Khila Kanda. Adhyaya 5, Brahmana 14. The Gayatri and its four feet
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Each mantra is given four ways: the Sanskrit in its Devanagari script, the same sounds in Roman letters, an English translation set in our own voice, and then the line once more in plain words, for a first and unhurried reading.
Not every passage is opened to the same depth. A few central mantras carry the full cross-school commentary, where the schools are set side by side. The rest are kept here whole and faithful, set in their place but not expounded, so the book stays entire and nothing is dropped for being thought minor.
Where the schools read a line differently, the difference is kept open. None is crowned and none is corrected. Each is met on its own terms, and where they contradict, the contradiction is left standing for you to sit with.
Her fourth foot, beyond the dust
The out-breath, the in-breath, the diffused breath: these are eight syllables, and one foot of the Gayatri has eight syllables. So this set of words is that very third foot of the Gayatri. Whoever knows this third foot of hers in this way wins everything here that breathes, as far as breathing reaches. And now her fourth foot is this seen yet world-surpassing foot, the one that shines yonder, beyond all dust. What is fourth is the turīya. It is called the seen foot because it is as if seen. It is called beyond all dust because it shines high above the whole region of dust, far up. And whoever knows this foot of hers in this way shines with splendor and with fame.
The three vital breaths (prāṇa, apāna, vyāna) count eight syllables, the third foot of the Gayatri; knowing it, one masters all living, breathing things. The fourth foot is the sun, called the seen foot since it seems visible and the dust-surpassing foot since it shines high above everything; one who meditates on it shines with glory and fame.