शम् नो मित्रः शम् वरुणः शम् नो भवतु अर्यमा शम् नः इन्द्रः बृहस्पतिः शम् नो विष्णुः उरुक्रमः नमः ब्रह्मणे नमस्ते वायो त्वम् एव प्रत्यक्षम् ब्रह्म असि त्वाम् एव प्रत्यक्षम् ब्रह्म अवादिषम् ऋतम् अवादिषम् सत्यम् अवादिषम् तत् माम् आवीत् तत् वक्तारम् आवीत् आवीत् माम् आवीत् वक्तारम् ओं शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः
śam no mitraḥ śam varuṇaḥ śam no bhavatu aryamā śam naḥ indraḥ bṛhaspatiḥ śam no viṣṇuḥ urukramaḥ namaḥ brahmaṇe namaste vāyo tvam eva pratyakṣam brahma asi tvām eva pratyakṣam brahma avādiṣam ṛtam avādiṣam satyam avādiṣam tat mām āvīt tat vaktāram āvīt āvīt mām āvīt vaktāram oṃ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ
May Mitra be weal to us, weal Varuṇa; may Aryaman be weal to us; weal to us Indra and Bṛhaspati; weal to us Viṣṇu of the wide stride! Homage to Brahman! Homage to you, Vāyu! You are the visible Brahman; you, the visible Brahman, I have proclaimed. The right I have proclaimed, the true I have proclaimed. That has protected me, that has protected the speaker; it has protected me, it has protected the speaker. Oṁ. Peace! Peace! Peace!
8b7a121b6e34 · published Jul 26, 2026, 7:50:25 PM UTC
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The Śikṣā-vallī closes with the same prayer with which it opened — with a change in a single grammatical tense, and in that change is everything. It was: vadiṣyāmi — "I shall speak [the truth]", avatu — "may it protect"; it has become: avādiṣam — "I have spoken", āvīt — "It has protected". The future has been fulfilled; the promise has become a report; a prayer of petition returns as a prayer of thanksgiving.
This device — the frame (what would later be called ring composition) — is here no literary ornament: it is itself the teaching. Every work should be closed with the word with which it was opened, so that it may be seen that the word has been kept. The pupil who promised to speak ṛta and satya testifies: I have spoken; and he acknowledges: the protection he asked for was given. The circle of trust in God and in the word is closed without a gap.
oṁ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ — the threefold peace now sounds otherwise than at the beginning: then it was asked for — now it is stated, like the weather of a day that has come. So ends the "vallī of instruction": phonetics, junctions, the vyāhṛtis, the pentads, Oṁ, duty, the farewell — all laid between two "peaces", like a jewel in a casket with a lid and a base.