Greatness of Gayatri - A Story from Akbar Nama

An interesting episode is seen mentioned in an Islamic book "Akbar nama", the biography of Emperor Akbar.

When Akbar was ruling India, Birbal was his minister. Akbar and Birbal would often travel incognito to collect first hand information about the various happenings in the country. On one occasion, they noticed a brahmin going begging from house to house. Akbar pointed this out to Birbal. Birbal noticed the beggar and kept quiet. After reaching home he sent word for the brahmin to meet him.

When the brahmin called on Birbal, Birbal said, "O Brahmin - You collect your daily earnings through begging from me every day. However, in lieu of begging please chant Gayatri Japam during the three sandhya periods 108 times everyday". The brahmin agreed and after collecting the money from Birbal, started chanting Gayatri Mantra regularly. After a few days, he thought, why not increase the chanting to 1008 times, since he had a lot of time. Very soon, people started giving him charity in the form of food and cash. In this way the brahmin stopped going to Birbal's house for begging. His daily meditation earnt him the power to acquire knowledge, acquire an attractive personality and soon he transformed into a good expounder of knowledge. More and more people started coming to him and he became a well known personality. Birbal also heard about him. One day Birbal visited the brahmin and asked him why he had stopped coming to his house. The brahmin profusely thanked Birbal for putting him on the right path by guiding him at the right time.

One day Birbal mentioned to Akbar that a saintly person had come to town and Akbar promptly invited the person and honoured him. Birbal then asked Akbar whether he remembered this saintly person but Akbar could not recollect. Birbal then reminded Akbar about the brahmin beggar episode. Akbar after hearing this exclaimed " Oh! what a Change!" This episode appears in the Akbar Nama and brings out the virtue and greatness of the Gayatri Mantra.