Elias sat in a crowded cafe, meticulously editing a photo of his matcha latte. He adjusted the saturation and added a filter until the green glow looked ethereal. In that moment, the digital image felt more ‘real’ and important to him than the actual warmth of the ceramic cup against his palms. This is the modern manifestation of Asat—the unreal, the projected, and the curated shadow of existence.
The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad provides a timeless compass for this specific kind of modern disorientation through the Pavamana Mantra: Asato Ma Sadgamaya. While often translated simply as ‘Lead me from the unreal to the real,’ its instructional depth goes much further than distinguishing truth from lies. It is a call to move from the ‘representation’ of life back to the ‘experience’ of it.
In our current era, the ‘unreal’ is the fragmentation of the self. We have become architects of our own avatars, living through the lens of how we appear to others. When we prioritize the digital footprint or the social persona, we suffer from a profound somatic disconnect. We are watching ourselves live rather than actually living.
To practice this sutra is to actively dismantle the avatar. When you step onto your yoga mat, the instruction is not to achieve a pose that looks ‘correct’ for a camera. Instead, the practice is to find the visceral, messy, and unphotogenic sensation of your own biology. The ‘Real’ mentioned in the Upanishads is found in the weight of your heels on the floor and the involuntary rhythm of your lungs.
Next time you feel the pull to perform your life for an invisible audience, pause and recite Asato Ma Sadgamaya. Use it as a tool to drop the external narrative. This isn’t about escaping the world; it is about refusing to let a representation of the world replace the direct experience of it.
By choosing the breath over the brand, you bridge the gap between your projected self and your true nature. You stop being a spectator of your own life and finally become the inhabitant of it.
Transformation begins when we stop curating our lives and start inhabiting them.