Asatoma Sadgamaya

This is a Shanti mantra from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. It is also known as the Pavamana Mantra (pavamāna meaning “being purified, strained”, historically a name of Soma) and is an ancient Indian mantra introduced in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad (1.3.28.) The mantra was originally meant to be recited during the introductory praise of the Soma sacrifice by the patron sponsoring the sacrifice.

Om, Asato ma sadgamaya
Tamaso ma jyotirgamaya
Mrityorma amritam gamaya
Om shanti, shanti, shanti!

Om,
Lead me from the unreal to the real,
Lead me from darkness to light,
Lead me from death to immortality.

This is a prayer of all human beings everywhere and in this Upanishad it has been so briefly and beautifully expressed. In this short prayer all the aspirations of the human heart have been included. We all want to go from darkness to light, from untruth to truth and from death to immortality. This is a prayer for total cessation of all attachment and false identifications. A prayer to take us from death to immortality. Immortality cannot be achieved unless one is free from the lower impulses of lust, anger and other such demonic qualities. Unless these devils are destroyed and divinity restored, until evil is annihilated and death is transcended by establishing purity in thought, word and deed, one cannot hope to attain immortality. Thus, the human heart here pours out in prayer.

asataḥ — “from falsehood”; ablative case of asat “falsehood”, from a (negation) + sat “truth”; becomes asato due to sandhi; can be a synonym for “evil”
mā — “me”; first person pronoun, singular number, accusative case
sat — “to truth”; accusative case of sat “truth”; here accusative case shows the destination; see also Sat (Sanskrit); becomes sad due to
sandhi; can be a synonym for “good”
gamaya — “lead”; causative, imperative mood, active voice, singular number, second person of root gam “to go”
tamasaḥ — “from darkness”; ablative case of tamas “darkness”; becomes tamaso due to sandhi
jyotiḥ — “to light”; accusative case of jyotis “light”; becomes jyotir due to sandhi
mṛtyoḥ — “from death”; ablative case of mṛtyu “death”; see also Mrtyu; becomes mṛtyor due to sandhi
amṛtaṃ — “to immortality”; accusative case of amṛta “immortal”, literally “not dead”, from a (negation) + mṛta “dead”; becomes ‘mṛtaṃ due to vowel elision.
Traditionally the word shanti is chanted three times after om as it is invoking peace on three levels of consciousness: waking, dreaming and sleeping. It has also been thought that it is chanted three times to harmonize the three lokas, or worlds: earth, heaven and hell. It can also be said that shanti is chanted three times to soothe and bring peace to the body, mind and spirit.

Detailed meaning
Line 1. “asato ma sadgamaya”
The word “sat” means truth, reality and pure existence. On the other hand “asat” just means the opposite – untruth, unreality and non-existence. The student here is seeking the ultimate truth in life. He has come to understand the limitations of the present life that he is leading. He now realizes that all his “possessions” – wealth, health, food, housing, means of transportation, success and fame etc. – are all transitory in nature. They come and go. They are not a source of permanent happiness or joy. Anything that can be considered true or real must exist in all three stages of time – past, present and the future. Everything in this ephemeral universe is constantly undergoing change. Our human bodies go through constant change. Our mind and intellect are constantly changing. Thus, none of these can be labeled as a source of eternal joy.

The student, in the first line of this verse, is thus seeking the ultimate truth and reality in life which never undergoes any change.

Line 2. “tamaso ma jyotirgamaya”
The word “tamas” means darkness and “jyoti” means light. In all the ancient scriptures, the Vedas and the Upanishads etc., tamas refers to the darkness of ignorance and jyoti refers to the light of wisdom or true knowledge.

The Sanskrit word for ignorance is “avidya”. In the yoga sutras, Patanjali states that avidya is the root cause of all suffering. He defines ignorance as, “Ignorance is regarding the impermanent as permanent, the impure as pure, the painful as pleasant, and the non-Self as Self.” (sutra 2.5). This definition seems to echo the state of our mind most of the time when we are in a state of confusion.

The only remedy for darkness is light. In the Vedanta tradition, the most commonly quoted example is the “snake in a rope”. A man is walking in the street late in the evening when the light is very dim. He sees something lying curled up on the ground and runs away fearing that it is a snake. A passerby who has a flashlight is able to throw light on the object and show to this man that it was only a piece of rope there. In the darkness of ignorance the man suffered the emotions of fear and anxiety. Our life, for the most part, is built around similar instances of ignorance where we take unreal for real and go through suffering.

Through the process of mental purification we can begin to remove the ignorance and get the light of true wisdom and understanding. This process will ultimately lead to self-realization.

Line 3. “mrityorma amritam gamaya”
The word “mrityu” means dealth and “amritam” means immortality. Since we do not know our true nature as being pure consciousness, we identify ourselves with this mind, body, ego complex. This puts us in this interminable cycle of birth, death and rebirth. The Sanskrit term for this cycle is “samsara”. The term immortality here means that we want to get out of this cycle of “samsara” by attaining self-realization. We recognize that our true identity is nothing but pure consciousness which undergoes no change. Thus we can terminate this cycle of birth, death and rebirth. In the yoga philosophy we understand that it is just the physical body which disintegrates back into the five elements at the time of death. It is the soul (atman) which is tied up with the subtle body (mind, intellect etc.) that undergoes this cycle of samsara. Once the soul recognizes its true nature, it is no more tied up with the mind, body, ego complex and is thus free forever.

In this third line, the student is seeking an understanding of the true nature of Self so that there is no more a fear of death in the mind.