om parameshwaraya vidmahe - meaning, discussion.

Let this Light show the Way for us. Let it saturate our Being.

om param eshvaraya vidmahe

meaning, discussion.

om     param            eshvar-         āya vidmahe
om     param            eshvar-         aaya vidmahe
            fully                pure               towards, enlightens
       developed     consciousness

para                           tatv-               āya dhīmahi
para                           tatv-               aaya dhiimahi
fully spiritual towards, suffuses our
developed truth meditation

tanno             brahma                    pracho    dayāt
tanno             brahma                    pracho    dayaat
then               Presence, (will)      guide and motivate
                        Deity

Let us move towards the pure mind (eshvarāya, eshvaraaya).
When it’s fully developed (param),   it lightens our spirit, and illuminates our mind (vidmahe).

Let us move towards spiritual truth (tatvāya, tatvaaya), until it fully (para) suffuses our mind in meditation (dhimahi).

As a result (tanno), this Presence of Deity will guide and motivate us (brahma pracho-dayāt, pracho-dayaat).

The Song.

Deva Premal offers a delightful song rich in atmosphere, on her album “Songs for the Sangha” , 2015. You can listen to a good sample at-
https://devapremalmiten.com/songs-for-the-sangha/ track 5, Brahma Gayatri mantra. The full song has some excellent instrumental by Manose on flute, and Spencer on keyboards, with others too.

This song is now available in full in good quality on Youtube at –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4NbKxYL_As

The Mantra Discussed.

I have given an interpretation to match Deva Premal’s song. This is to help us gain the full benefit to singing along to her recording, and thus kindle real interest in the mantra.

For this mantra is also of much value to our everyday life, when we are not listening to recorded music.

This mantra is primarily about eshvara = īśwara, a very important Hindu word for the Presence of Deity, best interpreted as ‘pure consciousness.’ This mantra uses the term param-eshvara, best understood to mean ‘fully developed pure consciousness.’ This mantra helps us understand how to fully develop pure consciousness. It actually uses the term eshvar-āya.

eshvar-āya means ‘let us approach pure consciousness’, and
eshvar-āya means ‘let us help pure consciousness approach us.’

How can we achieve this important task? The last words of each line suggest a method.

prachodayāt means ‘propel, push’ and ‘guide, inspire’ and ‘move towards,’ and ‘cleanse, purify.’ Let us propel and push our Being towards pure consciousness. Let us guide and direct our heart towards the Presence of Deity, in a conscious and purposeful way. When we succeed, and our mind is free of defilement, focussed, reasonably clear, bright, and we are beginning to enjoy this experience, then we need to take the next step –

dhīmahi means ‘imbibe, suffuse, saturate.’ Let us imbibe our Being with the Presence of Deity, and allow it to suffuse and diffuse into our heart. Let us continue doing this until our Being is saturated with purified Presence.

dhīmahi also means ‘stay with, hold attention on, sustain.’ Let us keep our attention on the Presence of Deity, for this will sustain our spiritual essence. Thus dhīmahi also means ‘purify, protect’. When we hold our attention on pure consciousness, it protects our spiritual essence with a purifying effect. This important practice frees us from defilement.    Which leads us to the last word of the first line –

vidmahe (from the root vid-) primarily means ‘know, understand’, but in the context of our mantra it means ‘know spiritual liberation’, ‘know how to be free of troubles.’ Thus vidmahe means ‘enlighten, illumine’ and to lighten up, cast off the burden of suffering.   When we are able to suffuse our mind with healing and hold our attention on healing, let us also lighten up, and be free of pain and problems. Let us clearly see the Path to spiritual Liberation.

vidmahe also means ‘dwell within, experience.’ Let us make the Presence of Deity our experience, let us make it our abiding place.

tat-twa.
Although this mantra is primarily about eshvara = īśwara, it also refers to another important aspect of Presence. Our mantra incudes another important word to describe the Presence of Deity, which is tat-twa. This expression literally means ‘that-you’, but both of these terms refers to Deity. Thus tat-twa means ‘Deity in you’ or ‘Deity in that.’

When tat means ‘that’, it can refer to anything in our lives, especially our pursuits and relationships. Then the -twa refers to Deity. Then tat-twa means the inherent sacred-ness in that particular pursuit or relationship. By this, I mean the potential beauty that we can perceive in it, the true value that it could afford us,   and the healing we can receive from it, if we approach the pursuit or relationship in the right way, from the right attitude and values.

When -twa means ‘you’, it can refer to any person of importance in our lives. Then the tat- refers to Deity. Then tat-twa means the inherent goodness and seed of enlightenment that resides in all people. The term tat-twa means ‘I perceive the good-ness in you.’ We can bring to mind someone we know, and try to see their good qualities, and focus on them, instead of dwelling on their faults. This is a very healing practice, and helps us to transcend resentment and criticisms, which can poison relationships.

Both terms tat and -twa refer to the Presence of Deity indirectly.   Neither name it directly. This is a helpful tactic we can use in our efforts to move towards Presence, or prepare our mind so that Presence can approach us. For Deity is infinite and unlimited by the failings of us humans, whereas the meaning of words is limited.

