What is the meaning of asato ma sadgamaya?

Lead me from the unreal to the real, from darkness to light, from death to the deathless. The Upanishad itself says all three lines mean "make me deathless".

Is "Om shanti shanti shanti" part of it?

No. The shanti ending is added when the lines are chanted as a prayer; the Upanishad passage ends with the three lines and its explanation.

Asato ma sadgamaya: lead me from the unreal to the real

Asato ma sadgamaya ("lead me from the unreal to the real") is from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28, in the Shukla Yajur Veda. It is a chant the patron of a Soma rite says under his breath while the priest sings. Its three lines ask to be led from unreal to real, darkness to light, death to the deathless.

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28

असतो मा सद्गमय ।तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय ।मृत्योर्माऽमृतं गमय ॥

asato mā sad gamaya |tamaso mā jyotir gamaya |mṛtyor mā’mṛtaṃ gamaya ||

Lead me from the unreal to the real. Lead me from darkness to light. Lead me from death to the deathless.

The whole passage

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28

अथातः पवमानानामेवाभ्यारोहः ।स वै खलु प्रस्तोता सामप्रस्तौति ।स यत्र प्रस्तुयात् तदेतानि जपेदसतो मा सद् गमयतमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय मृत्योर्माऽमृतं गमयेति ।स यदाहासतो मासद्गमयेति मृत्युर्वा असत् सदमृतं मृत्योर्माऽमृतं गमयामृतंमा कुर्वित्येवैतदाह ।तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमयेति मृत्युर्वै तमोज्योतिरमृतं मृत्योर्मामृतं गमयामृतं मा कुर्वित्येवैतदाह ।मृत्योर्मामृतं गमयेति नात्र तिरोहितमिवास्त्यथ यानीतराणिस्तोत्राणि तेष्वात्मनेऽन्नाद्यमागायेत् तस्मादु तेषु वरं वृणीत यंकामं कामयेत तं ।स एष एवंविदुद्गाताऽऽत्मने वा यजमानाय वायं कामं कामयते तमागायति ।तद्धैतल्लोकजिदेव न हैवालोक्यतायाआशास्ति य एवमेतत्साम वेद ॥

athātaḥ pavamānānāmevābhyārohaḥ |sa vai khalu prastotā sāmaprastauti |sa yatra prastuyāt tadetāni japedasato mā sad gamayatamaso mā jyotirgamaya mṛtyormā'mṛtaṃ gamayeti |sa yadāhāsato māsadgamayeti mṛtyurvā asat sadamṛtaṃ mṛtyormā'mṛtaṃ gamayāmṛtaṃmā kurvityevaitadāha |tamaso mā jyotirgamayeti mṛtyurvai tamojyotiramṛtaṃ mṛtyormāmṛtaṃ gamayāmṛtaṃ mā kurvityevaitadāha |mṛtyormāmṛtaṃ gamayeti nātra tirohitamivāstyatha yānītarāṇistotrāṇi teṣvātmane'nnādyamāgāyet tasmādu teṣu varaṃ vṛṇīta yaṃkāmaṃ kāmayeta taṃ |sa eṣa evaṃvidudgātā''tmane vā yajamānāya vāyaṃ kāmaṃ kāmayate tamāgāyati |taddhaitallokajideva na haivālokyatāyāāśāsti ya evametatsāma veda ||

When the priest begins the chant, the patron should say: lead me from the unreal to the real, lead me from darkness to light, lead me from death to the deathless. The Upanishad explains: the unreal is death and the real is the deathless, so "from the unreal to the real" means "make me deathless". Darkness is death and light is the deathless, so it means the same. In "from death to the deathless" nothing is hidden.

Who said it, and to whom

The patron of a Soma rite, while the priest sings

There is no dialogue here. The passage gives instructions for a Soma rite: when the priest begins the purifying chant, the patron of the rite recites these three lines under his breath. Then the Upanishad explains its own words, and all three lines turn out to ask one thing: make me deathless.

How the acharyas read it

Shankara

Shankara follows the Upanishad’s own explanation. Unreal, darkness and death name one condition, the self taken as small and mortal; real, light and the deathless name the other. The prayer asks to be lifted from the first into the second.

Where others read it differently

"Om shanti shanti shanti", often sung after the three lines, is a later addition for chanting and is not in this passage.

Writing it out

असतो मा सद्गमयasato mā sad gamayaFirst line
तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमयtamaso mā jyotir gamayaSecond line
मृत्योर्माऽमृतं गमयmṛtyor mā’mṛtaṃ gamayaThird line

For calligraphy the three lines usually sit one under another, each closed with a single danda (।) and the last with a double (॥). The small mark ऽ in माऽमृतं shows a dropped अ; keep it.

Copy or share the line

असतो मा सद्गमय ।तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय ।मृत्योर्माऽमृतं गमय ॥

asato mā sad gamaya | tamaso mā jyotir gamaya | mṛtyor mā'mṛtaṃ gamaya ||

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

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28

The same thought in the Gita

Read next to Bhagavad Gita 13.17: Krishna on the light of all lights, beyond darkness, set in every heart.

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Questions people ask

What is the meaning of asato ma sadgamaya?: Lead me from the unreal to the real, from darkness to light, from death to the deathless. The Upanishad itself says all three lines mean "make me deathless".
Which Upanishad is asato ma sadgamaya from?: The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 1.3.28, in the Shukla Yajur Veda.
Is "Om shanti shanti shanti" part of it?: No. The shanti ending is added when the lines are chanted as a prayer; the Upanishad passage ends with the three lines and its explanation.

Sources and method

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28, Shukla Yajur Veda. Sanskrit from the Wisdom corpus, read against the sanskritdocuments.org edition (KB up_brihadaranyak.56, up_brihadaranyak.57, up_brihadaranyak.58, up_brihadaranyak.59). The corpus splits this one section into four records (KB up_brihadaranyak.56 to .59); merged here.

The English is Wisdom's own, drafted from the Sanskrit with Shankara's commentary (S. Sitarama Sastri's public-domain English) and checked against Swami Paramananda (1919) for tone. Wisdom translation, edited by Ankur Shukla. Commentary AI-drafted, under human review.