A few days ago I was on a trip to South India. During this time I got to see many temples of Goddess Gayatri in almost all the cities like Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Mysore etc. Goddess Gayatri is worshipped along with Shiva, Ganesha, Kartikeya and Sriyantra in all the temples except the Mysore Palace. This surprised me as I have known the Goddess as a power that illuminates. I am wondering what could be the rationale behind this which seems to be against the scriptures. Can you please shed some light on this😊?

The worship of goddess Gayatri is relatively new. I am not sure when these temples were built because in ancient scriptures you here so much more about Durga, Kali, Parvati, Lakshmi, Saraswati. The goddess Gayatri became well known mainly after the efforts of Sri Ram Sharma Acharya ji in the previous century. Number of temples have come up after that. 

The Maharaja of Mysore was a Shakta, a Kshatriya devoted to power and not so much to wisdom. He naturally worshipped Durga and the festival of goddess Durga is celebrated there even today with much pomp and show. 

Affectionately,

Alok Da