. So there's a central pulsating golden dot and there are three red circles that represents the the physical power of the sun blending into the spiritual light of the sun. So three red circles and the triad of three stand for the three locas when we say um and then you have the the four cardinal directions and then the four more. So you have the eight lines for the spreading of the energy of the sun. It is also when we draw this on the ground which we often do um we'll either use a um like rice flour and water almost like a pancake batter and and and use use our index finger to just dip in dip it in. But I realized you can do it pretty well with a squeegee bottle. And uh we they never had squeegee bottles in India during this time of the surya mandela. So what they did was they used a coconut shell and you know the the coconut has three eyes in it. So very auspicious for the triad of the guy three and then they poked a hole in one of them and um so that's you use a finger to hold the hole and the batter is poured inside and then you control the batter with that one hole and and you you do all the mandelas every day. We use different mandelas, yantras, patterns that are all to welcome goddess Lakshmi into the house. So this is specifically the surya mandela and this version has been taught by Shri Sri Ravish Shankar the um the famous spiritual teacher from India and and people who study this in in his ashram then learn ka yoga that is linked to the surya yantra and and the and the gaitri. So he sees it as an important activation and and so in this with the rays are flowing out in all directions. Those will be in the golden light. So you have gold and red the three red circles and the the golden bindu the source that's the same bindu that's in the M um on the on the top. So it is what represents ultimate consciousness that which overcomes our attachment to the three separate states of sleeping waking and dreaming or the three goonas the three tendencies of our personality to be tamas rajas or satwa tamas being the it's it's in dormcancy our our abilities are in dormcancy they're potent but dormant and And then rajas they are being activated and satwa they are starting to be subtle luminous going into the essence of that quality of that energy. So those three aspects of manifest reality, the three gonas are also then uh referred to when the gaitri mantra is analyzed for what all does bura stand for? What all does stand for? And so the surya mandala reflects that. So for right now as a practice, we'll draw this in the space in front of us and make sure you also have this on on on a paper so you can use it later because I'm going to give you some instructions on how to use it. So draw this in in front of you in the space. First of all, the bindu, the golden bindu, and around it the three red circles. They're all warm and almost like a a fiery red, a luminous red. And then draw the eight directions in golden light. And for those of you that it's already early evening, you u you visualize yourself facing um facing the west. And those of us still in the late afternoon time zone, we visual visualize ourselves um facing north. So noon time north, evening time of course the west and morning time facing the east. So align this surya mandela. So the you have the arms of the east west axis and and the north south and you are directly with your inner eyes gazing at the bindu and and feeling the spread of that warm red the three circles moving out and continuously starting again. The circles begin and they move out like waves but circular continuously moving. And the four the eight directional yellow um shall we call them lines? They they are steady and still. So it's like the shiva and the shaky. The sacred masculine here provides the structure. the sun and the sacred feminine sitri she moves out and spreads to all all life. So gazing at this and again putting our hands in the anjali mudra. So we choose three three positions here. Heart chakra, throat chakra and the agna chakra. Heart wrote a. So the heart to represented to represent our the atman the atma shaky completely pervading us. This is the heartfelt connection. The throat chakra to honor the power of inunciation, the power of vak, the power of speech and mantra and the agna chakra or the third eye to honor knowledge and wisdom. And in the third eye, we also honor the sages who have transmitted the gaitri mantra. So heart recite the gaitri mantra while gazing at this inner sura mandala. [Music] [Music] Now to the throat chakra. Gazing at the mandela, the bindu, the three warm red circles, the eight lines of gold all radiating. Now begin. [Music] Connecting, connecting, connecting to the mandela. expanding our gratitude to the power of voice to the goddess of speech. Bavi she is part of Gaitri. Gaitri she who sings. Gaitri she who provides the rhythm of chanting. The rhythm of the chanting of the Gaitri mantra is three lines of eight phone names. So to a beat of eight this is chanted honoring her as the pulse the meter the rhythm of the waves of consciousness. Now to the third eye. Honoring this rishies, the inner seers, the continuity of transmission. Gazing at the surya mandala in front of your closed eyes. Now bring the the bindu that inner