Place Your Family's Names at the Sacred Fire

The Prayer at the Heart of the Fire

The Mahamrityunjaya Mantra

At the center of each evening's homa stands one of the oldest verses of the Rig Veda — the great mantra of healing and protection, chanted for thousands of years at altars and bedsides alike. The tradition renders its meaning:

"We worship the Three-Eyed One, fragrant, who nourishes all beings. As the ripe cucumber is released from the vine, may we be released from bondage and fear — not from immortality."

During Shravan, the month most sacred to Lord Shiva, this prayer is offered into the consecrated fire again and again, carried upward with ghee, grains, and sacred herbs — and with the names of every sponsoring family, spoken formally in the sankalpa.