The featured mantra this season is the ever popular and perfect for the new year, Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu.

It’s a beautiful prayer/mantra hybrid that translates into: May all beings everywhere be happy and free from suffering. 

Implicit in this prayer is that we all contribute through our speech, thoughts and actions to this very happiness and freedom from suffering.

The “may” in this prayer is not just a pie-in-the-sky wish, but a strong urging that we come together to achieve this state of happiness.

It’s often chanted 3 times at the end of a puja, yoga classes or other events.

It is pronounced pretty much the way it’s written:

Low-KUH-HUH  Suhmus-TUH-HUH Soo-key-NOH Buhvuhn-TOO

Here’s a YouTube video that best represents the way I’ve learned it.

The mantra is inscribed on the wall behind the teaching spot.