Shlokas

Verse

Four short verses that get quoted on their own, each one exact: from the Gita, an Upaniṣad, and one that opens a teacher's blessing before study begins.

Bhagavad Gita 2.47

karmaṇy evādhikāras te mā phaleṣu kadācana

Do the work that's yours to do; don't fixate on what it earns you. The half-verse most often quoted alone.

Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1.3.28

asato mā sad gamaya

Lead me from what is not real to what is — the first of three parallel requests: unreal to real, dark to light, death to the deathless.

Mahā Upaniṣad VI

udāracaritānāṃ tu vasudhaiva kuṭumbakam

For the large-hearted, the whole world is one family. Widely quoted alone, though it's only half the verse — small minds count "mine" and "his."

Taittirīya Upaniṣad

oṃ saha nāvavatu

May we be protected together — the opening line of a teacher-student blessing, still recited at the start of Vedic study.

Whole

karmaṇy evādhikāras te mā phaleṣu kadācanaasato mā sad gamayaudāracaritānāṃ tu vasudhaiva kuṭumbakamoṃ saha nāvavatu

Ślokas travel by memory, often stripped from the fuller text around them — a single line doing the work of the whole. Reciting one is common at the start of a class, a prayer, or a difficult decision; the four here are exact, not paraphrased, and each names where it comes from.

Short enough to carry. Each one names its source.

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