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Mantra · Three dawn verses: I remember, I worship, I bow to the one Self

Pratah Smarana Stotram

प्रातः स्मरामि हृदि संस्फुरदात्मतत्त्वं सच्चित्सुखं परमहंसगतिं तुरीयम् । यत्स्वप्नजागरसुषुप्तिमवैति नित्यं तद्ब्रह्म निष्कलमहं न च भूतसङ्घः ॥

Also known as Pratah Smarami Hridi

In Devanagari, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and English — with the meaning of every word, and the one syllable most people pronounce wrongly.

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What the Pratah Smarana Stotram is

The Pratah Smarana Stotram, the dawn hymn that opens 'pratah smarami hridi samsphurad atmatattvam', is a short Advaita text attributed to Adi Shankaracharya and printed among his collected stotras. It addresses no single deity. Its subject is Brahman, the one reality, and the Self that the reciter recognises as identical with it. The form is three verses in the vasantatilaka metre followed by one anushtubh verse of benefit, and the printed closing calls the set a morning remembrance in three verses. Each verse begins with 'pratah', at dawn, and then a different verb. Verse 1 says 'I remember' and identifies the reciter with the witness of waking, dream and deep sleep. Verse 2 says 'I worship' the reality that speech cannot reach, which the Vedas describe as 'not this, not this'. Verse 3 says 'I bow' to the Supreme Person in whom the world appears as a snake appears in a rope. One traditional reading takes the three verbs as an offering of mind, speech and body in turn.

Three Upanishad teachings at the moment of waking

No story of the hymn's composition has come down with it. Tradition places it among the works of Adi Shankaracharya, and the older printed collections of his stotras include it, one of them closing with a colophon that names him as the disciple of Govinda Bhagavatpada. What the text gives instead is a setting: the first minutes after waking. Each verse compresses a teaching of the Upanishads into that moment. Verse 1 draws on the Mandukya Upanishad (verse 7), which calls the Self a fourth, turiya, beyond waking, dream and dreamless sleep. A person who has just come up out of sleep is reminded that the witness of all three states never slept, and that this witness is what they are, not the body of elements. Verse 2 takes up the formula 'neti neti' of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (2.3.6), the Veda's way of pointing to Brahman by setting aside every description, adding that this same reality lets all speech shine. Verse 3 uses the rope-and-snake image of Advaita teaching: in dim light a rope is taken for a snake, and the fear lasts until the rope is seen. So, the verse says, the whole world appears on Brahman. The fourth verse calls the three an ornament of the three worlds, and the hymn is kept as a dawn prayer; some collections file it with the hymns of waking.

The mantra, in six scripts

DevanagariSanskrit & Hindiप्रातः स्मरामि हृदि संस्फुरदात्मतत्त्वं सच्चित्सुखं परमहंसगतिं तुरीयम् । यत्स्वप्नजागरसुषुप्तिमवैति नित्यं तद्ब्रह्म निष्कलमहं न च भूतसङ्घः ॥

Tamilப்ராதஃ ஸ்மராமி ஹ்ருதி ஸம்ஸ்புரதாத்மதத்த்வம் ஸச்சித்ஸுகம் பரமஹம்ஸகதிம் துரீயம் । யத்ஸ்வப்நஜாகரஸுஷுப்திமவைதி நித்யம் தத்ப்ரஹ்ம நிஷ்கலமஹம் ந ச பூதஸங்கஃ ॥

Teluguప్రాతః స్మరామి హృది సంస్ఫురదాత్మతత్త్వం సచ్చిత్సుఖం పరమహంసగతిం తురీయమ్ । యత్స్వప్నజాగరసుషుప్తిమవైతి నిత్యం తద్బ్రహ్మ నిష్కలమహం న చ భూతసఙ్ఘః ॥

Kannadaಪ್ರಾತಃ ಸ್ಮರಾಮಿ ಹೃದಿ ಸಂಸ್ಫುರದಾತ್ಮತತ್ತ್ವಂ ಸಚ್ಚಿತ್ಸುಖಂ ಪರಮಹಂಸಗತಿಂ ತುರೀಯಮ್ । ಯತ್ಸ್ವಪ್ನಜಾಗರಸುಷುಪ್ತಿಮವೈತಿ ನಿತ್ಯಂ ತದ್ಬ್ರಹ್ಮ ನಿಷ್ಕಲಮಹಂ ನ ಚ ಭೂತಸಙ್ಘಃ ॥

Malayalamപ്രാതഃ സ്മരാമി ഹൃദി സംസ്ഫുരദാത്മതത്ത്വം സച്ചിത്സുഖം പരമഹംസഗതിം തുരീയമ് । യത്സ്വപ്നജാഗരസുഷുപ്തിമവൈതി നിത്യം തദ്ബ്രഹ്മ നിഷ്കലമഹം ന ച ഭൂതസങ്ഘഃ ॥

EnglishRoman transliterationprātaḥ smarāmi hṛdi saṃsphuradātmatattvaṃ saccitsukhaṃ paramahaṃsagatiṃ turīyam | yatsvapnajāgarasuṣuptimavaiti nityaṃ tadbrahma niṣkalamahaṃ na ca bhūtasaṅghaḥ ||

“At dawn I call to mind the reality of the Self shining in the heart: being, awareness and bliss, the goal of the highest renunciates, the fourth state. That partless Brahman which always witnesses dream, waking and deep sleep is what I am, not this gathering of elements.”