More importantly, a particular word can mean one thing to the writer or speaker, and yet mean something quite different to the reader or audience. Therefore, indirect terms like tat or twa are very helpful, for they refer to Deity indirectly.

Nature Meditation.

Our mantra is especially suited to Nature Meditation, where the sounds and sights of nature are our meditation object. In Nature meditation, we make and take opportunity to spend quality time in Nature, perhaps forest, beach, stream or garden, and access the full healing power of time spent with the Ancient Mother.

In this, we consciously and purposefully direct our attention (prachodayāt) to the beauty of ordinary, unspoiled Nature, and the important healing power this can have for us, when we have true appreciation for it. We take wonder and delight in this beauty, and realise the healing in this appreciation. Then we imbibe this beauty and healing, and imbibe it fully, to saturation point (dhīmahi). Then we use this healing to lighten up, and become unburdened (vidmahe). We use this healing experience to liberate (vidmahe) ourselves from pain and problems. We use the beauty of Nature as our pathway to enlightenment (vidmahe).

This experience also help us understand and know (vidmahe) how to attain real healing from our time in Nature, and know (vidmahe) the real value of unspoiled Nature.

This healing experience helps us to understand what pure consciousness (eshvara) actually is. It show us how to approach pure consciousness (eshvar-āya), and how we can prepare our Being so that pure consciousness can come to us (eshvar-āya). It helps us understand how to allow pure consciousness to grow and strengthen until it is fully developed (param-eshvara).

Then tat-twa means the healing power of Mother nature (twa) in what we can see and hear in Nature, in that image or that sound (tat).

Essential Preliminaries.
However, before we can do any of these important practices, our mind needs to first be reasonably stable and focussed, and free of clutter and chatter. This means we need to do our preparations, before we can apply this mantra to our daily lives.   We need to let go of unnecessary mental busy-ness, let go of obsessions, let go of problems and pain, before we can approach pure consciousness, before pure consciousness can come to us = eshvar-āya. Much of this website explores this very important spiritual practice, in one form or another.

The Significance of the Dative Case, and thus Brahma.

Similarly, the important terms eshvara (īśvara) and tat-twa both appear in the dative case, in our mantra. They appear as eshwar-āya   and tat-tw-āya, where the -āya indicates the dative case. The dative case is both the indirect object we are heading towards, and the fruit of our labour in spiritual practice that we are cultivating.

The dative case is often used in sacred mantra. This is because the Presence of Deity is all too often shaky, unreliable or even absent in our experience. It is often a Goal we are heading towards, or something will come to us when there is readiness. It will come when we have sufficiently developed the conditions needed for Presence to visit us, and so enlighten and illuminate our mind and Path in life. So our mantra puts both tattva and eshvara (īśvara) in the dative case, as tattvāya and eshvarāya.

This is important, for all too often we find ourselves headed in a quite different direction. And allowing the opposite to fester in our heart.   This occurs when criticism, blame, resentment are breeding in our mind. When we allow pain to pollute important pursuits and relationships in our lives. When needless worries disturb our equipoise. When despair and defeat are gaining control in our decisions.

So it’s important that we take responsibility for our own happiness, from moment to moment in our daily lives. Each moment is an opportunity for purification practice, an opportunity to move towards pure consciousness and spiritual truth, and not the other direction.

In this, we need to redirect our attention over and over again. Restore our Purpose in purification practice over and over again.   This requires patience, stamina, faith and forgiveness, all important spiritual Qualities. We can reflect on the value of pure consciousness and Presence, then we can ask ourselves –

“Why head away from it?   Why allow it to be sabotaged?   Surely I have the devotion to return to practise? And return sooner, not later?”

For this reason, our mantra includes an important Name for Deity, which is Brahma. Brahma means our commitment and determination to purification practise. It also means to return to practice, over and over again, until the defilements have subsided, dissolved, dissipated and ceased to trouble us.

However, the power of defilements can, at times, appear over-whelming. When this happens, then we can reflect on another meaning of the dative case in Sanskrit. It also means “bestowed upon”, or “gain”. This gives another interpretation, as a heartfelt wish –

eshvarāya can mean “May eshvara be bestowed upon me”, “May Pure Consciousness be bestowed upon me,” or -
eshvarāya can mean “May I attain and achieve eshvara”, “May I attain and achieve pure consciousness.”

And likewise for tatvāya.

Derivation Details.

Brahma. In the trimurti of Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu, Brahma is the form (mūrti) of Deity that is related to creation and beginnings. This includes the driving force behind all pursuits, such as spiritual practice. It also includes the beginning and renewal of all things, such as the renewal of our efforts in spiritual practice.

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go to the menu at the page head. Click onto the “more” button,
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My introductory webpages “Mantras Translated A - C”
discuss how to gain the full benefit of these mantra writeups.

om param eshvaraya vidmahe meaning, discussion.​

The Mantra Discussed.

om param eshvaraya vidmahe

meaning, discussion.