सैषा गायत्र्येतस्मिंस्तुरीये दर्शते पदे परोरजसि प्रतिष्ठिता; तद्वै तत्सत्ये प्रतिष्ठितं; चक्शुर्वै सत्यम्, चक्शुर्हि वै सत्यम्; तस्माद्यदिदानीं द्वौ विवदमानावेयाताम्, अहमदर्शम्, अहमश्रौषमिति, य एवं ब्रूयादहमदर्शमिति, तस्मा एव श्रद्दध्याम; तद्वै तत्सत्यं बले प्रतिष्ठितम्; प्राणो वै बलम्, तत्प्राणे प्रतिष्ठितम्; तस्मादाहुर्बलं सत्यादोगीय इति; एवं वेषा गायत्र्यध्यात्मं प्रतिष्ठिता; सा हैषा गयांस्तत्रे; प्राणा वै गयाः, तत्प्राणांस्तत्रे; तद्यद्गयांस्तत्रे तस्माद्गायत्री नाम; स यामेवामूं सावित्रीमन्वाह, एषैव सा; स यस्मा अन्वाह तस्य प्राणांस्त्रायते ॥ ४ ॥
saiṣā gāyatryetasmiṃsturīye darśate pade parorajasi pratiṣṭhitā; tadvai tatsatye pratiṣṭhitaṃ; cakśurvai satyam, cakśurhi vai satyam; tasmādyadidānīṃ dvau vivadamānāveyātām, ahamadarśam, ahamaśrauṣamiti, ya evaṃ brūyādahamadarśamiti, tasmā eva śraddadhyāma; tadvai tatsatyaṃ bale pratiṣṭhitam; prāṇo vai balam, tatprāṇe pratiṣṭhitam; tasmādāhurbalaṃ satyādogīya iti; evaṃ veṣā gāyatryadhyātmaṃ pratiṣṭhitā; sā haiṣā gayāṃstatre; prāṇā vai gayāḥ, tatprāṇāṃstatre; tadyadgayāṃstatre tasmādgāyatrī nāma; sa yāmevāmūṃ sāvitrīmanvāha, eṣaiva sā; sa yasmā anvāha tasya prāṇāṃstrāyate ॥ 4 ॥
4. That Gāyatrī rests on this fourth, apparently visible, supramundane foot. That again rests on truth. The eye is truth, for the eye is indeed truth. Therefore if even to-day two persons come disputing, one saying, ‘I saw it,’ and another, ‘I heard of it,’ we believe him only who says, ‘I saw it.’ That truth rests on strength. The vital force is strength. (Hence) truth rests on the vital force. Therefore they say strength is more powerful than truth. Thus the Gāyatrī rests on the vital force within the body. That Gāyatrī saved the Gayas. The organs are the Gayas; so it saved the organs. Now, because it saved the organs, therefore it is called the Gāyatrī. The Sāvitrī that the teacher communicates to the pupil is no other than this. It saves the organs of him to whom it is communicated.
That Gāyatrī with three feet which has been described, which comprises the three worlds, the three Vedas and the vital force, rests on this fourth, apparently visible, supramundane foot, because the sun is the essence of the gross and subtle universe. Things deprived of their essence become lifeless and unstable, as wood and so forth are when their pith is burnt. So the three-footed Gāyatrī, consisting of the gross and subtle universe, rests with its three feet on the sun. That fourth foot (the sun) again rests on truth. What is that truth? The eye is truth. How? For the eye is indeed truth —it is a well-known fact. How? Therefore if even to-day two persons come disputing, giving contradictory accounts, one saying, ‘I saw it,’ and another, ‘I heard of it—the thing is not as you saw it,’ of the two we believe him only who says, ‘I saw it,’ and not him who says, ‘I heard of it.’ What a man hears of may sometimes be false, but not what he sees with his own eyes. So we do not believe the man who says, ‘I heard of it.’ Therefore the eye, being the means of the demonstration of truth, is truth. That is to say, the fourth foot of the Gāyatrī with the other three feet rests on the eye. It has also been stated: ‘On what does that sun rest?—On the eye’ (III. ix. 20).
That truth which is the support of the fourth foot of the Gāyatrī rests on strength. What is that strength? The vital force is strength. Truth rests on that strength or the vital force. So it has been stated that everything is pervaded by the Sūtra (III. vii. 2). Since truth rests on strength, therefore they say strength is more powerful than truth. It is also a well-known fact that a thing which supports another is more powerful than the latter. We never see anything weak being the support of a stronger thing. Thus, in the above-mentioned way, the Gāyatrī rests on the vital force within the body. That Gāyatrī is the vital force; hence the universe rests on the Gāyatrī. The Gāyatrī is that vital force in which all the gods, all the Vedas, and rites together with their results are uniñed. So, as the vital force, it is the self, as it were, of the universe. That Gāyatrī saved the Gayas. What are they? The organs such as that of speech are the Gayas, for they produce sound.[6] So it saved the organs. Because it saved the organs (of the priests using them), therefore it is called the Gāyatrī; owing to this saving of the organs it came to be known as the Gāyatri. The Sāvitrī or hymn to the sun that the teacher communicates—first a quarter of it, then half, and finally the whole—to the pupil, after investing him with the holy thread at the age of eight, is no other than this Gāyatrī, which is identical with the vital force, and is the self, as it were, of the universe. What the child receives from him is now explained here. It saves the organs of him, the child, to whom it is communicated, from falling into hell and other dire fates.