golden dot of the surya mandala in line with the third eye and feel a power of transmission happening there. Continuous golden transmission from that bindu to the third eye. Gratitude is the attitude here. Begin. Take a deep breath. [Music] [Music] Bringing the hands down to the heart chakra. Absorbing the surya mandela into the heart chakra into a soft golden orb of light. Offering gratitude for this collective shi that is available to us to be shared in this way through cyberspace. Offering our gratitude to Siana Masud for bringing us all together. May this gathering be blessed by the guide Thriaki. Blink your eyes a few times back here. I want to read to you what Shri Rubindo our greatest mystical genius author, poet, philosopher, spiritual master of this last century who for 40 years did not leave his Roman balcony in the Arabinda ashram in Pondicherryi and also sprouted this beautiful uh autonomous spiritual township there called Oruroaveville which a lot of you may have heard about. So Orurabindo is really Arainda. Aravinda means lotus and so the tantric symbol of the heart chakra Shiva rising shaki descending into all forms in the middle is the condalini shaki rising and the lotus representing our ultimate self-realization and this is currently the longest English poem in the world the whole thing is a poem solvitri and I want to read you his first of all Sherbindo's um commentary on the Gaitri very short one of course he says we choose the supreme light of the divine son so the gaitri mantra it is a choice we are making and the choice is coming from the longing to experience that ultimate reality we aspire that it may impel our minds. Remember his language is all from the 1930s,4s uh 20s to the 40s when he wrote prolifically. We choose the supreme light of the divine sun. We aspire that it may impel our minds. And then he elaborates the sun is the symbol of divine light that is coming down. That's the major thing to remember here. The sun is the symbol of divine light and the Gaitri mantra gives expression to our aspiration, our longing, our aspiration. So that is expressed in a coded symbolic mantric shi form called the gatri. eight lines of three phones or 24 fms not I'm not talking about the invocation to the three Rams that's the Omur bhasu but the rest of it then he says and the gaitri mantra is asking that divine light come down and give impulsion to all the activities of the mind propulsion impulsion, activation to what? To everything that we do and think and yearn and aspire and feel. Because it's only in the activation of all that our mind is capable of do we even conceive of a pathway to the divine. Do we even come together as collective groups and centers and religions and traditions and communities just look how large our yoga community is worldwide now all coming together in this yearning to illumin our minds. So that is from Shri Arabinda the sodium mandela. Now since we did the mandela thing I want to lead us in a short chant. This is I'm adapting it from Ravi Shankar and George Harrison's album of Chance of India from about 30 35 years ago. Uh it is Ravi Shankar's composition but I've shortened and adapted it for our purposes. Mandelola. Mandela is a cosmic representation, a visual representation um of the universe through a circle. Circular pattern is a mandelola. When we have the square pattern as in the Gaitri chakra then then we call it more chakra but mandela and chakra are both symbolic representations of the universe and Surya is the sun. Agny is fire. You'll have to do this as an oral transmission and then I can uh send the words out when we send you a couple of handouts in the recording. So vu is the is the will the airuh means may it be so. This is so surya mandela mandela vay mandela and then I've added mandela mandela sarasati mandala these are the triune goddesses linked to the gaitri shaki saraswati as the crown chakra goddess consort of braha Saraswati who brings the wisdom of the self. Saraswati who brings the musical expression of the yearning and longing of the self. She plays the Vina. The Vina is an ancient instrument that predates the sitar. So, so these triune goddesses are mentioned in this. So, just try to follow along. Syand mandala mandala mandala mandala mandala surya mandala surand [Music] mandala mandala mandala mandala bhavat bhavat bhavat bhavat Mandala. Mandala. Sarasati. Mandala. Mandala. Mandala. Saraswati. Mandala. Bhavat. [Music] Bhavat. Bhav. Bhavat. Bhav. Bhavat. Bhavat. Bhavatu. Oh mandala mandala mandala bhavatri [Music] [Music] mandala mandala mandala bhavat bhavat bhavat Bat. [Music] [Music] So a little song to go with the visualization of the surya mandela within which embodied embodied all forces of creation preservation dissolution in the universe. All the five elements, all the subtle worlds, the causal worlds, the physical worlds and the triune goddesses. Sitri Saraswati. Most of you would know something about Sarasati and some of you may know something about Gaitri but maybe very few know something about Sitri. She's she's very slippery. This goddess Sitri doesn't quite want to be defined. There's the She brings the sun's radiance, yet she drives on a chariot with seven gorgeous white horses and holds golden rains just