मृत्युञ्जयाय रुद्राय नीलकण्ठाय शम्भवे ।
अमृतेशाय शर्वाय महादेवाय ते नमः ॥
mṛtyuñjayāya rudrāya nīlakaṇṭhāya śambhave ।
amṛteśāya śarvāya mahādevāya te namaḥ ॥
Oh Lord Shiva, the Great God, the Destroyer, the Lord of the Immortals, the Auspicious One, the Blue-throated One, the Fierce One, and the one who helps conquer death itself, obeisances to you!
mṛtyuñjayāya The one who helps conquer death itself
rudrāya The Fierce One
nīlakaṇṭhāya The Blue-throated One
śambhave The Auspicious One
amṛteśāya The Lord of the Immortals
śarvāya The Destroyer
mahādevāya The Great God
te to you,
namaḥ Obeisances!
This prayer to Shiva is ancient and lists all the attributes of the God who dwells in 12 sacred places across India in the form of the Jyotirliṅga or the Luminous Lingam.
The word namaḥ has already occurred in many shlokas. It means Obeisances, Prayers, and so on. Interestingly, the Vibhakti used for the person being worshipped is the Fourth Vibhakti, or the Dative Case. All the attributes of Shiva here are in the Dative case. All except śambhave have the form similar to Rāmāya, Ganeśāya, Kṛṣṇāya. That is because the root noun ends in a. śambhu, guru and such words end in u. So we say śambhave, gurave, ... in the Fourth Vibhakti.
Vande mātaram ! Vande samskṛtam !
