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.

॥ 5.14.8 ॥

Her mouth is fire

एतद्ध वै तज्जनको वैदेहो बुडिलमाश्वतराश्विमुवाच यन्नु हो तद्गायत्रीविदब्रूथाः । अथ कथं हस्तीभूतो वहसीति । मुखं ह्यस्याः सम्राण्न विदां चकरेति होवाच । तस्या अग्निरेव मुखम् । यदि ह वा अपि बह्विवाग्नावभ्यादधति सर्वमेव तत्संदहति । एवं हैवैवंविद्यद्यपि बह्विव पापं कुरुते सर्वमेव तत्संप्साय शुद्धः पूतोऽजरोऽमृतः संभवति ॥

In transliteration

etaddha vai tajjanako vaideho buḍilamāśvatarāśvimuvāca yannu ho tadgāyatrīvidabrūthāḥ | atha kathaṃ hastībhūto vahasīti | mukhaṃ hyasyāḥ samrāṇna vidāṃ cakareti hovāca | tasyā agnireva mukham | yadi ha vā api bahvivāgnāvabhyādadhati sarvameva tatsaṃdahati | evaṃ haivaivaṃvidyadyapi bahviva pāpaṃ kurute sarvameva tatsaṃpsāya śuddhaḥ pūto'jaro'mṛtaḥ saṃbhavati ||

In English

Concerning this, Janaka of Videha once said to Budila, the son of Asvatarasva: How is this? You declared yourself a knower of the Gayatri. Then how is it that you have become an elephant and carry burdens? He answered: Because, your Majesty, I did not know her mouth. Her mouth is fire alone. Even if one heaps ever so much upon a fire, it burns it all away. And so one who knows this, even if he does ever so much evil, consumes it all and becomes pure, cleansed, unaging, and immortal.

In plain words

King Janaka asked Budila why, claiming to know the Gayatri, he had been reborn as a burden-bearing elephant; Budila answered that he had not known her mouth. Her mouth is fire, which burns up whatever is placed in it; likewise the true knower burns away all his evil and becomes pure, ageless, and deathless.

In the commentaries

Sri SankaraAdvaita

Sankara takes fire as the mouth of the Gayatri: as fire consumes all fuel, the one who meditates on the Gayatri complete with its mouth burns away even great evil and is purified, becoming undecaying and immortal.

Sri Sankara, Brhadaranyaka-bhasya 5.14.8 (via Madhavananda)

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