A shanti mantra is a peace invocation, a short prayer that is said before or after a text is studied or recited. Most of the best known ones come from the Upanishads, where they sit at the head of a chapter and are repeated by teacher and student at the start of study. This page brings together four of them in Devanagari, with a simple transliteration and a plain meaning for each: Om Purnamadah, Om Asato Ma Sadgamaya, Om Bhadram Karnebhih and Om Sham No Mitrah. The fifth of the common set, Sahana Vavatu, has its own page.
The word shanti means peace, and each of these verses closes with the refrain Om shantih shantih shantih, said three times. Tradition reads the three as peace within oneself, peace from the world around, and peace from forces beyond our control. Other teachers give other readings, and this is one of the commonly told ones.
The four mantras at a glance
| Mantra | Where it comes from | Its theme |
|---|---|---|
| Purnamadah | Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, opening of the fifth chapter | wholeness: the whole remains whole |
| Asato Ma Sadgamaya | Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, first chapter, third section | from unreal to real, dark to light, death to the deathless |
| Bhadram Karnebhih | Opening peace verses of the Prashna and other Upanishads | good hearing, good sight, a healthy long life |
| Sham No Mitrah | Taittiriya Upanishad, first section | kindness from the gods, truth in speech |
The text, transliteration and meaning
Om Purnamadah Purnamidam
Source: Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 5.1.1.
ॐ पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं पूर्णात्पूर्णमुदच्यते
पूर्णस्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते ॥
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥
Om purnamadah purnamidam purnatpurnamudachyate
Purnasya purnamadaya purnamevavashishyate
Om shantih shantih shantih
That is whole, this is whole. From the whole the whole comes forth. Take the whole from the whole, and the whole alone remains. Om, peace, peace, peace.
The word purna, whole or full, is the keynote. Teachers usually read “that” as the unseen source, Brahman, and “this” as the world we see, and say the verse claims that the world does not take anything away from the source. Other readings exist, and in the print the verse sits at the head of the fifth chapter of the Brihadaranyaka, with Shankara’s commentary after it explaining it as a statement about Brahman. Many families also say it as a general peace verse at the start of recitation, and the same verse is printed before the Isha Upanishad in some editions (the 1910 print we read does not print it there).
Om Asato Ma Sadgamaya
Source: Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28.
असतो मा सद्गमय
तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय
मृत्योर्मामृतं गमय ॥
Asato ma sadgamaya
Tamaso ma jyotirgamaya
Mrityormamritam gamaya
Lead me from the unreal to the real. Lead me from darkness to light. Lead me from death to the deathless.
In the Upanishad this is not a free-standing prayer. It is a set of three lines that the singer of the opening chant (the prastotri) says in the pavamana verses, and the text then explains each line: the unreal is death, the real is the deathless, darkness is death, light is the deathless. Today the three lines are widely used as a peace prayer at the start or close of a gathering. The text itself says that nothing here is hidden: the plain sense is the sense.
Om Bhadram Karnebhih
Source: Prashna, Mundaka and Mandukya Upanishads (opening peace verses).
ॐ भद्रं कर्णेभिः शृणुयाम देवाः
भद्रं पश्येमाक्षभिर्यजत्राः
स्थिरैरङ्गैस्तुष्टुवांसस्तनूभिः
व्यशेम देवहितं यदायुः ॥
स्वस्ति न इन्द्रो वृद्धश्रवाः
स्वस्ति नः पूषा विश्ववेदाः
स्वस्ति नस्तार्क्ष्योऽरिष्टनेमिः
स्वस्ति नो बृहस्पतिर्दधातु ॥
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥
Om bhadram karnebhih shrinuyama devah
Bhadram pashyemakshabhiryajatrah
Sthirairangaistushtuvamsastanubhih
Vyashema devahitam yadayuh
Svasti na indro vriddhashravah
Svasti nah pusha vishvavedah
Svasti nastarkshyo'rishtanemih
Svasti no brihaspatirdadhatu
Om shantih shantih shantih
May we hear what is good with our ears, O gods. May we see what is good with our eyes, O you who are worthy of worship. With firm limbs and bodies, praising you, may we live the life that is set for the gods. May Indra of great fame bring us well-being. May Pushan, who knows all, bring us well-being. May Tarkshya of the unharmed wheel-rim bring us well-being. May Brihaspati grant us well-being. Om, peace, peace, peace.
The verses come from the Rigveda (they are in its first book) and are used as the opening peace verses of several Upanishads. The prayer asks for good hearing, good sight, a healthy body and a long life used well, and then for well-being from four gods. The word svasti (well-being) in the four lines is the origin of the swastika sign’s name. The 1910 print has these verses at the head of the Prashna Upanishad; other Upanishads of the Atharva Veda tradition use the same verses.
Om Sham No Mitrah
Source: Taittiriya Upanishad, Shikshavalli (1.1).
