Shanti Manthram: Kindly help with the meaning of this Sanskrit Prayer

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HARIAUMShantiManthram; Kindly help with the word to word meaning of this Sanskrit Prayer.In some context I was looking for themeaning and other details of the Shanti Mantram(?). First I searched ourGuruvayur Group (we are lucky to have many Sanskrit Scholars among us) and Icould get Message No. 8975 from Smt. Savitri Puram: but that was notcomplete. What I could get from myInternet searches are just some unconnected pieces of information as follows:TheShanthi Manthram(?) - belongs to SamaVeda - Brihdarnyaka Upanishad (without any proper co-odinations). The Text: (kidly correct the text too)Asatho ma Sath gamaya - (Lead me from unreal to real:Asat to Sat) Thamaso ma Jyothir gamaya - (Lead me from ignorance to wisdom:darkness to light)Mruthyor ma Amrutham gamaya - (Leadme from mortality to Immortality: to the Ultimate Truth)Om Shanthi, Om Shanthi, Om Shanthi hiItwill be very much appreciated if some of our learned devotees give the detailslike its source, word to word meanings and the essence of its message. With Regards to all fellow devotees, Ursaffly nb nair.

[Guest guest]

Hari Aum!

 

Namaste Nair ji,

 

Following are some of the sites which I found in the internet when searched for

this manthra. Hope this also helps.

 

http://scriptures.ru/asathoma.htm

 

THE PRAYER AFTER MEDITATION

ASATHOMA SATH GAMAYA

O Lord, lead me from the false, deluding earthly joys and pleasures to the

Eternal Truth of Bliss (Ananda) of the Divine within.

THAMASO MA JYOTHIR GAMAYA

O Lord, lead me from the darkness of ignorance binding me to this perishable

body into the Eternal Light of the Soul Divine within.

MRUTHYOR MA AMRUTHAM GAMAYA

O Lord, lead me from death to the Eternal Life, Divine, of oneness with you,

within and all around forever and make me immortal.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFV_I9c5gh8 & feature=related

 

http://archives.amritapuri.org/bharat/mantra/asatoma.php

 

Asatoma Ma Sadgamaya

asato ma sadgamaya

tamaso ma jyotirgamaya

mrtyorma amrtam gamaya

Lead me from the asat to the sat.

Lead me from darkness to light.

Lead me from death to immortality.

 

(Brhadaranyaka Upanishad — I.iii.28)

This is true prayer—the seeker's admission of his sense of limitedness and his

heartfelt cry for assistance in transcendence. It is not a prayer for the things

of the world. It is not a pray for food, shelter, health, partnership, riches,

success, fame, glory or even for heaven1. One who recites these three mantras

has realized that such things are full of holes, soaked in pain and, even in

abundance, will forever leave him wanting. It is in this full understanding that

one turns to this prayer. The essence of each of these three mantras is the

same: " O, Guru, help me free myself from my sundry misunderstandings regarding

myself, the universe and God and bless me with true knowledge. "

It is in this spirit that people throughout the world are regularly chanting

these mantras, and in which they are chanted twice daily at Amma's ashrams—both

at the conclusion of the morning arcana and after the evening arati.

The first mantra—asato ma sadgamaya—means, " Lead me from the asat to the sat. "

In fact, it is best to not translate sat (nor its negative counterpart asat)

for, as with many Sanskrit words, sat has many meanings and not only are most of

them applicable here, their deliberate combined import provides a depth that no

one of them could hold independently. These co-applicable meanings include:

existence, reality and truth. (Co-applicable meanings for asat being:

non-existence, non-reality and untruth.)

We often speak of religion or philosophy as a search for Truth. But only in

India's philosophy of Advaita Vedanta has the concept of " truth " been so

meticulously and successfully dissected. According to Advaita, for something to

be considered true in the ultimate sense, it must be true not just at one given

moment, but always be true—true in all three periods of time: the past, present

and future. In fact, Advaita goes one step further. It says if something does

not exist in all three periods of time that it does not truly exist, it is not

ultimately real. Thus, truth, existence and reality are one and the same. That

reality, Vedanta says, is what we call God.

The universe and its things are in a constant state of change. The planets are

in constant motion, their positions in relation to each other and the other

astral bodies are in continuous flux. The seasons similarly are ever-shifting.

Scientifically, we can easily understand that our bodies (and the cells within

them) come into existence, are born and then go through periods of growth,

sustenance, deterioration and death. In fact these six modifications are

part-and-parcel of everything in creation. On the level of emotions, we move

back and forth between happiness, sorrow and anger. Even our intellectual

convictions rarely stay fixed for very long. So, according to Vedanta, we cannot

call this world ultimately real. It is not ultimately true. Ultimately, it does

not exist. It seems real etc. but it is not. Such a thing is called asat.

The seeker giving voice to this prayer has come to understand the finite nature

of all the objects of the world, and he wants the Guru to guide him from the

asat to the sat. He is fed up with depending on things that are not real. Why?

Because just as the sandcastle is always washed away by the tide, dependence on

the asat always ends in pain. Sat is our True Self—the blissful consciousness

that ever was, is and ever will be. Being beyond time, this consciousness can

never be washed away by the time's tides. In fact, sat is there as the essential

part of all of the asat objects. It is a matter of separating the wheat from the

chaff, as it were.

