Manava Dharmashastra 2.82

2.82

ākāśa iva sarvavyāpī vibhuḥ sampadyate, khamūrtiḥ khasvabhāvavān bhavati | na tu 'mūrtiḥ' śarīram, ākāśasya śarīrābhāvāt | "atha kimidaṃ brahma, yadrūpāpattirucyate" | paramātmā''nandarūpaḥ, yasyeme kṣetrajñā pavanajavoddhatasya vārirāśerivormayaḥ | te yathā praśāntāvasthe tasmiṃstadrūpā bhavanti, evamamī tadrūpā ātmānaḥ sampadyante | viśeṣataśca sarvametad dvādaśe vakṣyate | adhyayanamidaṃ gāyatryāścoditaṃ na japo, na cātrāvṛttigaṇanā'sti | atandrita itivacanādbahukṛtvaḥ karaṇaṃ pratīyate | sakṛtprayoge hi nāsti tandrāśaṅkā | mokṣārthino'yaṃ vidhiḥ |

He who, untired, recites this, day after day, for three years, turns into air, and becoming transfigured into Ākāśa, reaches the supreme brahman.—(82)

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
He becomes omnipresent, all-pervading, like Ākāśa.

‘Transfigured into Ākāśa’—means that he acquires the nature of Ākāśa. ‘Mūrti,’ ‘Figure,’ does not stand here for the Body; as Ākāśa has no ‘body’ at all.

“What is this ‘Brahman’ into whose form the man is said to become merged?”

It is the Supreme Soul, of the nature of Bliss; He of whom all these embodied souls are mere inodes, just as waves are of the ocean perturbed by the force of wind. And just as when the ocean becomes calm, the waves become merged into it, in the same manner the embodied souls become transformed and merged into the Supreme Soul. All this is going to be described in detail in Discourse 12.

What is enjoined in the present context is the mere reciting and study of the Gāyatrī verse, not its Japa, repetition; this is shown by the fact that the number of repetitions is not stated.

‘Untired’;—this denotes that the recitation is to be carried out again and again; as a single recitation can never tire a person.

What is enjoined here pertains to persons seeking for Final Release.—(82)

This verse is quoted in Vīramitrodaya (Āḥnika, p. 321), which supplies the following explanatory notes:—

‘Vāyubhūtaḥ’—as quick- moving as the wind, or ‘encased in the Subtle Body’—as explained in Kalpataru;—‘Khamūrtimān’—becoming as all-pervading as the Ākāśa, becomes the Supreme Self.,

It is quoted also in Parāśaramādhava (Ācāra, p. 286) as eulogising the japa of the Gāyatrī mantra;—and in Saṃskāraratnamālā (p. 236).

Comparative notes by various authors
(verses 81-82)
See Comparative notes for Verse 2.81.