Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣadबृहदारण्यक उपनिषद्

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.

॥ 5.14.7 ॥

Worship of the footless one

तस्या उपस्थानम् । गायत्र्यस्येकपदी द्विपदी त्रिपदी चतुष्पदि । अपदसि । न हि पद्यसे । नमस्ते तुरीयाय दर्शताय पदाय परोरजसे । असावदो मा प्रापदिति । यं द्विष्यादसावस्मै कामो मा समर्धीति वा । न हैवास्मै स कामः समृध्यते यस्मा एवमुपतिष्ठते । अहमदः प्रापमिति वा ॥

In transliteration

tasyā upasthānam | gāyatryasyekapadī dvipadī tripadī catuṣpadi | apadasi | na hi padyase | namaste turīyāya darśatāya padāya parorajase | asāvado mā prāpaditi | yaṃ dviṣyādasāvasmai kāmo mā samardhīti vā | na haivāsmai sa kāmaḥ samṛdhyate yasmā evamupatiṣṭhate | ahamadaḥ prāpamiti vā ||

In English

Here is her worship. O Gayatri, you are one-footed, two-footed, three-footed, four-footed. You are footless, for you do not move. Salutation to your fourth foot, the seen, world-surpassing foot. May such and such a one not reach that. If one would harm an enemy, let him say: may that desire of his not prosper. Then that desire does not prosper for the one against whom he thus worships. Or let him say: may I myself reach that.

In plain words

This is how to address the Gayatri in worship: she is one-, two-, three-, four-footed, and also footless since she does not walk; one salutes her fourth foot, the sun. The meditator may turn the worship against a foe, wishing the foe's desire to fail (and it fails), or may wish the desired thing for himself.

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