We have recorded a rendition of the Mahamrityunjaya mantra with a new affiliate @kshatriyacowboy. This verse can be found in the Rigveda (RV 7.59.12) and is devoted to the great Rudra-Shiva in his form of Tryambakam or “The Three Eyed One.”
ॐ त्र्य॑म्बकं यजामहे सु॒गन्धिं॑ पुष्टि॒वर्ध॑नम् ।
उ॒र्वा॒रु॒कमि॑व॒ बन्ध॑नान् मृ॒त्योर्मु॑क्षीय॒ माऽमृता॑त् ।।
oṃ tryámbakaṃ yajāmahe sugandhíṃ puṣṭi-vardhánam
urvārukam íva bandhánān mṛtyor mukṣīya mā ‘mṛtā́t
There are many translations of this mantra, but it is generally referred to as the “Great Conquest Over Death” or “Death Destroying” mantra.
The Mahamrityunjaya mantra is a request to be separated from the clutches of death; a longing to be free of attachments to samsara and one’s inherent ignorance regarding the perception of self. The mantra expresses a specific wish to not be removed from the possibility of immortality; requesting to have one’s attachment to samsara be broken (the suffering of bodily/individual bondage) but for one’s consciousness (Self/Atman) to remain intact for eternity; completely overwhelmed and overflowing with devotion for the primeval essence. This is requested as a means to continue worshiping the divine Shiva for all of infinity, who is none other than the progenitor of primordial consciousness; the true state of one’s being. The mantra describes this metaphorically as a cucumber (or melon) being separated from its vine but continuing to live on as an emanation of its source (Shiva). This request is for consciousness to become free from the shackles of the flesh (vine) associated with the experience of samsara (change), ego, and death. Through this process, one’s true Self may live on forever in constant reverence of the primordial source; the original state of awareness from which one’s perception comes and to what one’s consciousness is inseparable from, no matter how obscured or hidden by one’s mundane delusions.
Oh Three Eyed one, great Shiva,
Fragrant (blissful, aromatic) sustainer of prosperity,
As the cucumber is removed from its vine (bondage),
May I be relinquished from death (attachment to samsara) but not from immortality.
Om Namah Shivaya
-Ansuz Society
Ansuz Society 