Mahamrityunjaya Mantra

The Full Mantra

ॐ त्र्यम्बकं यजामहे सुगन्धिं पुष्टिवर्धनम्। उर्वारुकमिव बन्धनान्मृत्योर्मुक्षीय माऽमृतात्॥ oṃ tryambakaṃ yajāmahe sugandhiṃ puṣṭi-vardhanam urvārukam iva bandhanān mṛtyor mukṣīya mā'mṛtāt We worship the three-eyed one, the fragrant, the increaser of thriving. As a cucumber is released from its stem, may I be freed from death — but not from the deathless.

First Line — the Address

त्र्यम्बकम् (tryambakam) — the three-eyed one, an epithet of Rudra; by an older reading, 'having three mothers'. Both are attested. यजामहे (yajāmahe) — we worship, we make offering to; first person plural middle, from the root yaj.

First Line — the Description

सुगन्धिम् (sugandhim) — fragrant, sweet-smelling पुष्टिवर्धनम् (puṣṭi-vardhanam) — increaser of puṣṭi: nourishment, growth, thriving Both terms describe flourishing rather than power — the verse says what it is addressing before it asks for anything.

Second Line — the Simile

उर्वारुकम् इव (urvārukam iva) — like a cucumber, a ripe gourd बन्धनात् (bandhanāt) — from the stem; and from the binding The ablative carries both senses at once, and the pun is almost certainly intended: the fruit's stalk and the soul's bondage. A ripe gourd is not cut or torn — it comes away by itself, at its own time, and the vine is undamaged.

Second Line — the Request

मृत्योः (mṛtyoḥ) — from death (ablative) मुक्षीय (mukṣīya) — may I be freed; precative, first person singular मा अमृतात् (mā amṛtāt) — not from the immortal, not from the deathless The final clause is a deliberate exclusion, and it is the key to the whole verse. Most popular translations drop it.

What is the Mahamrityunjaya Mantra?

A single Vedic verse — Rigveda 7.59.12, attributed to the rishi Vasishtha, and repeated in the Yajurveda. It addresses Tryambaka, the three-eyed Rudra, and asks for release from death using the image of a ripe cucumber coming away from its stem. It is the mantra most widely recited in Hindu practice during serious illness.

What does the Mahamrityunjaya Mantra mean word by word?

tryambakam — the three-eyed one; yajāmahe — we worship; sugandhim — the fragrant; puṣṭi-vardhanam — the increaser of thriving; urvārukam iva — like a cucumber; bandhanāt — from the stem, or from bondage; mṛtyoḥ — from death; mukṣīya — may I be freed; mā amṛtāt — but not from the deathless. Together: we worship the three-eyed, fragrant one who increases thriving; as a cucumber is released from its stem, may I be freed from death, but not from immortality.

What does the cucumber simile mean?

A ripe gourd is not cut, pulled or torn from the vine — it detaches of its own accord when it is ready, and the vine is undamaged. The image describes a release that comes at the right time, effortlessly, without violence to what it was attached to. This is the interpretive centre of the verse, and it is why reading it as a plea to avoid death misses what it is asking for.

Does the Mahamrityunjaya Mantra ask to avoid death?

Read closely, no. The simile asks for a release like a ripe fruit's — at the right time and not a severing — and the closing words, mā amṛtāt, explicitly exclude being freed from the deathless. It is a request about the manner of release and about what remains, rather than for additional years. Popular usage does read it as a prayer for recovery, and that reading is old and widespread; but the Sanskrit says something more specific.

What does 'ma amritat' mean, and why is it usually left out?

It means 'not from the immortal' or 'not from the deathless'. Having asked for freedom from mṛtyu, death, the verse immediately withholds that request from amṛta, the deathless. Popular translations frequently drop the clause because it complicates the reading of the verse as a prayer for long life. It is three syllables, and it changes the meaning of everything before it.

Who is Tryambaka?

An epithet of Rudra, the fierce Vedic deity from whom the later Shiva develops. The standard reading is 'three-eyed'. An older grammatical reading gives 'having three mothers', and both are attested in the commentarial literature. Reciters today address Shiva; the verse as composed addresses Rudra, and the identification of the two is a later development.

Where does the Mahamrityunjaya Mantra come from?

Rigveda 7.59.12, in the seventh maṇḍala associated with the Vasishtha family of rishis, where it closes a hymn addressed to the Maruts, the storm gods. Some scholars consider it an appended verse to that hymn. It appears again in the Yajurveda. Its life as a standalone Shaiva mantra called the Mṛtyuñjaya is much later than the verse itself.

Why is it called Mahamrityunjaya?

Mṛtyuñjaya means conqueror of death, and it is a later epithet of Shiva; mahā intensifies it. The verse itself never uses the word. The name attached to the mantra as Rudra became Shiva and as the verse's association with healing and death consolidated in later practice.

How many times should it be chanted?

There is no requirement in the verse. Common practice is 108 repetitions on a mala, often daily during a period of illness. Formal undertakings — anuṣṭhānas — use much larger fixed counts, most often 125,000, performed over weeks and frequently by a group or by priests on someone's behalf. These are long-established customs rather than instructions carried by the text.

Is the Mahamrityunjaya Mantra used for healing?

It is the verse Hindus most commonly recite when someone is seriously ill, and has been for a very long time. What the tradition does with it and what the verse says are two different things, and both are worth knowing: the practice is real and old, and the Sanskrit asks for a good release rather than for recovery. It sits alongside medical care, and it has always been recited by people who were also seeking treatment.

Can anyone chant the Mahamrityunjaya Mantra?

In contemporary practice, yes — it is taught openly, recorded widely and recited by families rather than only by priests. It has not carried the historical access restrictions that attached to the Gayatri. As with any Vedic recitation, learning the pronunciation from a trained reciter rather than from a transliteration is worth the effort, since the Roman alphabet cannot carry pitch accent.

What is the difference between this and the Gayatri Mantra?

Both are single Rigvedic verses in daily use, and they differ almost completely in what they ask. The Gayatri asks that our thoughts be impelled, entirely in the plural, and requests nothing material. The Mahamrityunjaya asks in the first person singular for release from death. The Gayatri belongs to the daily junctions of time; the Mahamrityunjaya is reached for at a specific moment in a life.

How should I pronounce it?

Learn it from a recording by a trained reciter rather than from a written transliteration. The transliteration on this page uses IAST — ṛ is a vowel, ṭ and ṇ are retroflex, and vowels marked with a bar are held roughly twice as long. The compound urvārukam-iva-bandhanāt is where most learners stumble; take it slowly and in pieces.