प्रातः: prātaḥ — at dawn
स्मरामि: smarāmi — I remember
हृदि: hṛdi — in the heart
संस्फुरदात्मतत्त्वं: saṃsphuradātmatattvaṃ — the shining truth of the Self
सच्चित्सुखं: saccitsukhaṃ — being, awareness, bliss
परमहंसगतिं: paramahaṃsagatiṃ — goal of the highest renunciates
तुरीयम्: turīyam — the fourth state
यत्स्वप्नजागरसुषुप्तिमवैति: yatsvapnajāgarasuṣuptimavaiti — which knows dream, waking and deep sleep
नित्यं: nityaṃ — always
तद्ब्रह्म: tadbrahma — that Brahman
निष्कलमहं: niṣkalamahaṃ — partless, I am
न: na — not
च: ca — and
भूतसङ्घः: bhūtasaṅghaḥ — the gathering of elements

Pratah Smarana Stotram lyrics in full

Three verses with their verse of benefit, as the hymn is printed. The printed closing line is given at the end.

All 5 verses, in Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and English, each with its meaning. Choose a script:

Download the Pratah Smarana Stotram PDFAll 5 verses with their meanings, in Sanskrit. Free to print and keep.

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Verse 1

प्रातः स्मरामि हृदि संस्फुरदात्मतत्त्वं सच्चित्सुखं परमहंसगतिं तुरीयम् ।
यत्स्वप्नजागरसुषुप्तिमवैति नित्यं तद्ब्रह्म निष्कलमहं न च भूतसङ्घः ॥

At dawn I call to mind the reality of the Self shining in the heart: being, awareness and bliss, the goal of the highest renunciates, the fourth state. That partless Brahman which always witnesses dream, waking and deep sleep is what I am, not this gathering of elements.

Verse 2

प्रातर्भजामि मनसा वचसामगम्यं वाचो विभान्ति निखिला यदनुग्रहेण ।
यन्नेतिनेतिवचनैर्निगमा अवोचुस्तं देवदेवमजमच्युतमाहुरग्र्यम् ॥

At dawn I worship with the mind That which words cannot reach, yet by whose grace all words shine. The Vedas spoke of It by saying 'not this, not this'; the sages call It the God of gods, unborn, unfailing and supreme.

Verse 3

प्रातर्नमामि तमसः परमर्कवर्णं पूर्णं सनातनपदं पुरुषोत्तमाख्यम् ।
यस्मिन्निदं जगदशेषमशेषमूर्तौ रज्ज्वां भुजङ्गम इव प्रतिभासितं वै ॥

At dawn I bow to That beyond darkness, bright as the sun, full and complete, the eternal state called the Supreme Person. In that whole and undivided Being this entire world only appears, as a snake appears in a rope.

Phala Shruti 1

श्लोकत्रयमिदं पुण्यं लोकत्रयविभूषणम् ।
प्रातःकाले पठेद्यस्तु स गच्छेत्परमं पदम् ॥

These three holy verses are an ornament of the three worlds. The verse says that whoever recites them at dawn reaches the highest state.

Closing

इति श्रीशङ्करभगवत्पादविरचितं प्रातस्स्मरणत्रयम् ॥

Thus ends the morning remembrance in three verses composed by Shri Shankara Bhagavatpada.

The syllable people get wrong

In verse 3, rajjvāṃ ('in a rope') is often said as 'raj-vam' or 'raju-vam'. Hold the doubled j across the syllables, raj-jvāṃ, with the v gliding straight off the second j and a long ā before the nasal.

Questions

It is attributed to Adi Shankaracharya, the Advaita teacher usually placed in the 8th century CE. The printed collections of his stotras carry it, and their closing lines name him as its author, one of them as 'Shankara Bhagavatpada'. As with many short hymns ascribed to him, the attribution rests on that long tradition of printing and recitation rather than on any account of when or where he composed it.

No. A Shiva-centred morning hymn and a later Bhagavat Pratah Smaranam share the name, and they are different texts. The hymn on this page is the one most printed editions give under the title, recognised by its opening words 'pratah smarami hridi samsphurad atmatattvam'. Some collections call it the Parabrahma or Vedanta Pratah Smarana Stotram, because it praises Brahman rather than a named form of God.

It closes verse 1: 'I am that partless Brahman, and not this gathering of elements.' Nishkala means without parts or divisions. Bhutasangha is the body seen as a heap of earth, water, fire, air and space. The line follows the statement that this Brahman always witnesses waking, dream and deep sleep, so the claim is that the reciter's real identity is the witness, not the body that wakes and sleeps.

The hymn proper is the three vasantatilaka verses that begin pratah smarami, pratar bhajami and pratar namami. The fourth, a short anushtubh couplet, is the phala shruti: it calls these three holy verses an ornament of the three worlds, and the verse says that whoever recites them at dawn reaches the highest state. The printed closing line keeps the same count, naming the work a remembrance in three verses.

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