The Universal Mantra of Peace

13th Oct 2021 | Author - Viraj Malik

Om Puurnnam-Adah Puurnnam-Idam Puurnnaat-Purnnam-Udacyate
Puurnnasya Puurnnam-Aadaaya Puurnnam-Eva-Avashissyate ||
Om Shaanti Shaanti Shaantih ||

Meaning:
1: Om, That (Outer World) is Purna (Full with Divine Consciousness); This (Inner World) is also Purna (Full with Divine Consciousness); From Purna is manifested Purna (From the Fullness of Divine Consciousness the World is manifested),
2: Taking Purna from Purna, Purna indeed remains (Because Divine Consciousness is Non-Dual and Infinite),

This chant is a Shanti mantra (peace invocation) and appears primarily in Isha Upanishad (Ishopanishad) or many times called Ishavasya Upanishad (one of the primeval Upanishad). This mantra is commonly chanted as a prayer before the study of Upanishad begins.

I had always chanted this mantra when my yoga teacher started the class, however I recently realized the true meaning of it while attending Satsang of Sri M.
His explanation made it simple for me to understand, the whole is everything - it is complete, and it is fullness. So, in essence, that Supreme Reality is complete, this world in which we live in and from which we have come. Having come from there, we feel incomplete just because we think of ourselves as little individuals. Upanishads say, you are also complete and do you know how? That is complete and we are also complete. That completeness is not separate from this completeness. Somewhere along the line, we have this separateness that this there and I am here and I have to go there.

What happens when everything is everywhere? Then, how do we move? This is also the reason why all human beings, all of us, want to become complete, become full. We all want to be fulfilled.


We feel we are not satisfied yet and it is towards this fulfillment that we all move and work. Today, I have this job. Tomorrow I will get a better job, and then I will be complete. Today, I am following this and tomorrow if I follow that, then I will be complete and I will be fulfilled.

Today, I have this much money and tomorrow, I will have more.Then I will be full and complete. This is what keeps us going, the attempt to become complete, not realizing that if we go within and see, we are complete already and there is nothing to complete.

This understanding changed my perception and brought certain stillness to mental movement where we are constantly trying to be fill ourselves with something, become something, it just brought space for whole to flower in whatever way divine will intends to.

You can also check out my conversation with SriM on Utsavyoga youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-ec8u3qmbQ&t=1402s