like the chariot of the sun. The whole chariot metaphor then representing the chariot itself is our own body, our persona. Even the Bhagat Gita when Krishna is the charioteer for his cousin Arjuna. And so the two of them move forward into the battlefield. Then Krishna is the witness and Arjuna is the participant. Krishna holds no weapons. He's the adviser. He is the guru, the witness. and Arjuna is completely engaged involved in the despair and then finally in the fighting itself. So that is like the two parts of ourselves. the one that participates and the one that observes. And we as we continue to cultivate that witness consciousness through spiritual practices whether it's asa, pranayyama, mantra, yantra, the the power of all such practices is to cultivate our witness consciousness. So we become more and more the witness. We continue to participate but with no attachment to the outcome of our actions. That is the main teaching of the Bhagat Gita karma yoga to be fully engaged in life but with no attachment to the outcome of our actions. And so the gaitri mantra is a powerful passage passage way pathway for us to cultivate this witness consciousness. May it be so. May we link to that mandela of fire. May we link to the mandela of the sun. May we link to the mandela of air. May we link to the mandela of water. May we link to the mandela of earth. Bhi mandala and may link to the power of the triune goddesses of the Gaitri mantra. Gaitri herself in the morning times facing the sun. Savvitri at high noon facing the blazing manifesting power of the lord of the sun at its might and saraswati in the evening as we come into our inward forces to reflect and to learn and to sing and to chant and to come into the wisdom of our ownelves. So sitri sarasati. So now I want to let's pause for a moment before I start the slideshow and see if there's uh I should look at the chat board. Maybe there'll be some things there. U if there's something you're burning for me to address. Um then then you can put it on the chat board. So I weave it in in the the time we have and I'm already cautioning you. We might go a little longer. Should we have a question real quick? Yes. Yes. So thank you so much for this beautiful deep explanation and sharing. So in the morning guyatry, in the afternoon midday savry and in the evening satisi and then the directions to face but in in the gay tree the closest deity we have is wellra actually say that is the name of the solar deity. in this in the form of the guy three. So it is not so that name is notri that name is sitra or or becomes or actually in order to say belonging to the sun belonging to savvitra. So the the mantra itself does not refer to goddess savvitri but the hymn is often called the savvitri mantra also they are equivalent guyri and savvitri and when we go into a little bit of the mythology uh you'll see how major of a role you know savvitri has had in I mean that she inspired sherbindo to write this entire uh poem um about a human um couple Savvitri and Satyavan um who were historically part of the Mahabharata epic and that's what has made the name Savvitri very famous is because of the of that story um and so anyway you got your answer for so Sitra is okay anything gave Georgie says, "This is grounding me and helping me understand a longing I have had since I was very young. Gratitude for the depth of your sharing." Oh, beautiful. Thank you. Thank you. Karen, our beautiful Karen. Yes. She's asking um can you share with us a resource for the long form with the seven realms? Yeah, I'll be I'll be sending you the handout. And um and also I highly recommend um let's say well in terms of books and so on um little archaic language but the best resource on the on the on the G3 uh um that comes out of the theosophical society and um uh Dr. Timnney was a wonderful Sanskrit scholar and my father and he would would chat for hours about the Gaitri mantra. So this was it doesn't even say when it was originally published. Anyway, the last reprint was 2003. Uh so it has some of the Sanskrit uh vocabulary in it too. But it's well explained for somebody who already has a deep interest in in the metaphysical realms. And um so this would be kind of the source book to go for a metaphysical um explanation of the Gaitri mantra. And again I can uh make a list of the books. Yeah. Thank you. Here's the next question. Yeah. Does this mantra Gaitri mantra this is from Eve have to do with lightbringers such as Venus in morning and evening and the intensity of sun? Well, they are the gantry mantra is linked to all the planets and uh there are adjunct mantras for each one of them uh as well. So it's the 24 phone names of the Gaitri are actually like 24 bee mantras. So it's it's a coded it's a coded mantra that then spreads. There will be links to all the planetary deities and um then there will be links to um the uh um the the 24 categories of existence in Sananka cosmology which underlies all yoga. So you know things like the five elements and three levels of mind. All of that comes to 24 with purusha and procriti. So it's so that way that linking will happen and those are all systematically taught. some of it um I found u on the on Hindopedia under under the gyri so it's it's a group