In India, a puja is a ceremony of worship, usually involving lamps, flowers, incense, and chanting, offered to a deity in a temple or at home. At the very end of almost every puja, after the lamps have been waved and the closing song called an aarti has been sung, people recite one short prayer again and again across the country, no matter which god or goddess the ceremony was for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This prayer does not ask for wealth, health, or any kind of favor. It does something simpler and, in a way, more touching. It says, “I may have gotten some of this wrong; please accept it anyway.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This prayer is known as the Kshamapana Mantra, which simply means “the mantra of asking forgiveness.” You do not need any background in Sanskrit or Hindu ritual to understand or use it. In this guide, you’ll learn the original words, their pronunciation, and their meaning step by step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u092e\u0928\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0939\u0940\u0928\u0902 \u0915\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092f\u093e\u0939\u0940\u0928\u0902 \u092d\u0915\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0939\u0940\u0928\u0902 \u0938\u0941\u0930\u0947\u0936\u094d\u0935\u0930 \u0964
\u092f\u0924\u094d\u092a\u0942\u091c\u093f\u0924\u0902 \u092e\u092f\u093e \u0926\u0947\u0935 \u092a\u0930\u093f\u092a\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0923\u0902 \u0924\u0926\u0938\u094d\u0924\u0941 \u092e\u0947 \u0965
\u0905\u092a\u0930\u093e\u0927\u0938\u0939\u0938\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0923\u093f \u0915\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092f\u0928\u094d\u0924\u0947\u093d\u0939\u0930\u094d\u0928\u093f\u0936\u0902 \u092e\u092f\u093e \u0964
\u0926\u093e\u0938\u094b\u093d\u092f\u092e\u093f\u0924\u093f \u092e\u093e\u0902 \u092e\u0924\u094d\u0935\u093e \u0915\u094d\u0937\u092e\u0938\u094d\u0935 \u092a\u0941\u0930\u0941\u0937\u094b\u0924\u094d\u0924\u092e \u0965<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nHow to Say It (Transliteration)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Sanskrit is usually written in a script called Devanagari, the same script used for Hindi. The transliteration below writes the words using English letters. A line over a vowel, like the one in “\u0101,” simply means you hold that sound a little longer than usual. Every other letter is said roughly the way it looks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nMantrah\u012bna\u1e43 kriy\u0101h\u012bna\u1e43 bhaktih\u012bna\u1e43 sure\u015bvara |<\/strong>
yat p\u016bjita\u1e43 may\u0101 deva parip\u016br\u1e47a\u1e43 tad astu me ||<\/strong>
Apar\u0101dha-sahasr\u0101\u1e47i kriyante’harni\u015ba\u1e43 may\u0101 |<\/strong>
d\u0101so’yam iti m\u0101\u1e43 matv\u0101 k\u1e63amasva puru\u1e63ottama ||<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nA helpful way to learn any Sanskrit verse is to say it slowly, line by line, out loud, even before you know what the words mean. Sanskrit poets composed verses like this in a steady, even rhythm, a bit like a simple line of poetry, so once you say it a few times, the pattern becomes easy to feel, even if you cannot read the script it was written in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What Each Part Means<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Let’s break the verse into small, simple pieces so each phrase becomes easy to understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
- mantra-hinam<\/strong> \u2014 “without the right mantra,” meaning I may not have chanted the exact correct words<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- kriya-hinam<\/strong> \u2014 “without the right actions,” meaning I may have gotten some of the ritual steps wrong<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- bhakti-hinam<\/strong> \u2014 “without enough devotion,” meaning my heart may not have been fully in it<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- sureshvara<\/strong> \u2014 “O Lord of the gods,” a respectful way of addressing the divine<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- yat pujitam maya deva<\/strong> \u2014 “whatever worship I have done, O Lord”<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- paripurnam tad-astu me<\/strong> \u2014 “let it still be complete for me,” a request that the offering counts anyway<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- aparadha-sahasrani<\/strong> \u2014 “a thousand mistakes” or “countless wrongs”<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- kriyante har-nisham maya<\/strong> \u2014 “are made by me, day and night”<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- daso-ayam iti mam matva<\/strong> \u2014 “thinking of me as nothing more than your servant”<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- kshamasva purushottama<\/strong> \u2014 “please forgive me, O Supreme Being”<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
What the Whole Verse Means<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Put simply, the prayer says something like this: “Lord of all, whatever worship I have offered, even if I got the words wrong, the steps wrong, or did not feel devoted enough while doing it, please let it still count as complete. I make countless mistakes, day and night, without even realizing it. But please think of me simply as your servant, and forgive me.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Where a Prayer Like This Comes From<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
This verse comes from the Puranas, a large collection of Indian religious texts written to be shared with everyday people, not just priests and scholars. Because generations of teachers passed these texts down through memory and repetition long before they were written down, small variations of this same prayer show up in different regional traditions across India. What matters is not which exact book it comes from, but the role it plays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
People rarely recite this prayer on its own. It is usually one of two or three short closing prayers said together at the end of a ceremony, all doing the same job in slightly different words. One common companion prayer asks forgiveness for anything done wrong “through the body, through speech, through the mind, or through the senses.” Another simply admits, “I do not really know how to properly invite you here, and I do not really know how to properly send you off either; please forgive that and accept this worship anyway.” Together, these short prayers form a kind of closing ritual, a way of admitting imperfection before stepping away from the ceremony, and priests across many different Indian traditions still use versions of them today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why This Small Prayer Means So Much<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Most people usually recite it right after the closing songs during festivals and home worship, and because it belongs to no single god or festival in particular, it rarely gets much attention on its own. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But look closely, and there is something quite moving in how honest it is. The first half openly admits three ways things could have gone wrong: the words might not have been exactly right, the steps might not have been exactly right, and the person praying might not have felt as devoted as they wanted to. Anyone who has ever tried to follow a ritual, a ceremony, or even a new skill they are still learning knows how easily all three of these things can happen at once. Instead of trying to fix these mistakes with more effort or more precision, the second half of the prayer takes a different approach entirely. It asks for forgiveness simply based on being sincere, not based on having done everything perfectly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clear Intention<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
