Mahamrityunjaya Mantra

The mantra reads (IAST transliteration):

tryambakaṃ yajāmahe sugandhiṃ puṣṭi-vardhanam
urvārukam iva bandhanān mṛtyor mukṣīya māmṛtāt
In the translation of Arthur Berriedale Keith, 1914):

"OM. We worship and adore you, O three-eyed one　,
O Shiva. You are sweet gladness, the fragrance of life, who nourishes us,
restores our health, and causes us to thrive.
As, in due time, the stem of the cucumber weakens,
and the gourd is freed from the vine, so free us from attachment and death,
and do not withhold immortality."



Literal rendering:

three-eyed one　 / we praise / the fragrant / the beneficent
from attachment / even as the gourd from its stem / from death /
liberate / not from immortality

Grammatical analysis:

tri-ambaka-m "the three-eyed-one" (accusative)
yaja-mahe "we praise" (1st pl. middle)
sugandhi-m "the fragrant" (acc.)
pusti-vardhana-m "the prosperity-increaser" (acc.)
urvaruka-m "disease, attachment, obstacles in life, and resulting depression" (acc.)
iva "-like"
bandhanāt "from attachment Stem (of the gourd);
but more generally, unhealthy attachment" ("from the stem", ablative)
mṛtyos "from death" (ablative)
mukṣīya "may you liberate"
mā "not"
amṛtāt from immortality (ablative)


Mahamrityunjaya Mantra (maha-mrityun-jaya),
also called the Tryambakam Mantra, is a verse of the Yajurveda (TS 1.8.6.i; VS 3.60)
addressed to Tryambakam "the three-eyed", identified with the Hindu deity Shiva.
It's literal translation is the Great Death-Conquering mantra.
It is a mantra that has many names and forms.

It is called the Rudra mantra, referring to the furious aspect of Shiva;
the Tryambakam mantra, alluding to Shiva's three eyes;
and its is sometimes known as the Mrita-Sanjivini mantra because
it is a component of the "life-restoring" practice given to the primordial sage Shukra after
he had completed an exhausting period of austerity. The Maha Mrityunjaya mantra is
hailed by the sages as the heart of the Veda. Along with the Gayatri mantra it
holds the highest place among the many mantras used for contemplation and meditation.

The mantra was originally given by Lord Shiva as a boon ( Mritasanjiviani Vidya) to
Shukracharya after his penance. It was later known to brihaspati and devas who
gave it to rishi vashistha for human welfare.


Rigveda Verse : mandala-7 sukt-59 mantra-12 | Rishi: Vashistha | Mantra Devata: Rudra

There is a parallel formation mṛtyor māmṛtaṃ gamayeti/gamaya iti
"thus lead me from death to immortality" in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upanishad 1.3.28
(se asato ma sad gamaya) with amrita (immortality) in the accusative;
having amritat as ablative rather than accusative forces the interpretation of ma as
"not" (and not "me") and leads to the translation by Keith given above.


From Wikipedia