When speaking about the ultimate reality, Sages say it is of the nature of

sat-cit-ananda: pure existence, pure consciousness and pure bliss.

The second mantra—tamaso ma jyotirgamaya—means " Lead me from darkness to light. "

When the Vedas refer to darkness and light, they mean ignorance and knowledge,

respectfully. This is so because ignorance, like darkness, obscures true

understanding. And in the same way that the only remedy for darkness is light,

the only remedy for ignorance is knowledge. The knowledge spoken of here is

again the knowledge of one's true nature.

Currently, in the darkness of our ignorance, we believe ourselves to be bound

and limited (otherwise we would not be reciting these mantras in the first

place). But the Guru and the scriptures are telling us that, in truth, we are

not, never will be and never have been bound. Eternally we sat-cit-ananda. The

only thing that can remove our ignorance regarding our true nature is a

spiritual education at the hands of a True Master like Amma. At the culmination

of such an education, light floods the room, as it were; darkness vanishes.

The final mantra—mrtyorma amrtam gamaya—means: " Lead me from death to

immortality. " This should not be taken as a prayer to live endless years in

heaven or on earth. It is a prayer to the Guru for assistance in realizing the

truth that " I was never born, nor can ever die, as I am not the body, mind and

intellect, but the eternal, blissful consciousness that serves as the substratum

of all creation. "

It is important to remember that, with all these mantras, the leading is not a

physical leading. The Atma is not something far away that we have to make a

pilgrimage to, nor is it something we need to transform ourselves into. Atma

means " self. " We don't need to transform our self into our self. Nor do we need

to travel to it. We are it. The journey is a journey of knowledge. It is journey

from what we misunderstand to be our self to what truly is our self. What the

mantras really means is " Lead me to the understanding that I am not the limited

body, mind and intellect, but am, was and always will be that eternal, absolute,

blissful consciousness that serves as their substratum. "

 

Once, when discussing these mantras, Amma said the first step in attaining the

knowledge for which one is praying when they chant these mantras is satsang:

listening to spiritual talks, reading spiritual books and being in the company

of spiritual seekers and, of most importantly, spiritual masters. " We need to

continuously be fed the knowledge that our true nature is the Atma and not the

body mind and intellect, " Amma said. Through satsang, our attachment to the asat

gradually lessens. " Slowly as you understand that everything in the world—all

worldly relationship, all worldly things—are ever-changing an impermanent, your

attitude towards the world changes. We gain detachment. " As we become more and

more detached, our desires also naturally decrease, because we know that the

things of the world are impermanent and cannot bring us lasting happiness. As

the desires decrease, the mind becomes less and less agitated. It obtains

serenity, stillness, peace. Then, with this stilled, subtle, penetrating mind we

can finally come to realize our true nature.

—Vedarat

* * * * * * * * * *

1 In Vedanta, heaven—or rather heavens—are accepted as part of the lower

reality. Unlike in other religions, going to heaven is not the professed to be

the ultimate goal of life. According to Vedanta, heaven can be likened to a

vacation resort. After death, if one has done enough good deeds in life, one can

go to heaven for a very long time. But eventually he will have to return to the

earthly plane. Thus even though one may be in heaven, he is still bound and

mired in ignorance to his true nature. [As it says in the Bhagavad-Gita:

From Brahma Loka to the lowest world,

all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place O Arjuna.

But one who comes to me, O son of Kunti,

never takes birth again. (Gita 8:16)

The human goal according Vedanta is Self-realization. The Atma is the ultimate

reality. When one realizes his true nature, he attains spiritual fulfillment in

this life itself. Then, upon death, he does not go to any heavenly abode but

simply merges into the supreme reality.

 

with pranaams,

Geetha

 

 

guruvayur , " nbn " <nbnair2000 wrote:

>

>

> HARIAUM

>

> ShantiManthram; Kindly help with the word to word meaning of this

> Sanskrit Prayer.

>

> In some context I was looking for themeaning and other details of the

> Shanti Mantram(?). First I searched ourGuruvayur Group (we are lucky to

> have many Sanskrit Scholars among us) and Icould get Message No. 8975

> from Smt. Savitri Puram: but that was notcomplete. What I could get

> from myInternet searches are just some unconnected pieces of information

> as follows:

>

> TheShanthi Manthram(?) - belongs to SamaVeda - Brihdarnyaka Upanishad

> (without any proper co-odinations).

>

> The Text: (kidly correct the text too)

>

> Asatho ma Sath gamaya - (Lead me from unreal to real:Asat to Sat)

> Thamaso ma Jyothir gamaya - (Lead me from ignorance to wisdom:darkness

> to light)

>

> Mruthyor ma Amrutham gamaya - (Leadme from mortality to Immortality: to

> the Ultimate Truth)

>

> Om Shanthi, Om Shanthi, Om Shanthi hi

> Itwill be very much appreciated if some of our learned devotees give the

> detailslike its source, word to word meanings and the essence of its

> message.

> With Regards to all fellow devotees,

>

>

>

> Ursaffly nb nair.

>