Mantra Pūrṇāhuti — पूर्णाहुति — Sanskrit and Audiotrack
Pūrṇāhuti — पूर्णाहुति — literally “the full offering” — is the final pour into the fire that seals a Vedic ritual. The whole remaining ghee, the whole intention, the whole self is offered: nothing is held back, nothing remains uncompleted. It is the gesture by which a practice is finished — and finished completely.
The mantra chanted at this moment is older than the ritual it seals. It is the opening invocation of the Īśāvāsya Upaniṣad and appears again in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad (V.1.1), and it teaches what the gesture itself enacts: that fullness is not depleted by what is taken from it. What gives itself completely remains complete.
Audio
Chant guide
Syllables with stress markings — capitalised syllables receive emphasis, the long horizontal mark above a vowel (ā, ī, ū, ṇ) indicates length or retroflex articulation. Follow the audio to feel where the breath rises and falls.
om pūr-ṇa-MA-dah pūr-ṇa-MI-dam
pūr-ṆĀT pūr-ṇa-mu-da-CHYA-te |
pūr-ṆA-sya pūr-ṇa-mā-dā-YA
pūr-ṇa-me-vā-VA-ṣi-ṣya-te |
om shān-tih shān-tih shān-TI-h ‖ hari om
Sanskrit
पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं पूर्णात्पूर्णमुदच्यते।
पूर्णस्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते॥
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥ हरि ॐ
Translation
That is full. This is full.
From the full, the full proceeds.
If the full is taken from the full,
the full alone remains.
Oṃ — peace, peace, peace. Hari Oṃ.
Practice — sealing the work
oṃ pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idam
pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate
pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya
pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate
oṃ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ ‖ hari oṃ
Chant three times at the close of any practice — a yoga session, a meditation, a piece of work, the day itself. The closing śāntiḥ repeated three times invokes peace at the three levels: body (ādhibhautika), mind (ādhidaivika), and spirit (ādhyātmika). What is given completely is not depleted. What gives itself completely remains complete.
References
- Īśāvāsya Upaniṣad (also known as Īśopaniṣad) — opening invocation. Part of the Śukla Yajurveda. Eighteen verses; the shortest of the principal Upaniṣads, traditionally placed at the head of the canon. The pūrṇa-mantra serves as the maṅgalācaraṇa (auspicious opening) of the text.
- Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, V.1.1 — the same mantra appears at the opening of the fifth book, framed by the surrounding teaching that brahman is the unmanifest fullness from which all manifest fullness arises and into which all manifest fullness returns. Part of the Śukla Yajurveda, in the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa tradition.
- The mantra is traditionally chanted as the pūrṇāhuti — the final offering of any Vedic ritual (yajña, havan) — and as the śānti pāṭha (peace invocation) closing teaching sessions, scriptural recitations, and personal practice.