of Indian teachers who have collectively uh written um some things um because it's very hard for the for the modern seeker to to find um a deeper information but there is so much already and I will send you my handout um his teaching notes on the guide tree that um originally made for Sienna for her mythic flow yoga. And um if any of you are um interested in that then you when you work with her on the on her monthly online series then um there are theme they are themed to different daties. So, but the Wikipedia itself is is a wonderful resource and gives a lot of the connections of what the 24 F names are for. But I would not advise seekers to to right away get get caught up in the in the secondary transmissions of the Gaitri. There is so much work to be done in the primary transmission of the Gaitri. And these two uh visualizations and practices I I taught you are are themselves things to be practiced for years and then I'm going to add one more now. Okay. And Shri Davey the last question and then we'll move forward with what you're adding in the slides. This is from Biate. When do we sing surya mandelola va yum mandelola babatu babatu and what is it called? Oh it's in the well the whole the whole um song is in uh is in the CD called chants of India and uh you can easily find it online. It's by Ravi Shanka and George Harrison. was what maybe was it from the 70s massud I think late '7s early 80s somewhere there but anyway chance of India it's easy to find and within that um you know his his composition um I don't I don't know what he it may be the very last one the the very last song um but I'll send you the these words um what I shortened and added the the names of the three triune goddess I'll send you the the words of that and but is there a particular time to sing that song? Oh no no no no particular time this is this is all very modern uh interpretation of of the gaitri. So it's the the ancient practice uh is I mean to have to do it three times and and then the practice is do it anytime because doing it anytime is a way to get the mind to powerfully focus. So um any any anything else this is lightbringers. Okay. What is it called? Yeah. I would um I would look for a title of his song that will have the word mandela in it. Now the last practice I want to teach you here is u uh the gaitri mantra uh in those forums as ceremony done three times a day is done with water. So you must have you know very good quality spring water um pure water and if possible in a copper container. Um copper conducts electricity the even the subtle energies very well. Your hands are clean and washed and wet. And we then taking a little bit of water in the palm. And now both hands are together leaving apart the thumbs. Oh, you won't be able to see it. Let me stand. So, letting the water trickle through all of the in between all of the fingers. So, first just, you know, just learning how to do that, not using the thumbs, but letting the water trickle through and making sure the water goes into all of the spaces. And if you're sitting outside, then it can just go into the soil. And if you're doing it inside or any other place, you know, have a have a bowl so that you can be so it's done with water and as you're facing east or north or west as you're chanting and [Music] Okay. So that's the practice with water. Since water is you know as the water of life and is also incredibly conducting element for subtle energy the pronic forces and in the chanting of Gaitri mantra and the use of the hands and ghana mudra as we sit in meditation. Uh when we do the this particular practice that is part of the saya the you know the twilight ceremony um men will you know they wear a a shawl like this they will actually wrap their hands in the shawl when they are in the anjali mudra or in the ghana mudra and that is to really guard outside influences and protect the hands. And then the hands are ready to be wetted and use let the water flow. This is just a continuous flow of life flow of the the jalashaki the the shy of the water of life itself to flow with mantra. So mantra and water flow together and then joining the soil. So the once the this little ceremony with the water is finished for three rounds of the gaitri mantra in any particular direction then you take that water and you water something in the garden or or in the if you're in nature somewhere uh make sure it goes into the consciously you pour it at the base of some plant. So this is a beautiful way in which the ancient rishies used the medium of water to connect with this mantra. Okay. Now we'll finish up with a few slides. Share screen. Uh can we get that open? Um, listen the screen. Screen share. Screen share. Okay. Okay, we go band. Why can't I make the screen bigger? Okay. I think just on the very bottom of that the one on left it says close. Maybe that might close that last window make it ah thank you. Thank you. Ah it bothers you here so much. So um you know we have had several forms of the goddess in Hindu tradition going back to the Naga beings or the serpent serpent beings. These were part of the Indust Valley civilization and continue to be honored in this way. And you see the um the snake beings here um and what came to represent the Kundalini Shaki um in