Quick Answer
The Mahamrityunjaya ("great victory over death") mantra is a verse to Rudra-Shiva from the Rig Veda (7.59.12), also called the Tryambakam mantra. It asks Shiva, the three-eyed one, for nourishment, healing and liberation "like a cucumber freed from its stem" — release from bondage, not from life itself.
The mantra
ॐ त्र्यम्बकं यजामहे सुगन्धिं पुष्टिवर्धनम् ।
उर्वारुकमिव बन्धनान्मृत्योर्मुक्षीय मामृतात् ॥
Om tryambakam yajāmahe sugandhim puṣṭi-vardhanam, urvārukam iva bandhanān mṛtyor mukṣīya māmṛtāt.
Word-by-word meaning
- Tryambakam — the three-eyed one (Shiva)
- Yajāmahe — we worship / we offer
- Sugandhim — the fragrant, the all-pervading
- Puṣṭi-vardhanam — the increaser of nourishment and wellbeing
- Urvārukam iva — like a ripe cucumber (from its stem)
- Bandhanāt mṛtyoḥ — from the bondage of death
- Mukṣīya — may I be released
- Mā amṛtāt — not from immortality / toward immortality
The image is gentle: as a ripe fruit separates naturally from its vine, may we be released from fear and bondage — into freedom, not into nothingness.
Source and tradition
The verse is Rig Veda 7.59.12, attributed to the sage Vasiṣṭha, and also appears in the Yajurveda. Tradition associates it with healing, protection in danger, and peace at life’s transitions. It is among the most chanted mantras in the world — in homes, hospitals, temples and at Kedarnath itself.
Mantras are shared here as traditional religious material for devotional and educational purposes.