Before a single lesson began, ancient Indian students and their teachers spoke a verse asking to never resent each other — a small, practical prayer against the exact tension every classroom eventually produces.
Om Sahana Vavatu comes from the Taittiriya Upanishad (2.2.2), part of the Krishna Yajurveda, and belongs to a category of Vedic verses called Shanti Mantras — prayers for peace recited before study or ritual to settle the mind and set a respectful tone between teacher and student. It reads: Om Saha Navavatu, Saha Nau Bhunaktu, Saha Viryam Karavavahai, Tejasvi Navadhitamastu, Ma Vidvishavahai, Om Shanti Shanti Shanti.
Translated, it asks: may we be protected together, may we be nourished together, may we work together with great energy, may our study be brilliant and effective, and — the line teachers still quote — may we never resent or turn against each other. It closes with “Om Shanti” repeated three times, addressing peace across the physical, mental, and spiritual dimensions at once.
It’s still recited today at the start of yoga classes, Vedanta study sessions, and traditional gurukul-style teaching, functioning less as worship and more as a shared agreement between two people about to spend difficult time together.
What Makes This Mantra Timeless
It’s one of the few Vedic verses addressed to no deity at all — it’s a contract between two humans, asking not for miracles but for basic decency during a shared effort.
That’s a strikingly modern request wearing a three-thousand-year-old sentence: any teacher and any student, in any subject, in any century, could use it word for word.
Related Reads
- The Gayatri Mantra: The 24 Syllables Considered the Mother of All Mantras
- The Saptarishi: The Seven Sages Who Hold Up Creation
Based on the Taittiriya Upanishad (2.2.2), Krishna Yajurveda.