The verse, in full
ॐ त्र्यम्बकं यजामहे सुगन्धिं पुष्टिवर्धनम्। उर्वारुकमिव बन्धनान्मृत्योर्मुक्षीय माऽमृतात्॥
In IAST transliteration:
Oṃ tryambakaṃ yajāmahe sugandhiṃ puṣṭi-vardhanam, urvārukam-iva bandhanān mṛtyor mukṣīya mā’mṛtāt.
Word-by-word
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Oṃ | The primordial sound |
| tryambakaṃ | The three-eyed one (Shiva — sun, moon, and the eye of inner vision) |
| yajāmahe | We worship, we make offering |
| sugandhim | The fragrant — a Vedic epithet for vitality, life-force |
| puṣṭi-vardhanam | The nourisher, the one who increases sustenance |
| urvārukam-iva | Like a cucumber (specifically a ripe one) |
| bandhanāt | From its bond, its stem |
| mṛtyoḥ | From death |
| mukṣīya | May I be freed |
| mā amṛtāt | But not from immortality (mā = “not”; amṛtāt = from the deathless) |
The whole, in English
We worship the three-eyed one, the fragrant, the nourisher of all. As a ripe cucumber releases from its vine, may we be released from the bondage of death — not from the deathless itself.
The verse is one of the most theologically subtle in the entire Rigvedic corpus. It asks for liberation from bondage — the small clutch of the self, the fear of ending — but explicitly not for escape from the deathless itself, which the seeker recognises as already their nature. To be freed from the fear of death, while remaining in conscious continuity with the deathless: this is what the verse petitions for.
Source and standing in Vedic literature
The verse is attributed to the rishi Vasishtha, one of the seven seers (saptarṣi) of the Rigveda, and appears in the seventh mandala (7.59.12). It is preserved with identical phrasing in two Yajurveda recensions — the Taittiriya Samhita (1.8.6) and the Maitrayaniya Samhita (1.10.4) — where it is embedded in the larger Rudra-Adhyaya hymns to Rudra-Shiva. Continuous Vedic recitation of these hymns is one of the oldest unbroken oral traditions on earth; the verse has likely been chanted, without interruption, for upwards of three thousand years.
In the post-Vedic period the verse entered Tantric and Agamic practice as a dedicated healing and longevity mantra. The Shiva Purana and several Tantric compendia describe specific recitation protocols — 108, 1008, or 125,000 repetitions over fixed periods — for protection during illness, before surgery, before journeys, or in the wake of grief.
When and why to recite
The mantra is recited in three main contexts in living Shaiva practice:
Daily. A single mala (108 chants) at dawn, often paired with Om Namah Shivaya. The combination — the bowing-mantra and the freedom-mantra — frames the day in surrender and fearlessness.
Around illness, surgery, or recovery. Family members and friends will often chant on behalf of a sick person, sometimes mounting a 24-hour recitation across several reciters until a crisis passes. The mantra is considered protective whether the patient chants or others chant for them.
At the threshold of death. The Mahamrityunjaya is among the mantras traditionally whispered into the ear of the dying. The request is no longer to be freed from death but to be carried cleanly through it, the way the ripe cucumber leaves the vine without struggle.
A note on the imagery
The cucumber image (urvāruka) is striking precisely because it is so mundane. The rishi did not reach for a celestial metaphor; he reached for a plant any villager would recognise. The point is the ordinariness of the ripening. Death, the verse implies, can be as natural as fruit falling. The violence is in the unripeness — the bond pulling against the not-ready — and the mantra is a prayer to bring the bond and the readiness into alignment.
Practice
- 108 chants, slowly, in the morning
- Hand on a mala, eyes soft or closed
- Pronounce each syllable. The mantra is metrically irregular and will not fit a casual rhythm — let the words shape the breath, not the other way around
- End in silence, two or three full breaths, before standing
The mantra is robust to imperfect pronunciation. Beginners should not postpone practice waiting for Sanskrit fluency.