Śānti Pāṭha · Chāndogya Upaniṣad
ॐ आप्यायन्तु ममाङ्गानि वाक्प्राणश्चक्षुः श्रोत्रमथो बलमिन्द्रियाणि च सर्वाणि। सर्वं ब्रह्मौपनिषदं मा। ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः॥
oṃ āpyāyantu mamāṅgāni vāk-prāṇaś-cakṣuḥ śrotram atho balam indriyāṇi ca sarvāṇi, sarvaṃ brahmaupaniṣadaṃ mā, oṃ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ
Source: Chāndogya Upaniṣad
Theme: Bodily and mental faculties
Type: Personal invocation
Canonical Definition
Oṃ Āpyāyantu is the śānti pāṭha attached to the Chāndogya Upaniṣad, asking that the reciter's own bodily and mental faculties — speech, vital breath, sight, hearing, strength, and all the senses — be strengthened, so that they may not reject or deny the Brahman taught in the Upaniṣads. Unlike Oṃ Saha Nāvavatu's dual (teacher-student) framing, this invocation is stated in the first-person singular, addressed to the reciter's own faculties.
Etymology: āpyāyantu — causative imperative, "may [they] be nourished/strengthened." aṅgāni — "limbs, parts" (of the body). brahmaupaniṣadam — a compound meaning "the Brahman taught in the Upaniṣads."
What the invocation asks for
How to read this Notice the shift in grammatical person compared to Saha Nāvavatu: that invocation used the dual ("we two"), while this one uses the first person singular throughout, asking for the reciter's own faculties to be strengthened for successful study and non-rejection of the teaching.
In plain translation: "May my limbs, speech, vital breath, eye, ear, and also strength and all the senses be nourished. May I not reject the Brahman known through the Upaniṣads; may that Brahman not reject me." The final line's reciprocal structure — asking not to reject, and not to be rejected by, the teaching — is the invocation's most distinctive feature.
How it is used
This invocation opens study of the Chāndogya Upaniṣad, one of the oldest and longest of the major Upaniṣads, known for containing the famous tat tvam asi teaching.
Word by Word
How to read this The invocation lists six specific faculties (speech, breath, sight, hearing, strength, and "all the senses" as a summary category) before making its central request in the final two lines — read the list as building toward that reciprocal climax, not as the main point in itself.
| आप्यायन्तु | āpyāyantu | verb, 3rd pl. causative imperative | "May [they] be nourished/increased." |
| मम अङ्गानि | mama aṅgāni | genitive + nominative plural | "My limbs/parts." |
| वाक् | vāk | nominative singular | "Speech." |
| प्राणः | prāṇaḥ | nominative singular | "Vital breath." |
| चक्षुः | cakṣuḥ | nominative singular | "Eye, sight." |
| श्रोत्रम् | śrotram | nominative singular | "Ear, hearing." |
| बलम् | balam | nominative singular | "Strength." |
| इन्द्रियाणि | indriyāṇi | nominative plural | "The senses" (all of them, collectively). |
| सर्वं ब्रह्म औपनिषदम् | sarvaṃ brahma aupaniṣadam | compound object | "The entire Brahman taught in the Upaniṣads." |
| मा | mā | 1st person pronoun (accusative, sandhi form of mām) | "Me" — object of the reciprocal not-rejecting. |
Textual history
The Chāndogya Upaniṣad belongs to the Sāma Veda and is, along with the Bṛhadāraṇyaka, among the oldest and most philosophically significant of the major Upaniṣads, containing extended teachings on Brahman, the syllable Oṃ, and the identity of the self with the absolute.
Textual note This invocation's first-person, faculties-focused framing is distinct from the dual, relationship-focused framing of Saha Nāvavatu — the two invocations belong to different Vedic recensions (Sāma Veda vs. Kṛṣṇa Yajur Veda) and reflect somewhat different ritual traditions of textual transmission.
Interpretation
The invocation's concern with strengthening the senses and faculties reflects the broader Upaniṣadic understanding that liberating knowledge (vidyā) is not purely abstract but requires the whole embodied person — senses, breath, and speech together — to be fit instruments for receiving and holding it.
How to read this Read the emphasis on physical and sensory faculties here as consistent with, not opposed to, the highly abstract philosophical content the Chāndogya itself goes on to teach — the tradition does not treat body and philosophy as separate domains requiring different invocations.