all tantric yoga. So goddess figures go back to at least 2000 BC. Oldest being versions of Kali. And this is the most famous Kali temple in Kolkata with the three eyes. And here is Dorgga in her fabulous form was the slayer of the buffalo demon from the sixth century text of the glory of the goddess or called Dvi Mahatme. the first goddess epic in the world and continues to be honored um in the goddess festival or Navaratri. So here is my favorite um you know dura from Bengal and goddess Gaitatri then is linked to the opening of the third eye right there and you're all familiar with goddess Sri Lakshmi also called Shri and the giver of bounty and here are another triune goddesses Saraswati Lakshmi and goddess Lalita or Shri the cosmic play and this is the shriantra in its three-dimensional form called mount meu showing the nine levels of the shriantra so given such a rich background um and many temples to the goddess this is a temple very close to my house where I live in India and this is one in Atlanta to the goddess Um keeping that in mind here comes Gatri. So this is um a painting of goddess Gaitri coming in vision form to bless the rishi the seer of this mantra. Every every famous hymn or mantra in Hindu tradition will have an inner seer and that seer is usually the composer of the mantra. But it also identifies that person as having made that incredible connection from the mundane to the sacred and then receiving the transmission that comes into that highly intuitive mind when it is completely pure and receptive. So she is um not only a goddess the uh the meter itself of the mantra is called the gaitri meter. We have we have 24 meters in Vic literature that span everything from how the Bhagat Gita or the ponyish or or the Vedas the Vic hymns they're all poetry all of the poetic parts of all literature uh have have one of these 24 different meters and so the gaitri meter you know if you just do it with your hands It's used widely in South Indian music an eight beat cycle. So it would be one. Let's do it with me. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. Again. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. It's called a tala. Adi means primordial. The first. So 8 is perfection. And and so the beat a beat of eight was chosen to to compose this hymn. And I'm again reminding us Savvitri then is the goddess of manifesting power. Savvitra. Savvitra. You see how his name is spelled. So just an R with a dot below. So that makes that soft sound R. It's a vowel. R. So Sitra and um honored. She's honored at sunrise noon. And sunset. Let's see where am I on the slides? Okay. So this is a painting of goddess Gaitri in the last century by u India's most famous sacred imagery artist Raja Rabi Vharma who was a king in a kingdom in Kerala but left everything to become an artist especially as he kept receiving visions of the deities. So this is how he received the vision. So the lotus stock curving around the goddess and that represents the twisted journey of the condalini and then he has imprinted the 24 fms of the gaitri mantra on that lotus. So it says um yeah [Music] [Music] And he has separated out the phone names to as a reminder that this is a coded mantra where each of those 24 fms then have multiple permutations and combinations and how they spread out um very ingeniously to link to all existence. So she has five heads which rep which are are representations of the five koshas the five elements and all of the sets of five we have in sanka plus five branches of the vedas that are called vedangas or limbs of the vedas. So that's for five and she has of course 10 arms. So that's for the eight directions plus the vertical being up and down. So that's plus two. So 8 plus two. So that is for the 10 hands and the 10 tools that she holds which are from the the three major male deities. Shiva, Brahma and Vishnu have each given her various weapons. Um yeah and she has both the wrathful and the benevolent aspects and things that she carries. She has a lotus for self-realization, but she has a nose or a whip to to get us to fall in line or she has a mace to shatter all obstacles. Uh so um she embodies within herself all of the wrathful and benevalent aspects. This is a a more tantric rendering of goddess Gaitri that's not so commonly seen um perhaps in areas of of Kashmir. Uh it's so she's her body is really like a serpent body and the so the indigenous influence of the Naga theology of of India uh is influencing this. So she has serpent wraps and uh she's also her sense of protection is very strong. So she has a couple of trident all her tools are are are weapons for protection and fierce and wrathful protection of her of her deities. Notice her red crown chakras there you know really waiting to act her front two hand mudras vada and abhaya. So abhaya mudra be fearless vada you know you can receive boounds this is about surrender and let's see so this is goddess saraswati of course I mean you recognize many things here about her but she doesn't have the vena oh no this is gitri oh no this is this is sitri so they they they interchange in how they appear uh in this form. So she um gri here know with just one pair of hands is um sorry the two pairs of hands that's the stable form