Saha navavatu: may he protect us both
Saha navavatu ("may he protect us both") is a shanti mantra of the Krishna Yajur Veda. It opens the Katha Upanishad and the second and third chapters of the Taittiriya Upanishad. Teacher and student say it together before study: protect us, nourish us, let us work with strength, let our study shine, and let us never resent each other.
Taittiriya Upanishad 2.1, invocation
ॐ सह नाववतु ।सह नौ भुनक्तु ।सह वीर्यं करवावहै ।तेजस्वि नावधीतमस्तु मा विद्विषावहै ॥
oṃ saha nāv avatu |saha nau bhunaktu |saha vīryaṃ karavāvahai |tejasvi nāv adhītam astu mā vidviṣāvahai ||
May he protect us both. May he nourish us both. May we work together with strength. May what we study shine. May we never resent each other.
Who said it, and to whom
Teacher and student, together
"Us both" (nau) is the teacher and the student, about to sit down to a lesson. The chant ends with peace said three times: om shanti shanti shanti.
How the acharyas read it
Shankara
In the Taittiriya, Shankara explains the chant as a prayer to remove what stands in the way of learning. "He" is the Lord. The last line asks that no ill feeling arise between teacher and student through any fault in teaching or in learning.
Where others read it differently
The meaning is the same in every school. Chant books print it with the other Taittiriya shanti mantras; the words do not change.
Writing it out
- ॐ सह नाववतुoṃ saha nāv avatuOpening
- मा विद्विषावहैmā vidviṣāvahaiMay we not resent each other
नाववतु is नौ ("us two") and अवतु ("may he protect") joined. The verbs ending in -आवहै are dual: they are about exactly two people.
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Copy or share the line
सह नाववतु ।सह नौ भुनक्तु ।सह वीर्यं करवावहै ।
saha nāv avatu | saha nau bhunaktu | saha vīryaṃ karavāvahai |
May he protect us both. May he nourish us both. May we work together with strength.
Teacher and student together · Taittiriya and Katha Upanishads, invocation
The same thought in the Gita
Read next to Bhagavad Gita 10.9: Krishna on people who teach each other: their minds on me, they find joy in speaking of me together.
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Questions people ask
- Where does om sahana vavatu come from?
- It is the shanti mantra of the Krishna Yajur Veda: it opens the Katha Upanishad and chapters 2 and 3 of the Taittiriya Upanishad.
- Who is "us both"?
- The teacher and the student. The verbs are in the dual, so they refer to exactly two people.
Sources and method
Taittiriya Upanishad 2.1, invocation, Krishna Yajur Veda. Sanskrit from https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_upanishhat/tait.html ; https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_upanishhat/katha.html.
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.