ॐ शं नो मित्रः शं वरुणः
शं नो भवत्वर्यमा
शं न इन्द्रो बृहस्पतिः
शं नो विष्णुरुरुक्रमः
नमो ब्रह्मणे
नमस्ते वायो
त्वमेव प्रत्यक्षं ब्रह्मासि
त्वामेव प्रत्यक्षं ब्रह्म वदिष्यामि
ऋतं वदिष्यामि
सत्यं वदिष्यामि
तन्मामवतु
तद्वक्तारमवतु
अवतु माम्
अवतु वक्तारम् ॥
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥
Om sham no mitrah sham varunah
Sham no bhavatvaryama
Sham na indro brihaspatih
Sham no vishnururukramah
Namo brahmane
Namaste vayo
Tvameva pratyaksham brahmasi
Tvameva pratyaksham brahma vadishyami
Ritam vadishyami
Satyam vadishyami
Tanmamavatu
Tadvaktaramavatu
Avatu mam
Avatu vaktaram
Om shantih shantih shantih
May Mitra be kind to us, and Varuna. May Aryaman be kind to us. May Indra and Brihaspati be kind to us. May Vishnu of the wide stride be kind to us. Salutation to Brahman. Salutation to you, Vayu, the wind. You alone are Brahman made visible, and it is you alone that I will call Brahman made visible. I will speak what is in order. I will speak what is true. May that protect me. May that protect the speaker. May it protect me. May it protect the speaker. Om, peace, peace, peace.
This is the opening peace invocation of the first section of the Taittiriya Upanishad, which concerns pronunciation and study. It is the first of the two peace verses of that Upanishad, and the other is the Sahana Vavatu. The text asks the gods who rule day, ocean, law, strength, speech and the pervading power for kindness, and then bows to the wind as the breath that is visible Brahman. The print says vadishyami twice with ritam and satyam, usually read as order (what is right in nature and speech) and truth (what is so).
When and how shanti mantras are recited
They are said at the start of a lesson, at the start and end of a recitation, and at the close of a ceremony. Teacher and student say them together in the same pace. Customs differ by region, family and school, so follow the manner of your own teacher. A slow breath between the lines helps if you say them alone.
These are devotional and educational prayers and make no promise about results. They ask for quiet and a steady mind before work, and that is a reasonable thing to ask whatever your tradition.
Pronunciation notes
Say the vowels fully and give the visarga a light echo of the vowel before it, so shantih sounds like “shaan-ti-hi”. In purnamadah the final h echoes as “puur-na-ma-da-ha”. In bhadram the bh is a breathy b. In sham the long hum of the anusvara closes the syllable, “sham”. A teacher’s voice is the best guide to rhythm.
Sources and editions. All four texts are read from page images of the Upanishad Bhashya volumes of the Works of Sri Sankaracharya printed at the Vani Vilas Press, Srirangam, in 1910, scanned on archive.org. Purnamadah: volume 10 (identifier wg1065), scan leaf 16, printed page 685, at the head of the fifth chapter of the Brihadaranyaka. Asato Ma: volume 8 (identifier wg1063), scan leaves 93 and 94, printed pages 72 and 73, in the third section of the first chapter. Bhadram Karnebhih: volume 4 (identifier wg1059), scan leaf 254, the page before the Prashna commentary. Sham No Mitrah: volume 6 (identifier wg1061), scan leaf 29, before the Taittiriya commentary. These are pre-1960 prints and we follow their words. A note on small marks. The decorative pages of Bhadram Karnebhih and Sham No Mitrah are low-resolution black and white scans in which the anusvara and visarga signs are not visible on several words (for example the print appears to show sha no mitra where the verse has sham no mitrah). We have supplied those marks from the sense and the grammar and do not count them as differences. The printed Prashna page shows the Vedic form tushtuvaa followed by a small sign, and we read it as tushtuvamsah. We have not collated other editions word by word, and we did not find a witness for any word where we differ from the print. We put spaces between words and write the nasals in the usual style of this site. The meanings are our own wording and the transliteration is a simple guide to sound.
Related mantras and pages
- Sahana Vavatu Mantra: the other peace verse of the Taittiriya Upanishad
- Gayatri Mantra: a verse for clear thinking
- Ganapati Atharvashirsha: an Upanishad with its own opening peace verses
- Purusha Suktam: another well-known Vedic hymn
- Saraswati Vandana: prayers to the goddess of learning
- All mantras, stotras, chalisas and aartis
Frequently asked questions
↳ What is a shanti mantra?
It is a peace invocation said before or after a text is studied, most often one of the Upanishads. It usually ends with Om shantih shantih shantih, the threefold peace.
↳ What does Om Purnamadah mean?
It says that that is whole and this is whole, that the whole comes from the whole, and that when the whole is taken from the whole, the whole remains. Teachers read it as a statement about Brahman and the world.
↳ What does Asato Ma Sadgamaya mean?
It means lead me from the unreal to the real, from darkness to light, and from death to the deathless. In the Upanishad the text goes on to explain each of the three lines.
↳ Where does Bhadram Karnebhih come from?
It is a set of verses from the Rigveda that several Upanishads, including the Prashna, use as their opening peace verses. It asks for good hearing, good sight and a healthy long life.
↳ Is Sham No Mitrah the same as Sahana Vavatu?
No. Both are peace verses of the Taittiriya Upanishad but they open different sections. Sham No Mitrah opens the first section, on study of sound, and Sahana Vavatu opens the section on the bliss of Brahman.