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Start where your curiosity is
People arrive for different things — a mantra, the script, a grammar question, a text they want to read. Any of them is a real starting point.
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नमस्ते ।
A greeting
नमस्ते ।
A greeting
मम नाम रामः ।
“My name is Rāma.”
तव नाम किम् ?
“What is your name?”
मम नाम ।
“My name is ...”
One thing to do
Put your own name in the open line, and say it aloud.
कुशलं वा ?
“Are you well?”
सर्वं कुशलम् ।
“All is well”
You read these two signs in Devanagari: ना म — the word you just filled in with your own name.
Read your first Sanskrit words in Devanagari.
न
ना
न → ना
म
मम
Can you read it?
my / of me
नाम
Can you read this one?
ना + म
name
मम नाम
Can you read both words?
my name
You just read your first Sanskrit phrase in Devanagari.
How these are written
The body of the sign first, then the vertical, and the top line last — the line that ties it together.
- Body
- Right vertical
- Headline
How these are written
- Body and bridge
- Right vertical
- The ā stroke
- Shared headline
nā is built as one form: the न movement, then the ā stroke, then a headline shared by both.
नाAnd the whole of what you read
Word by word: each sign built the same way, and one headline tying each word together at the end.
The sign is built first; the top line ties it together at the end.
The Sanskrit Setu instructional order, not the only correct one.
You said this word out loud in the conversation: नाम — nāma, name.
Hear the mantra. Learn one real line. Understand what you are saying.
The whole mantra
असतो मा सद्गमय । asato mā sad gamaya
तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय । tamaso mā jyotir gamaya
मृत्योर्मामृतं गमय ॥ mṛtyor māmṛtaṃ gamaya
Three lines. In this taste you learn the first one; the other two you hear and see.
The line you will learn
असतो मा सद्गमय
“Lead me from the unreal to the real.”
This is the line you learn here — sound first, meaning whenever you want it.
First sound chunk
असतो मा
A chunk for the sound, not a phrase of its own: asato mā is where the breath divides, not where the sense does.
Second sound chunk
सद्गमय
Heard and written as sad..., not an isolated sat.
Say the whole line
असतो मा सद्गमय
asato mā sad gamaya
Say it, then hear the full line.
Notice
असत् → सत्
asat → sat
Dictionary forms, not the running pronunciation. In the line you hear asato ... sad...
What it means
“Lead me from the unreal to the real.”
Teaching forms. The line itself runs asato ... sad...
asat and sat carry a wider range than any one English pair.
On your own
असतो मा सद्गमय
asato mā sad gamaya
Now say the whole line.
Where your line lives
असतो मा सद्गमय । asato mā sad gamaya
तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय । tamaso mā jyotir gamaya
मृत्योर्मामृतं गमय ॥ mṛtyor māmṛtaṃ gamaya
You learned the first line — and can now hear it inside the complete mantra.
Lines two and three are waiting in the lesson itself.
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This is a taste. The lesson itself continues in the app.
The app is still being built — Continue takes you to where things stand.