The Gayatri Mantra: Origin in Rig Veda 3.62.10, Meaning, and Daily Practice

The most famous verse in the Veda

The Gayatri Mantra is the single most-recited verse in the Rig Veda. Millions of Hindus repeat it daily at dawn, noon and dusk. It is the mantra given to a young person at the upanayana (sacred-thread) ceremony, and it is woven into countless rituals and meditations.

It is also a real Rig Veda verse: it appears as the 10th Rik of the 62nd Sukta of the 3rd Mandala — written Rig Veda 3.62.10 — composed by the Rishi Vishvamitra Gathin, traditional founder of the Vishvamitra Mandala.

The verse

Sanskrit (Devanagari):

तत् सवितुर्वरेण्यं भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि । धियो यो नः प्रचोदयात् ॥

IAST romanisation:

tat saviturvareṇyaṃ bhargo devasya dhīmahi । dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāt ॥

English (Griffith’s translation):

May we attain that excellent glory of Savitar the god: so may > he stimulate our prayers.

Read this verse on its own page, with full audio (Pro) and a modern explanation: Rig Veda 3.62.10.

A word-by-word reading

• tat — that
• savitur — of Savitar (the Sun as the divine inspirer)
• vareṇyam — most excellent, to be chosen, supreme
• bhargas — radiance, splendour, dispelling light
• devasya — of the god
• dhīmahi — let us meditate upon, let us hold in mind
• dhiyaḥ — our thoughts, our intellect, our meditations
• yaḥ — who
• naḥ — us
• pracodayāt — may inspire, may impel forward

A close natural-English rendering would be:

Let us meditate upon the most excellent radiance of the divine > Savitar — may he impel our thoughts forward.

Who is Savitar?

Savitar is not simply ‘the Sun.’ Surya is the visible solar disc; Savitar is the impelling or inspiring divine power that the sunrise embodies — the god who makes things move, who rouses the world from sleep and the mind from torpor. The Gayatri is a petition for inspiration, asking the divine to set our thoughts in motion in the right direction.

Why this particular metre?

The verse is in the Gayatri metre — three lines (padas) of eight syllables each. The metre is so closely identified with this verse that the mantra and the metre share a name. Vedic poetry encodes meaning at the level of the metre too: the Gayatri metre is described in the Brahmanas as luminous, swift, associated with Agni and with the priestly Brahman.

Traditional practice

The Gayatri is one of the Mahavyahriti mantras prefaced by oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ, declaring the three worlds (earth, atmosphere, heaven). Recited at sandhya — the joints of the day (dawn, noon, dusk) — it forms the core of trikāla sandhyāvandana, the thrice-daily worship of those who wear the sacred thread.

If you have never heard the Gayatri recited, the Sanskrit chanting on the verse page preserves the traditional intonation.