Shiva Gayatri Mantra
ॐ तत्पुरुषाय विद्महे महादेवाय धीमहि तन्नो रुद्रः प्रचोदयात्॥
oṁ tatpuruṣāya vidmahe mahādevāya dhīmahi tanno rudraḥ pracodayāt||
Oṃ. That Person (tatpuruṣāya) we know (vidmahe), upon the Great God (mahādevāya) we meditate (dhīmahi). May that (tat) Rudra (rudraḥ) inspire (pracodayāt) us (naḥ).
This sacred gāyatrī to Śiva employs the classical tri-pada structure while invoking the supreme reality through three of his most profound epithets. The mantra establishes a complete contemplative movement from recognition through meditation to divine inspiration.
Tatpuruṣa designates the cosmic Person (puruṣa) who is simultaneously "That" (tat) — the transcendent absolute — and the intimate Self dwelling in all beings. This is Śiva in his fourth aspect within the pañcabrahma, governing the concealing function (tirodhāna) that allows the One to appear as many without losing unity.
Mahādeva reveals the Great God (mahā-deva) whose greatness (mahatva) lies not in power over creation but in being the very consciousness (deva from div "to shine") in which all experience arises. The term dhīmahi indicates not ordinary thinking but the profound meditative absorption (dhyāna) wherein individual consciousness recognizes its essential identity with cosmic consciousness.
The concluding prayer — tan no rudraḥ pracodayāt — invokes Rudra's inspiring power (pracodanā) not as external blessing but as the awakening of our own inherent wisdom-nature. Rudra as "the roaring one" represents the dynamic aspect of Śiva that dissolves all limiting concepts and reveals the natural state of unlimited awareness.
This gāyatrī thus serves as both devotional practice and direct pointing (pratyabhijñā) toward the recognition of our essential nature as Śiva-consciousness itself.