Judge's Commentary on the Gayatri

William Quan Judge · Higher Ethics and Devotion Series · 6 pages

William Quan Judge's commentary on the Gāyatrī, six pages, under the running head “The Divine Self is the source and light of our being.” The translation Judge adopts stands as the epigraph: an address to the one who gives sustenance to the universe, from whom all proceed and to whom all return, asking that the face of the true Sun now hidden by a vase of golden light be unveiled, that we may see the truth and do our whole duty on the journey to that sacred seat.

A head-note states the reading the commentary develops — that as the sun we see is not the true sun, so the light of intellect is not the real sun of our moral being, and that only untiring devotion to the welfare of humanity and aspiration to the Divine Self within can bring anyone nearer the true sun who is the source and object of our being. Judge then explains what the Gāyatrī is: the sacred verse of the Hindus, beginning with Om, their sacred word and letter, and opening Oṃ, Bhūr, Bhuvaḥ, Svaḥ. The first word, he says, contains a declaration of the three periods of a Manvantara and the three powers of the one Being who alone Is — the beginning, middle and end of a Manvantara, and the powers of creation or manifesting, preservation or carrying on, and destruction. The first three words designate the three worlds, and the verse as a whole is called an aspiration in the highest sense. Judge then notes a limit on what he can print: every Brahman at his initiation receives further instruction in this verse, and he excuses himself from giving it, on the ground that he cannot give it in a way in which he has not received it. The commentary proper follows, taking the translation word by word from Unveil onwards.

Read the full text (PDF, 0.6 MB, 6 pages)