having the four hands is the stable form of any dity representation. So the two front hands represent our access to her and the back hands represent what she wants to give us but is hidden. It's the subtle realm behind. So in her subtle realm she has a weapons to um protect us and to draw us in the nose to draw us in and and then an elephant hook to to pro for protection. but her front hands. So she has she's holding the Vedas to give us knowledge and then she's holding a japa mala making sure that she's going to be in every practice we do that involves meditation using japa and the white sorry for a satic satwic the luminous embodiment. Here's another form of her in in the rosy complexion, red sari, pink lotus. So, a combination of the wrathful and the benevolent, but very much accentuating that activating energy. The rosy red and the red um is all about activation shaki of the solar power. Okay, this is a a beautiful 20th century painting and the swans the swan represents the paramahamsa hamsa and there is a hamsa as well that is especially around Baba Mktanandanda they used to chant the hamsagayatri to him to honor him as a paramahamsa uh a being who has reached the highest stage uh in the uh through the kundalini journey Yogaandanda was also called Paramahamsa. Sri Ramak Krishna was also called Paramahamsa. So the Hamsa or swan is always associated with um Gayatri as well as with Sarasati. They are both ever present. This is a popular Gaitri um motive. This is on in my bedroom calendar in India. It's always there you know since has been there since I was a child. So I always think of her here. She carries water a pot of the copper water to do the gaitri mantra using water. This is to emphasize the practice and the water pot was given to her by Brahma Lord Brahma who um she's strongly associated with and then she's carrying the Vedas. So the lotus and the swan are are completely integrated into her daty form. So showing that as we rise like the lotus through mud and water and all of the five elements we can become the paramahamsa and chanting the gaitri mantra with its 24 names. Okay there is the gaitri mantra this is how the script would be and I had wanted us to practice writing just the first line but we'll save that for a sacred Sanskrit workshop. [Music] [Music] And there you have it. the the opening to the three realms of the universe and then the three lines of 24 phone names. Those three lines are just to see them separated out. So if you use your fingers and we count, right? [Music] So so they they add just when you're counting they add a little bit of an e there. So [Music] but that's not what the word is. The word is vinium. So but you're allowed for the sake of the to get eight phone names to to add the e just when we are um visualizing it or counting it. again. So eight in each line. And so that makes what's called the the guy three meter. So it's the guy three meter is three lines of 24 eight phone names and this is common in many other hymns as well. It's one of the most common meters in in Vic literature. And then you have the uh um just just a bare bones meaning that the initial basa invokes the three cosmic realms physical, subtle and causal and then the gaitri mantra itself. Let us meditate upon upon that adorable divine eulgence from the sun as savvitra the manifesting power. May that divine radiance illumine or propel or activate or stimulate that's the podat our purified awareness our purified awareness I like to add that um and just to know that the the three the bhuasah breaks down actually into bhu bhwaha sua and I'll send you these slides so you have all of these all of these names and how the Gaitri yantra looks uh with the numerology also built in and her bija mantras. I know some of you will be very interested to know well does goddess Gaitri have any bijamantras we know bijantras for other goddesses yes she does clean shim so it's up here it starts from the left so goes goes like that circularly like that so cream shrimp om clean shrimp om clean shrimp So here is her yantra. It's actually the square form. That's the gross realm and the innermost the heart chakra. Um you see it here. Eight petals for the eight octave of existence. And then there's some numbers too. You know there's there's teachings on all these numbers. Um and in the very center it says and then it says 10 for the 10 directions. Okay. So last couple of slides uh how beautiful it looks with the giving the mantra in the middle and here is my my see-through yantra for me to do. I I hold it like this and do my practice. So there's so many ways of conceiving of that one yandra. Last one shows the sun's radiance in all directions from her golden body. And this whole this yantra is made of copper but coated with gold and copper and gold coated yantras. Then as we touch them and do puja directly to the yantras with wet fingers. You can also touch parts of the yantra with the wet fingers adding flower petals and in that process chanting the gaitri mantra as we as we touch the the the six-sided triangle. So that's in a nutshell a huge a huge teaching that is that was simply compressed in for you. Let's Let's everyone unmute and give Shri Davey a big flower shower. Let's do that. Everyone unmute. Ready?