Skip to content
Param Veda

Display & Audio

Theme

Font Size

Show/Hide

Audio

Uses your browser’s text-to-speech voices installed on your device. Auto prefers a Sanskrit voice if available.

Śānti Veda · The Work of Just Peace

अन्तः-शान्तिः

antaḥ-śāntiḥ

Official text Sūkta 12 of 18

Mūla · Original verse

Sanskrit

अन्तःशान्तिर्न निद्रा स्यात्, जागरूकं मनोबलम् । रागद्वेषभयं दृष्ट्वा, तेषां दासो न जायते ॥
antaḥ-śāntir na nidrā syāt, jāgarūkaṃ mano-balam | rāga-dveṣa-bhayaṃ dṛṣṭvā, teṣāṃ dāso na jāyate ||
01

Anvaya

Plain English meaning

Inner peace is not sleep but wakeful strength of mind. Seeing attachment, hatred, and fear, one does not become their servant.

02

Kāvya

Poetic rendering

Peace within is a clear lake, not because no storm has crossed it, but because the depths no longer mistake every wave for the whole sky.

03

Manana

Contemplation

Inner practice must not become retreat from public duty. Its fruit is greater honesty, steadier courage, less reactive harm, and more faithful service.

Prayoga

Civilizational practice

Keep a daily interval of silence. Observe thought and emotion without denial, then carry one clarified duty into action.

Param Veda Upaniṣad · One-to-One Bhāṣya

Sit near the question

The companion moves from words and meaning to inward reflection, public application, boundaries against misuse, dialogue, and practice.

Padārtha · Key terms

antaḥ-śānti — inner peace; jāgarūka — wakeful; mano-bala — strength of mind; rāga — attachment; dveṣa — hatred; bhaya — fear

Anvaya · Sequence of meaning

Inner peace is not sleep but wakeful strength of mind. Seeing attachment, hatred, and fear, one does not become their servant.

Bhāṣya · Commentary

Inner peace is wakefulness, not numbness. The practitioner sees attachment, hatred, and fear arise without granting them the entire identity of the self. This interval creates freedom: feeling can be honoured as information while action remains accountable to truth and Dharma.

Loka-saṃgraha · Civilizational application

Leaders, caregivers, judges, and responders need interior disciplines because unexamined stress becomes policy, diagnosis, punishment, or neglect. Rest, reflective supervision, trauma care, and silence are public safeguards when they preserve responsible attention.

Maryādā · Boundary against misuse

Contemplation must not become escape from injustice or a claim that suffering exists only in the mind. Inner freedom strengthens outer duty; if practice produces indifference to another’s pain, it has mistaken quiet for peace.

Praśna–Uttara

Teacher and student

Questions keep doctrine open to inquiry
Student “Must the mind become empty?”
Teacher “No. It must become able to see thought and feeling without immediate servitude.”
Student “How is inner peace tested?”
Teacher “By greater truthfulness, steadier courage, less reactive harm, and more faithful service.”

Prayoga · Practice

  1. 1 Keep a daily silent interval, then name the duty clarified by it.
  2. 2 Before a high-impact decision, identify the emotion most likely to distort it.