How Gayatri Mantra Helps In Healthy Ageing

Gayatri Mantra can add to your wellness quotient. Read on to know more.

In the Vedic tradition, Gayatri Mantra, made up of 24 syllables, is considered to be the highest form of knowledge. However, it does have a greater significance beyond religion and spirituality. 

Did you know chanting Gayatri Mantra comes with an array of health benefits, especially for older adults? A study conducted by the Department of Nursing at Diponegoro University, Indonesia shows how mindfulness with Gayatri Mantra can be an effective complementary therapy in reducing geriatric anxiety, the global incidence of which is 6.9 per cent according to data released by the National Center of Biotechnology Information (NCBI). 

Gayatri Mantra can make older adults environmentally aware and the strength of this mantra can help them define how their day would be, based on weather forecasts, the slugs, the butterflies, the birds and the pattern of clouds, believes environmentalist Hamsini Murthy. 

Health benefits of Gayatri Mantra on older adults

Calms your mind, reduces anxiety and phobia: When you chant the Gayatri Mantra, you start with ‘Om’. When you pronounce ‘Om’, it sends a vibration via your lips, tongue, palate, back of your throat and skull. This along with the other syllables of the Gayatri Mantra effectively calms down your mind and helps you to concentrate and focus, thereby curbing the levels of your anxiety, panic and phobia, sometimes common psychological issues among older adults. 

Tackles stress-induced damage: Not just anxiety, chanting of Gayatri Mantra helps older adults beat the damage caused by oxidative stress - a disturbance in the balance between the production of reactive oxygen species (free radicals) and antioxidant defences which also enhances tissue damage among those with Diabetes Mellitus. Besides, the recitation of the Gayatri Mantra is also known to reverse the adverse impact of constant stress on your body. 

Keeps depression away: Gayatri Mantra is known to stimulate the brain, enhance focus, concentration and de-stress. It is also known to stimulate the functioning of the vagus nerve - a common approach to treating depression and even epilepsy reveals a study published in the International Journal of Yoga. Also, the chanting of this mantra stimulates the pineal body (a small endocrine gland), enabling the release of endorphins and other relaxing hormones, thereby keeping depression at an arm’s length among older adults. 

Keeps up heart health: As you chant the Gayatri Mantra, it slows down your breathing, thereby helping in synchronising and regularising your heartbeats. A study published in the British Medical Journal shows, that this synchronised beating makes the functioning of the heart steady and enhances baroreflex sensitivity (a mechanism that helps keep blood pressure in check). These are indicators of a healthy heart that keep heart disease at bay. 

Amps up the working of your nerves: Chanting Gayatri Mantra exerts pressure on your lips, tongue, vocal cord, palate and the connecting region in and around your brain. This creates a resonance that helps in strengthening and stimulating nerve functions. And how does it help older adults? It keeps their memory sense intact and efficiently supports their balance and cognitive functions. 

Reduces asthma flare-ups: If you’re asthmatic, chanting Gayatri Mantra could do wonders. The mantra chanting involves deep breathing and holding breath for a short period which enables strengthening your lungs and can be therapeutic in providing relief from the symptoms of asthma. 

Glows up your skin: Worried about dull, wrinkled skin? Chanting Gayatri Mantra can be a saviour. The vibrations generated while reciting the mantra improve blood circulation on the face and also help your skin to get rid of toxins. Besides, deep breathing oxygenates your skin and makes it glowing and toned. 

How Gayatri Mantra can make your day better

Environmentalist Hamsini Murthy highlights how chanting Gayatri Mantra can enhance the day to day well-being of older adults and help them establish a connection with nature. 

• Gayatri Mantra can be chanted during dawn and dusk. 

• At the brink of dawn, face the rising sun and take a deep breath, lift your palms above your head in a Namaste posture and while breathing out, say ‘Om’ as long as you can. When you say it in this manner, it will vibrate all the 33 vertebrae on your spine, preparing you for the day.

• You then look down at the earth (Bh?r), the horizon and environment around (Bhuvah) and then at the sky and clouds (Svah). Then you say Tat Savitur Varenyam to look at the beautiful Sun - it’s the only time of the day you can gaze at its glory. You then absorb all of it and close your eyes and say Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi, Dhiyo Yo Nah Prachoday?t, thanking the creator for all that you see and are going to see during that day.

How do you benefit from nature while chanting?

The bliss of solar energy: You get to gaze at the Sun and enjoy the health benefits of solar energy. You may also pour water facing the Sun. This will act as a prism breaking the light into seven colours lighting up the Chakras or parts of the body which benefit from each colour.

“When you do this exercise every day, you realise the sun doesn’t always rise at the same spot every day. Each day you face the Sun at a slightly different angle,” says Murthy. 

The bout of fresh oxygen: It’s the time when the air around you is changing. The plants change their breathing cycle giving you a fresh burst of oxygen. “If you wake up in the darkness and spend the half-hour enjoying the change in light and waking up of birds, you will instantly feel the change of atmosphere around you,” says Murthy. 

Learn more about winds: The winds don’t always blow in the same direction. Here, in India, it blows one way for half the year (southwest) and the other way for half the year (northeast) and the chanting makes you experience that. 

Record Science Lessons from nature: The Earth doesn’t look and smell the same throughout the year. The dusty summers, the dewy winters, the decay in autumn, the wetness of the rainy season along with smells of seasonal flowers and insects could be wonderful science lessons to record and chanting of Gayatri Mantra daily helps you absorb them. It also reflects the change in the colour of the sky, and the shapes and shades of the clouds daily. 

Gayatri Mantra is interesting in ways beyond religion and spirituality. It can help you age well with a sanctified link to nature. Do you chant the Gayatri Mantra or any other powerful chant? Share your experience with us in the comments section below.