Overview
Om Shanti Shanti Shanti is a short closing invocation of peace, recited at the end of many Vedic and Upanishadic texts. It is not addressed to a particular deity — it is a phrase of peace itself, which is part of why it is recognized so widely across different Hindu traditions and, in related forms, in Jain and Buddhist settings as well.
Origin and source
Many Upanishads open with their own shanti-patha — an invocatory verse of peace specific to that text’s Vedic recension — and close with this same threefold repetition of śānti. Because the phrase is shared across so many different texts rather than belonging to any single one, there isn’t one specific scripture that is “the” source of the bare closing line; it is better understood as a widely shared convention than a quotation from any one place.
A widely taught explanation for why the word is repeated three times comes from Vedantic teaching on the tapa-traya, or three kinds of affliction: adhyātmika (arising from within oneself, in mind or body), ādhibhautika (arising from other beings or the external material world), and ādhidaivika (arising from unseen or cosmic forces). Read this way, each utterance of śānti calls for peace in one of these three domains. This is a traditional teaching about the phrase, not the only way it has ever been understood.
Word-by-word meaning
Tap a word to see what it means and where it sits in the verse.
Om — the primordial syllable, opening this phrase as it opens countless Vedic recitations
| Sanskrit | IAST | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| ॐ | oṃ | Om — the primordial syllable, opening this phrase as it opens countless Vedic recitations |
| शांति | śānti | peace — said three times in succession, a repetition Vedantic teaching explains as addressing peace across three traditionally recognized domains of disturbance: within oneself, from other beings, and from unseen or cosmic forces |
Meaning of the whole
Read as a whole, the phrase is a request for peace — repeated, rather than elaborated. Where longer mantras build meaning through a sequence of words, this one rests almost entirely on a single word said three times, with Om framing it at the start. The traditional threefold reading gives that repetition a shape: peace in oneself, peace in one’s dealings with others, and peace in the face of what lies beyond anyone’s control.
How it is recited
This phrase is recited once, as a closing invocation, most often at the end of reading or reciting a longer Vedic or Upanishadic passage rather than repeated on its own for a mala count. It is common enough that it is often recognized on its own, apart from whatever text it closes.
