Shanti mantras are the perfect segue into the Vedic experience and the development of spiritual consciousness that culminates in the Upanishads. Today, having a meaningful way to pray for the peace and well-being of the world carries a sense of urgency as a result of current geopolitics and conflicts. In addition to our prayers and affirmations in our thinking language, mantras work more effectively in this context because their vibrations differ from those of everyday speech, even though mantras are themselves a form of speech, albeit not ordinary speech, but sacred speech.

The chanting of Shanti Mantras is the recitation of peace prayers before the teaching of the Upanishads, which are the loftiest teachings from the Vedas, influencing Schopenhauer and many great Western thinkers. The Upanishads are the culmination of the Vedas, which is why they are known as Vedānta: the anta, meaning "end," of the Vedas. Chronologically, the Upanishads occur at the end of the Vedic period.

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