The Upanishads
InvocationsToTheUpanishads101
Invocations
Lead me from the unreal to the real.
Lead me from darkness to light.
Lead me from death to immortality.
1
May the Lord of Love protect us.
May the Lord of Love nourish us.
May the Lord of Love strengthen us.
May we realize the Lord of Love.
May we live with love for all;
May we live in peace with all.
OM Shanti Shanti Shanti
2
May the Lord of day grant us peace.
May the Lord of night grant us peace.
May the Lord of sight grant us peace.
May the Lord of might grant us peace.
May the Lord of speech grant us peace.
May the Lord of space grant us peace.
I bow down to Brahman, source of all power.
I will speak the truth and follow the law.
Guard me and my teacher against all harm.
Guard me and my teacher against all harm.
OM Shanti Shanti Shanti
3
Filled with Brahman are the things we see,
Filled with Brahman are the things we see not,
From out of Brahman floweth all that is:
From Brahman all – yet is he still the same.
OM Shanti Shanti Shanti
4
May quietness descend upon my limbs,
My speech, my breath, my eyes, my ears;
May all my senses wax clear and strong.
May Brahman show himself unto me.
Never may I deny Brahman, nor Brahman me.
I with him and he with me – may we abide always together.
May there be revealed to me,
Who am devoted to Brahman,
The holy truth of the Upanishads.
OM Shanti Shanti Shanti
5
OM
With our ears may we hear what is good.
With our eyes may we behold thy righteousness.
Tranquil in body, may we who worship the find rest.
OM Shanti Shanti Shanti
OM. . . Hail to the supreme Self!
6
May my speech be one with my mind, and may my mind be one with my speech.
O thou self-luminous Brahman, remove the veil of ignorance from before me, that I may behold thy light.
Do thou reveal to me the spirit of the scriptures.
May the truth of the scriptures be ever present to me.
May I seek day and night to realize what I learn from the sages.
May I speak the truth of Brahman.
May I speak the truth.
May it protect me.
May it protect my teacher.
OM Shanti Shanti Shanti
The Upanishads are probably the oldest mystical documents in the world. In written form they date from the second century before Christ; how long they were preserved before that in India's long oral tradition can only be conjectured. The invocations in this collection are associated with various Upanishads, often with more than one. Selections 1 and 2 have been translated by Eknath Easwaran; the others are from The Upanishads: Breath of the Eternal, translated by Swami Prabhavananda and Frederick Manchester (Hollywood: Vedanta Press, 1968)
