Mahamrityunjaya Mantra
ॐ त्र्यम्बकं यजामहे सुगन्धिं पुष्टिवर्धनम्। उर्वारुकमिव बन्धनान्मृत्योर्मुक्षीय माऽमृतात्॥In Devanagari, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and English — with the meaning of every word, and the one syllable most people pronounce wrongly.
Who Mahamrityunjaya is
Tryambaka, the three-eyed Rudra of the Veda, is the form of Shiva addressed in the Mahamrityunjaya mantra. The name itself records the three eyes that tradition assigns to him: the sun, the moon, and the fire of insight that burns between them. In the Rigvedic hymn from which the mantra is drawn he is invoked as the fragrant one who increases nourishment, the liberator who loosens the bond of death as a cucumber is severed from its vine. Later Shaiva literature identifies this same Tryambaka with the ascetic of Kailasa whose throat holds the halahala poison and whose gaze can still the movement of time. The mantra therefore does not address a generic Shiva but this precise, three-eyed seer whose Vedic epithet already contains the imagery of release from mortality.
Markandeya and the Noose
The Markandeya Purana preserves the episode that later tradition inseparably links with the Mahamrityunjaya mantra. The sage Mrikandu, granted a choice between a long-lived dull son and a short-lived brilliant one, chose the latter. The boy Markandeya was born with a life span of sixteen years. On the appointed day Yama’s noose settled around the youth as he clung to a Shiva-linga on the seashore. Shiva, rising from the linga in the form of Tryambaka, kicked the noose aside and declared that Markandeya would remain sixteen forever. The hymn that the boy is said to have recited in that moment is the same Rigvedic verse (7.59.12) that begins tryambakaṃ yajāmahe. The Puranic narrative therefore supplies a concrete mythic frame for a mantra whose original setting is a simple Vedic offering to Rudra; the cucumber image of the hymn becomes, in the Purana, the literal severing of death’s cord.
The mantra, in six scripts
The seed mantra, and the form most devotees chant daily. No initiation is required — it is open to anyone, including a parent chanting for a child.
- ॐ
- oṃ — the sacred syllable
- त्र्यम्बकं
- tryambakaṃ — the three-eyed one (accusative)
- यजामहे
- yajāmahe — we worship / we sacrifice to
- सुगन्धिं
- sugandhiṃ — the fragrant one
- पुष्टिवर्धनम्
- puṣṭivardhanam — increaser of nourishment
- उर्वारुकम्
- urvārukam — cucumber / gourd
- इव
- iva — like / as
- बन्धनान्
- bandhanān — from the stem / from bondage
- मृत्योः
- mṛtyoḥ — from death
- मुक्षीय
- mukṣīya — may I be released
- मा
- mā — not
- अमृतात्
- amṛtāt — from immortality
The syllable people get wrong
The cluster trya in tryambakaṃ is frequently flattened to a simple tri-ya, producing triyambakam. The correct onset is a single consonant cluster trya, with the r lightly trilled before the y, so that the first syllable remains one beat rather than two.
When Mahamrityunjaya is chanted
Weekday. Monday
Festival. Maha Shivaratri, when the Mahamrityunjaya mantra is recited through the four night watches in many Shaiva temples
Questions
Have your chart read before you decide
Chanting is yours to do, and free. But which deity your situation calls for — and whether a mantra alone is the right response — depends on your chart. Sometimes it is; sometimes it is not.
- Over 30 years in the Guru–Sishya Parampara, from the age of five
- He reads every chart himself — 60 minutes, one to one, never delegated
- Charts are read only between sunrise and sunset, following tradition
Related
Chanting is yours to do. Some things are performed for you.
Where a matter carries real weight — an examination that decides a course, a performance, a child whose studies have stalled — devotees sponsor the homa alongside their own practice. Performed for you and any family members you name, at our Yagna Ashram, in your name and gotra, on a muhurta calculated from your chart, and telecast live so you can watch it done for you.