Upanishads & Folk · Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28
असतो मा सद्गमय
asato mā sad gamaya
✦
“Lead me from the unreal to the real.”
मूल Original
असतो मा सद्गमय
Sanskrit, in its own script.
उच्चारण How it sounds
asato mā sad gamaya
Read it aloud — IAST transliteration.
अर्थ What it means
Lead me from the unreal to the real.
A thought about truth.
स्रोत Where it comes from
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28
The Upanishads' oldest questions, and songs that walked out of villages into history.
Public domain · Ancient / pre-1960 text
When someone asks, “What does your T-shirt say?”
It's from Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28, in Sanskrit. It means: “Lead me from the unreal to the real.”
That's the whole idea. One line, and a conversation about something that has mattered for a thousand years.
If this stayed with you