140 THE MOST FAMOUS MANTRAM
than the sins which the prince had previously committed.'
'
Tliis story,' continues the author, ' is really true. I had
it from my guru Veda-Vyasa, who learned it himself from the Para-Brahma. The king and his wife, thus purified, lived happily together for a great many years, and only quitted this world to join Para-Brahma, the Supreme Being, in the abode of bliss.'
When one points out to the Brahmins that these muchvaunted mantrams do not produce startling effects in the present day, they reply that this must be attributed to the Kali-yuga, that is to say, to the Fourth Age of the world, in which we are now living, a veritable age of iron, when everything has degenerated; a period of calamities and disasters, when virtue has ceased to rule the earth. They maintain, nevertheless, that it is still not at all uncommon for mantrams to work miracles, and this they confirm by
citing stories which are quite as authentic and credible as the one I have just related.
The most famous and the most efficacious mantram for taking away sins, whose power is so great that the very
gods tremble at it, is that which is called the gayatri. It is so ancient that the Vedas themselves were born from it.
Only a Brahmin has the right to recite it, and he must prepare himself beforehand by other prayers and by the most profound meditation. He must always repeat it in a low voice, and take the greatest care that he is not overheard by a Sudra, or even by his own wife, particularly at
the time when she is in a state of uncleanness. The following are the words of this famous mantram 1:
Tat savitur varenyam bhargo devasya
Dhimahi dhiyo yo nah prachodayat.
1
Long after I had finished my first work, I found in No. 27 of the
Asiatic Journal of 1818 two different English translations of the gayatri, the exactitude of which I in no way vouch for, nor can I give any preference to either translation. This, at any rate, is the sense of them
:
1. '
Let us worship the light of God, greater than you, Sun, who can so well guide our understanding. The wise man always considers this( the Sun) the supreme manifestation of the divinity.'
2. ' Let us worship the supreme light of the Sun, the God of all things, who can so well guide our understanding, like an eye suspended in the vault of heaven.' Dubois.