Special Mom’s blog

We finished our Shivaratri celebrations before Indians did in India. As we were driving back from the temple my husband asked me the meaning of this mantra chanted in Rudram.

ॐ त्र्यम्बकं यजामहे
सुगन्धिं पुष्टिवर्धनम् ।
उर्वारुकमिव बन्धनान्
मृत्योर्मुक्षीय मामृतात् ॥

oṃ tryambakaṃ yajāmahe
sugandhiṃ puṣṭivardhanam .
urvārukamiva bandhanān
mṛtyormukṣīya māmṛtāt ..

We worship Lord Shiva the three-eyed one, the one who is the master of all senses and qualities and the one who is the sustainer of all growth. May he release us from the bondage of death, just as a ripened cucumber is released from its stalk, and may he (not deprive us of immortality) grant us immortality.

He was appreciative that I had answered it fast. The past few years, I have been in so many classes though I did not learn Sri Rudram I have stumbled upon the explanations.

When I was a little girl, my grandfather taught my brother and his friend Sri Rudram, Chamakam and all the sooktams. As a girl, growing up in an orthodox Hindu family I was not supposed to learn these. My grandmother gave a simple explanation saying if girls chant these it is not good for health. Let me tell you, I did not for a moment bother about women equality at that point. My grandmother taught me so many other shlokas and I was fine with it. My mom was always like, when we have so many to learn why fight over things that we cannot.

But as I started learning shlokas and Sanskrit, I understood the usage of mahapranas. Certain consonants need to be given more force than the others.

As I was listening to the chanting of Sri Rudram at the temple, I was able to understand the words being chanted and the pronunciation that needed to be in place.

nama̍ āvyā̠dhinī̎bhyō vi̠vidhya̍ntībhyaścha vō̠ namō̠

In the above verse, the dh, bh sounds needs to be given with force and the entire Sri Rudram has lots of words with these sounds. The energy required for the same is more.

Maybe people thought a girl may need to save her energy for child birth or that these usage may interact with her uterus and cause issues.

I am not going to get into all this. My husband was following the same with his phone, but no part of me was interested to follow the text though I know Sanskrit.

Will I learn to chant in the future? I do not think I will do that. My grandparents’ advice stays with me. Anyhow that is not going to stop me from learning the meaning of the text.