This is a gentle but powerful idea. It suggests that showing up with an honest heart matters more than getting every detail right. For anyone learning to chant, meditate, or work with sound and mantra, this is a useful thing to carry with you. Learning any new skill, especially one built on unfamiliar sounds and an unfamiliar language, takes years of practice, and everyone stumbles along the way. This little prayer is, in a sense, permission to keep going anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is also a bigger idea in Indian spiritual thought sitting quietly behind this prayer. The older Vedic tradition placed enormous importance on saying rituals exactly right, believing that a mistake in the words could stop a ritual from working the way it was meant to. Over time, a different and warmer current grew alongside this one, built around the idea of devotion, or bhakti, the simple feeling of love and trust directed toward the divine. Devotional prayers like this one do not throw out the importance of doing things properly, but they add something underneath it, a kind of safety net. They suggest that if your heart is honestly in it, that sincerity can carry an offering across the gaps that skill alone cannot fill. This is really the heart of the whole verse: skill matters, but sincerity is what completes it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Where This Fits Into Learning Sound Healing or Yoga<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
At Nada Yoga School in Rishikesh, students learn mantra chanting as a living practice they grow into slowly, not as a performance they must get perfectly right from day one. Even experienced teachers occasionally mispronounce a word, lose their place, or chant on a day when their mind feels scattered. This little prayer often helps students make peace with that. It gives them a simple way to hold their own mistakes without becoming harshly self-critical, which turns out to be just as useful later on when they are guiding sessions for their own clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is one of the reasons Nada Yoga School weaves chanting and prayers like this throughout its sound healing teacher training in Rishikesh<\/a>, where students learn the sound and science of chanting alongside the healing instruments and healing techniques related to sound healing that traditionally come with it. Students who want to go deeper into mantra, chanting, and the philosophy behind sacred sound often continue to the Nada Yoga School’s Nada Yoga teacher training<\/a>, where prayers like this one are studied in more depth and practiced as part of opening and closing sessions with real clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How You Can Use This Prayer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Although people traditionally chant this verse at the end of a puja, plenty of people use it far outside that setting today. Some say it quietly at the end of their own meditation. Others use it to close a sound healing session with a client, and some simply say it on days when their practice feels scattered or incomplete as a way of letting it go gently rather than judging themselves for it. You do not need permission from a teacher or priest to start using it, though it always helps to hear it chanted by someone experienced once or twice before trying it yourself, just so the rhythm feels familiar in your own voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A couple of small tips help beginners. Some words naturally join together with a small connecting sound, shown with a hyphen, such as in “daso-ayam.” This is a completely normal feature of spoken Sanskrit, where two words blend smoothly into each other, similar to how “going to” often becomes “gonna” in casual spoken English. There is no need to force a hard stop between the joined words; simply let the sound flow through naturally. It can also help to rest one hand gently over your heart while saying the second half of the verse as a small physical reminder to keep the tone soft and forgiving rather than let it turn into simply listing out your own faults. The prayer is meant to end in a feeling of release, not in dwelling on everything that went wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Do I need to know Sanskrit to say this prayer? <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
No. The transliteration above uses only English letters, and the word-by-word meaning is included so you can understand what you are saying as you learn it. Many people who use this prayer regularly do not read the original Sanskrit script at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Can I use this prayer for any god or goddess? <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Yes. It addresses the divine using general titles such as “Lord of the gods” and “Supreme Being” rather than naming one specific deity, which is exactly why it works at the end of a ceremony for Shiva, Vishnu, Durga, or any other form of worship. Sound healing practitioners often use it the same way, regardless of the tradition a particular session draws from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When is the right time to say it? <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
People traditionally chant it at the very end of a puja. Many people also say it at the end of a personal meditation, at the close of a sound healing session, or simply whenever they want to gently close out a period of practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is this considered a Vedic mantra? <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Not exactly. The Puranas preserve this prayer rather than the Vedas. It follows a simple poetic rhythm rather than the more complex chanting rules used for the oldest Vedic mantras.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Do I need a teacher to learn to chant it properly? <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
A teacher is not strictly required, but hearing the verse chanted aloud by someone experienced, even just once, makes it far easier to pick up the natural rhythm than learning only from written words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n