Swami Samarth Mantra

What the Swami Samarth Mantra is

The Shri Swami Samarth Mantra is the name chant of Swami Samarth, the nineteenth-century master of Akkalkot in Maharashtra whom his followers regard as an incarnation of Dattatreya. It is not a verse taken from a scripture and has no author: it is the master's own name and title, kept as nama-japa in the homes and maths that follow him. Two forms are in common use. The short form is three words: Shri, a mark of reverence; Swami, master; and Samartha, a Sanskrit word for one who is able and wholly capable. The longer form says the name once and then adds 'Jaya jaya Swami Samarth', a doubled cry of victory, so the line moves from calling the master to hailing him. In everyday Marathi speech the final vowel falls away and the word is said 'Samarth'. A separate and later Marathi poem, the Taraka Mantra, is often recited alongside these lines but is a different text.

From the anthill to Cholappa's house

According to tradition, Swami Samarth was Narasimha Saraswati, the Datta master whose life the Gurucharitra tells, returned after centuries. One legend says that Narasimha Saraswati sat so long in meditation, about three hundred years, that an anthill rose over him, until a woodcutter's axe striking the brush around it came away with blood on the blade; the yogi uncovered inside rose and began the wandering that ended at Akkalkot. Asked once where he was born, he is said to have answered that he came from a banyan tree, and on another occasion that his former name was Nrusimha Bhan, of the Kardali forest near Srisailam. Accounts of his travels name Puri, Varanasi, Haridwar, Girnar and Rameswaram, and a stay at Mangalvedha near Pandharpur. He reached Akkalkot in 1856, reportedly at the invitation of Chintopant Tol. A risaldar who tested him with an empty chilum saw him draw on it as though it were filled, and arranged his lodging in the house of Cholappa, where he lived for about twenty-two years and where his shrine now stands. He left the body on 30 April 1878, Chaitra Shuddha Trayodashi of Shaka 1800. Tradition records his parting words as telling devotees not to weep, since he would answer every call; the line most quoted from him is 'Bhiu nakos, mi tujhya pathishi ahe', 'Do not fear, I am behind you'.

The mantra, in six scripts

Swami Samarth Mantra lyrics in full

The name chant in its two common forms: the three-word japa, and the longer form that adds a doubled cry of victory.

All 2 verses, in Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and English, each with its meaning. Choose a script:

The syllable people get wrong

In samartha (समर्थ) the last consonant is a soft dental 'th', the tongue touching the back of the upper teeth with a breath of air, as in Sanskrit artha; avoid the hard English 't' of 'smart' or the 'th' of 'thin'. Marathi drops the final short a, so the name ends 'sa-MARth', not 'sa-mar-THA'.

When the Swami Samarth Mantra is chanted

Festival. Swami Samarth Prakat Din (Chaitra Shukla Dwitiya)

Questions