Vedic · वैदिकMantra

Asato Ma Sad Gamaya

Three movements — from the unreal to the real, from darkness to light, from death to what does not die. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28.

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28edition

Sanskrit · संस्कृत

ॐ असतो मा सद्गमय । तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय । मृत्योर्मा अमृतं गमय ॥ ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥

oṃ asato mā sad gamaya tamaso mā jyotir gamaya mṛtyor mā amṛtaṃ gamaya oṃ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ

This text is shown without svara (Vedic accent) marks — no marked edition has been verified for it yet. Accent matters in Vedic recitation, so we would rather show none than show the wrong ones.

No verified recitation yet. We publish audio only with a named reciter and a recorded licence, rather than files of unknown provenance.

Meaning

Lead me from the unreal to the real; from darkness to light; from death to what does not die.

This rendering is by a DharmSetu editor, not a quotation from a published translation. Compare with the public-domain translation.

A Hindi meaning has not been written for this mantra yet. Hindi is authored by a named editor rather than machine-translated, so it arrives more slowly.

How to recite

Three parallel lines, each ending in gamaya, followed by the threefold śāntiḥ. Let each line finish before beginning the next; the repetition is the point. The j in jyotir is as in 'jump', not the French j.

Pronunciation key — sounds commonly got wrong

ट ठ ड ढ ण · ṭ ṭh ḍ ḍh ṇ: Retroflex — the tongue curls back and touches the roof of the mouth. Distinct from the dental त थ द ध न, where the tongue touches the teeth.
श ष स · ś ṣ s: Three different sounds: ś as in “shy”, ṣ retroflex and further back, s plain. Collapsing them changes words.
ः · ḥ (visarga): A soft outward breath echoing the preceding vowel — not a hard “ha”.
ं · ṃ (anusvara): Nasalises the vowel; the closing sound follows the consonant that comes next.
Long vs short vowels — a / ā, i / ī, u / ū: Vowel length is meaningful in Sanskrit. Hold the macron vowels roughly twice as long.
Aspirated consonants — kh, gh, ch, th, dh, ph, bh: A distinct puff of breath. ph is an aspirated p, never an English “f”.

Context

The three lines are one movement stated three ways, each a little less abstract than the last. In context the passage is part of the Udgitha section, where the chant is described as carrying the reciter past what obstructs.

Recited at / traditionally recited for

Shanti path (peace invocation)Knowledge (jnana)Peace (shanti)

Classified as Vedic — From the Vedic corpus — Samhita, Brahmana, Aranyaka or Upanishad. Carries a rishi, a metre, and accent marking. Basis for this classification.

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