What Does “Hari Om Tat Sat” Really Mean?
Question
Sister, when we say “Hari Om”—what does it actually mean?
Answer
See, when we say “Hari Om Tat Sat Hari”, we are simply remembering God before beginning any work. Hari is another name for the Divine. So by saying Hari, we start with the remembrance of the Supreme.
Then we have the three words Om Tat Sat. These three were beautifully explained in the Bhagavad Gita—I think in the seventeenth or eighteenth chapter, the Śraddhā-traya Vibhāga Yoga.
There, the Gita explains that human nature is of three types—sattvic, rajasic, and tamasic. Based on these, our faiths or dispositions are also threefold:
A sattvic person’s faith is pure and directed toward the Divine.
A rajasic person’s faith is worldly and self-seeking.
A tamasic person’s faith goes toward spirits, ghosts, and lower energies.
But apart from these three kinds of worldly faith, there is one more—Paramātmik Śraddhā, the faith directed purely toward God.
In that context, the Gita says that those who have faith in the Supreme begin all their works with Om Tat Sat.
“Om” reminds us that the very existence—this universe itself—is Divine. There’s no separation between God and the world; all is one reality.
“Tat” means That—that even this manifest universe is the expression of That One. Everything that appears is also God, the manifested form of the unmanifest. The Bhagavata Purana says this too—Viśvāpati, the Lord of the universe, pervades all names and forms. Every particle is filled with that same Divine power.
“Sat” means truth or existence. It reminds us that nothing in creation is ever truly destroyed. Forms change, names change, the visible becomes invisible, but existence itself never ends. That eternal presence is called Sat.
So when we say Hari Om Tat Sat, we are holding these truths together in awareness:
Hari — God, the Supreme Being.
Tat — this universe too is That.
Sat — that Being is ever-existent, never destroyed.
These three names—Hari, Tat, Sat—are different ways the scriptures have described the same Divine Reality. Whether you say Hari Tat Sat, or just Hari Om, it’s the same remembrance.
That’s why the sages gave us these four sacred words—Hari Om Tat Sat—as a complete, compact invocation. Just by saying them once, we remember the whole: God, the universe, and eternal truth—all in one breath.
Our spiritual tradition is very concise and symbolic; tiny words hold vast meaning.
Just as saying “Ramayana” brings the entire story and wisdom of Ram to mind, saying Hari Om Tat Sat gathers the entire cosmic truth—God, world, and eternity—into a single phrase.
Even the word Om itself carries three syllables—A, U, and M:
A stands for creation,
U for preservation,
M for dissolution.
All three—creation, sustenance, and dissolution—happen in the same Divine. Later, these were expressed as Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesh (Shiva).
So Hari Om Tat Sat is not just a chant—it’s a complete remembrance of that One Divine Reality that creates, sustains, and absorbs everything.