Tamaso ma jyotir gamaya
Mrtyorma amrtat gamaya
Aum Shanti! Shanti! Shanti!
Aum Shanti! Shanti! Shanti!
Lead me from the asat to the sat*
Lead me from darkness to light**
Lead me from death to immortality.***
Aum Peace! Peace! Peace!
* Asat and it's opposite, sat, are dififcult to be translated. Sat contains the meaning of Truth, Real - but ultimate Truth and ultimate Reality, the truth that is true independent from time (true in the past, true in the present and true in the future). The True Self is free from dependence, because dependence in the asat ends in pain always. The True Self is Sat. The consciess of the True Self is beyond time, beyond change. Sat is in reality a true part of all asat objects.
** To be understood as ignorance and knowledge - one obscures true knowledge, which can be obtain through spiritual enlightment.
*** To be understood not as eternal life, like in the case of Christianity, but as "I was never born, nor I cannot die, because I am not the body, the mind and the intellect, but the eternal, blissful consciousness that serves as the substratum for creation."
The human goal is Self-Realization, to merge into the supreme reality.
