Mrityunjaya Mantra

 

Markandaya Rishi chanted this mantra. This is one of the most revered mantra in the Vedic tradition. After the Gayatri mantra is the Mrityunjaya mantra and there is a history behind this. 

 

'Mrityu' means 'death' and 'Jaya' means 'Victory over' (death). 

 

Death is for what? Is it for the soul or the body? Soul has no death. It goes from body to body, and body changes all the time. Every day, our body is changing. Every moment, so many cells are dying and new cells are being born. Our body is a township. Like in a town new children are being born every day and some old people are dying, same thing is happening in our body.

oṁ tryambakaṁ yajāmahe sugandhiṁ puṣṭi-vardhanam ǀ
urvārukam-iva bandhanān mṛtyormukṣīya māmṛtāt ǁ

Mrityunjaya here means victory of the mind over the ephemeral, and leaping on to the eternal. 

 

When the mind realizes that I am the eternal being; that there is something in me that is not changing, then there is no fear. 

 

Fear is one of the signs of death. When you win over the fear and win over the small mindedness of identification with the perishable then you move to the imperishable. When you identify with the imperishable, you have won over death as death is only for the perishable and perishables will anyway perish. We are a combination of both (spirit and body). Our spirit is imperishable and the body is perishable. Often our mind is attached to the perishable and it feels it is dying. Mrityunjaya mantra takes our mind from the limited identity to the unlimited identity, i.e., 'Shivoham', which means, I am part of Shiva. 

I am Shiva. In it is a prayer to Lord Shiva: Let Shiva make me strong. Let him give me relief from the bondage. The desire to be free from bondage takes you out of bondage.