AUM Asato Ma Sat Gamaya

 ॐ असतो मा सद्गमय ।

तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय ।
मृत्योर्मा अमृतं गमय ।
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥

OM

Asato ma sad gamaya

Tamaso ma jyotir gamaya

Mrityor ma Amrutam gamaya 

This is a prayer in Sanskrit from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.

The literal meaning is:

OM, the Primordial Being

Take me from untruth to truth 

From darkness to light 

From mortality to immortality.

May there be peace everywhere and at all times.

In the Hindu tradition, of which Vedas are the most ancient texts and Upanishads are integral parts of these texts, the absolute reality is affirmed and referred to by the term Brahman or Parabramha and denoted by the word OM. OM in turn comprises of three sounds A, U, M. Between these three syllables lies all the vocabulary of the entire universe 

OM is both symbolic as well as actuality of the Absolute Reality or Absolute Truth. Since there is nothing higher than the highest truth, any individual could safely pray to the highest authority, invoking its attention by uttering its given name OM. In doing so with this understanding, the individual acknowledges some basic facts. 

That he as an individual is smaller than that something. Only a smaller entity would pray to a bigger entity. 

So visualize yourself in that context when saying the prayer. 

“I may not understand OM or Bramhan as I pray but I acknowledge that HE is bigger than me and more powerful in every way.”

What do I seek from HIM?

असतो मा सद्गमय ।

Asato ma sat gamaya.

Take me from untruth to truth.

When I say this, I acknowledge untruth is my starting point. From here, I wish to get to another point which represents truth, or facts. Thus I am acknowledging that, at the present moment, I don’t have the facts. But I wish to gain access to them. 

This acknowledgement is very important for every moment that we live. In it lies honesty, integrity and humility. 

It brings us face to face with fact checking our beliefs and non-beliefs. 

It can be anything, any issue from smallest to biggest. 

Currently in the USA a big issue being confronted is illegal immigration. The current democratically elected government is alleging that illegal immigrants are involved in criminal activities, excessive utilization of state resources and depriving lawful citizens of employment opportunities. Based on these claims the administration has deployed forces to identify, arrest, and deport individuals who are found in the country without proof of lawful citizenship. 

The actions implemented based on the administration’s theoretical assumptions are causing major upheaval across the country. 

Number of sources have presented evidence that reveals that when all the crimes occurring in the country are studied, those that are committed by illegal immigrants, are much fewer compared to those committed by lawful citizens. Several jobs served by illegal immigrants would not be something lawful citizens may be either qualified to do or want to do. These immigrants constitute a much smaller percentage amongst those who utilize state resources because without proper identification it is not easy to access the resources except emergency medical care. It becomes the moral obligation of every citizen of the USA who holds the right to elect the government, to look at evidence, look at facts when backing any agenda of the government. In it lies humility, integrity and honesty. You may believe in what the government is telling you. But if you can’t find the facts to corroborate your belief, then you must show the humility to accept that your belief was false. It is not that difficult. There is nothing personal about acknowledging facts vs non facts. But people erroneously take it personally when beliefs are challenged by facts. 

Today the country is holding power based on beliefs and opposing facts. That is a sure way to invite a downfall. Because facts/ truth has a way of always defeating the untruth and regaining power. It holds absolute power. It is the absolute power.

Hence when a person kneels to pray for moving from untruth to truth, he is headed in the right direction. Conversely when he is saying let me defeat truth with all my might, he is setting himself up for failure. 

What every American today needs to do is demand facts and be willing to change beliefs if the facts do not match the beliefs. Reason with their fellow countrymen about why beliefs not backed by facts are not just lame, but they are actually dangerous. There is so much mutual mistrust between one half of the country towards the other half that a civil discourse based on reason has become difficult and obsolete even amongst family members, friends and coworkers. 

When one person talks to another, there ought to be a healthy amount of cautious trust on both sides. What I imply here is that try to figure out whether what the other person is telling you is backed by facts. Do your own independent fact check. Don’t completely accept or reject what they are telling you until you have done the fact check. You needn’t always have to cancel the person out of your life if one thing they told you turns out to be not factual. You will just need to be more cautious about what this person tells you moving forward. People are usually equipped to sense civility in a conversation ( so maintain it at all times) and gauge whether the other person has believed everything they had to say. So give them the impression that you have paid attention but you are not convinced that what you heard may be true. When you forget to be civil you miss the opportunity to have a conversation and take the other person from their untruth to truth. Conversation is an art. National conversation has broken down currently in a way like never before. Daggers are drawn at each other because minds have forgotten the art of connecting. 

Anyways. Turning away from the topic of the political upheaval due to the alarming disregard for truth, let me go back to the prayer.

असतो मा सद्गमय ।

Take me from untruth to truth! 

This is not a one time prayer. It is not a position taken intermittently as called for by special circumstances. It is a dynamic position to be embraced throughout mortal existence. When this is lived in full awareness you will observe that untruth and truth will forever interact with each other in a constructive manner, with untruth always willing to surrender itself to truth, and truth always willing to forgive the untruth when it surrenders. This frontier where one understands and greets the other is called reconciliation. Peace is bound to come where there is reconciliation 

तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय

Tamaso ma jyotir gamaya.

This is the second part of the prayer. It is just another way of saying the same thing that the first part said. Tamas means darkness. Here the darkness being referred to is darkness of ignorance. Ignorance of truth. Again, when a person says take me from darkness to illumination, he is admitting that he is in the dark. Admitting that he doesn’t know better. Give me the knowledge so I know better. I don’t need to stay foolish forever. Take me from ignorance to knowledge. To have the knowledge of something is to know the truth about something. Therefore asking to take from untruth to truth and darkness to illumination are one and the same thing. 

You are welcoming a change for good. Change for better. You are taking steps to let go what is less desirable. You are leaving the previous state of inertia. Which means you are becoming more alive in every sense. Like the new foliage of a plant, you are opening and stretching up in the direction of sunlight. Like a sunflower, with every moment your thinking is moving its orientation towards the direction that the sun appears to be. Like a seed that was dormant and looked inert for a long time, now suddenly is showing signs of life when it starts sprouting. 

मृत्योर्मा अमृतं गमय 

Take me from mortality to immortality! 

You took the first steps by showing humility and much to your surprise, like germination occurring in a seed, as if miraculously, you started showing visible signs of change. You started feeling a surge of life every moment as you walked from untruth to truth, ignorance to knowledge, inertia to energy and effort. From beginning to feel alive, you were slowly shifting to knowing you are living. Then in one magical moment you realized that you are Life itself. It wasn’t the plant that cracked open from the seed. It was Life that manifested itself. When the plant proceeds to grow, making friends with Life within itself, at some point it sheds its leaves and branches and even the roots begin to decay. By the time it entirely collapses, it has already realized that it was the Life that it loved so much. What collapsed wasn’t who it really was. By loving the immortal it had shifted from being the mortal plant to the immortal Life. 

Just like when untruth approaches truth with an intention to surrender, truth lets it settle in a dignified manner, or darkness when it prostrates to light finds instant absolution, similarly when mortality seeks to merge with immortality, the latter wastes no time to absorb it into itself. Like salt in water or sugar in milk the mortal human can merge with the immortal Bramhan simply by expressing a desire. 

In the process of becoming Bramhan it discovers that Bramhan is Truth, Brahman is Knowledge, Bramhan is Light, Bramhan is Beauty, Bramhan is Love, Bramhan is Work, Bramhan is Energy, Bramhan is Life. Bramhan is neither one of the above and Bramhan is all of the above plus some more. It has enormous capacity to hold pairs of opposites like the statements above. And all of it is contained in AUM !