Pavamana Mantra

The Pavamana Mantra (pavamāna meaning "being purified, strained", historically a name of Soma), also known as pavamāna abhyāroha (abhyāroha, lit. "ascending", being an Upanishadic technical term for "prayer"[1]) is a Hindu mantra introduced in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad (1.3.28.)[2] The mantra was originally meant to be recited during the introductory praise of the Soma sacrifice by the patron sponsoring the sacrifice.[3]

The text of the mantra reads:

asato mā sad gamaya, tamaso mā jyotir gamaya, mṛtyor māmṛtaṃ gamaya

This translates to:

"from the unreal lead me to the real, from the darkness lead me to the light, from the dead lead me to the immortal" (The three statements are also referred to as "the three Pavamana-Mantras").

The Sanskrit term sat, literally "what is existing, real", has a range of important religious meanings including "truth" or "the Absolute, Brahman". The passage immediately following the mantra explicitly identifies the unreal and darkness with death and the real and light with immortality, saying that all three portions of the mantra have the same meaning of "Make me immortal."[3] In the interpretation of Swami Krishnananda (1977), "From the nonexistent, from the unreal, from the apparent, lead me to the other side of it, the Existent, the Real, the Noumenon." In keeping with the philosophy of Vedanta, the text rejects the material world as "unreal", "dark" and "dead" and invokes a concept of the transcendental reality (according to this interpretation).[4]

References

  1. ↑ Monier-Williams, A Sanskrit Dictionary (1899)
  2. ↑ Brhadaranyaka-Upanisad (Brhadaranyakopanisad), Kanva recension; GRETIL version, input by members of the Sansknet project (formerly: www.sansknet.org)
  3. 1 2 Trans. Patrick Olivelle, Upaniṣads. Oxford University Press, 2008.
  4. ↑ Krishnananda 1977: "The light that we see in this world is really a form of darkness, [...] all forms of life are forms of death only. They are not realities. The sunlight is not real light, because it is not intelligent. [...] So, the prayer is for a total rise from this involved, insufficient, conditioned 'being' to the absolutely independent, unconditioned 'Being' which is simultaneously Sat, Jyotir and Amrtam – Existence, Light, Enlightenment, Consciousness, Omniscience and Immortality. No rebirth is possible there. "
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