Om purnamadah purnamidam - Shanti Mantra
Om purnamadah purnamidam
purnat purnamudachyate
purnasya purnamadaya
purnamevavashishyate
Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti
Om ‘That’ (the absolute) is wholeness ‘This’ (the life-force) is wholeness
From wholeness emerges wholeness
Wholeness taken from wholeness,
Wholeness still remains
The mantra contains the vision of the mystic approach towards life, the essence of Vedanta … Nothing is insignificant, nothing is smaller than anything else. The part represents the whole just as the seed contains the whole. There is nothing outside the one whole, infinite creation. Each and every particle, non-living or living represents the same infinite wholeness. There is no place where infinity is not present. This infinite whole reproduces itself in its own image. Even if infinity is added or taken from infinity, infinity still remains.
Let the mountains, rivers, stars, and all the beings therefore remain as they are. What does it matter? If I am fullness, the mountain cannot be outside me or other than me. Therefore, the mountain is me. Thus, the river is me, the star is me, everything is me. I am the fullness that pervades all of them. They are not parts of me or in me because, as fullness, I can’t have parts or contents. When I am ‘looking’ at them, I am ‘face to face’ with infinity – the reality that I am!
The deluded and limited me is just an appearance like all the rest of the things in this perceived universe. They are just non-real superimpositions on the reality that I am. Take them away or bring them back – the fullness that I am remains unaltered and undiminished, whether the seeming me is awake, asleep or dead!
This is the famous sacred peace invocation (Shanti Mantra) of the Isha Upanishad and is commonly chanted as a prayer before any Upanishadic study. It is also considered as a Pranam Mantra (a devout offering) and offered at the conclusion of Puja or holy worship.
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