Shanti Mantras
Teacher and student would sit together and pray: "May we be protected together, may we learn together, may we never quarrel." The Shanti mantras open the Upanishads. Why do they end with "peace" three times?
The verse
A prayer before learning
In the Gurukul, before a single word of the Upanishad was taught, teacher and student prayed together: "oṃ saha nāvavatu…" — may he protect us both. It is a prayer of partnership. Learning is not one person filling another; it is two people walking together towards truth.
From the unreal to the real
Another Shanti mantra, from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, is perhaps the most beautiful prayer of all: "Lead me from the unreal to the real, from darkness to light, from death to immortality." And every Shanti mantra ends the same way — "śāntiḥ" three times. There is a reason it is three…
The journey continues for members
- Why "shanti" three times
- The full "Saha navavatu"
- Practice
Sources
- Brihadaranyaka Upanishad — 1.3.28
- Taittiriya Upanishad — 2.1
- Katha Upanishad