Why this inspired us
Three short lines that people have repeated for thousands of years: lead me from the unreal to the real, from darkness to light, from death to immortality. It is a wish to move, step by step, toward something truer.
Explore a verse
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28
The reference printed on your card, and the idea behind it.
In its original context
The Brihadaranyaka (its name means the "great forest" text) is one of the oldest Upanishads. Its third section opens with a story: the gods and the demons are competing, and the gods try to win by chanting. Speech, smell, sight and hearing each chant for them, but each is corrupted by the demons. Only breath, which takes nothing for itself, cannot be spoiled.
The section ends with three short lines that a participant was to say quietly while the chant was sung: lead me from the unreal to the real; lead me from darkness to light; lead me from death to what does not die.
The text explains its own lines straight away. The unreal is death and the real is life without death; darkness is death and light is life without death. All three are the same request, said three ways. Lifted out of the ceremony, the lines became one of the best-known prayers from these texts, and they are still said today at the start of many gatherings and classes.
Something to think about
Does light have to replace the dark, or can it simply help us see?
Our cards carry original, contemporary words inspired by ancient passages. They are not translations.
The Letterbox
Little letters, occasionally.
New cards, first looks and the odd kind word. Never more than we'd want to receive ourselves.