pavamana mantra

Origine

Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad (1.3.28.)

Pavamana Mantra

Chant

oṃ asato mā sadgamaya

tamaso mā jyotirgamaya

mṛtyor māmṛtaṃ gamaya

oṃ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ

pavana mantra (audio)

Traductions

Conduis moi (gamaya) de l’irréel (asato) au Réel (sad)

Conduis moi (gamaya) de l’ombre (tamas) à la lumière (jyotir)

Conduis moi (gamaya) de la mort (mṛtyor) à l’immortalité (āmṛtaṃ)

From falsehood lead me to truth,

From darkness lead me to the light,

From death lead me to immortality.

These three statements are referred to as the three Pavamana Mantras. Some modern renderings add ॐ (oṃ) at the beginning and ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥ (oṃ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ, ‘om peace peace peace’) as a fourth line, but these are not present in the original Upanishadic text.

  • asataḥ — “from falsehood”; ablative case of asat “falsehood”, from a (negation) + sat “truth”; becomes asato due to sandhi
  • 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
  • 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.