Sanskrit Mantras With Meaning — Part 8: Om Namah Shivaya

This is Part 8 of the Sanskrit Mantras With Meaning series. Read the introduction and full list in Part 1.

Om Namah Shivaya is probably the most recognisable mantra in this whole series. Most people who have spent any time around Hindu devotional practice already know the words. So this post is less about translating something unfamiliar, and more about the history behind it, and a bit on Om itself — the sound that opens almost every mantra in this series, including this one.

History

Om Namah Shivaya is known as the Panchakshara Mantra — the five-syllable mantra — referring to its five core sounds: Na, Ma, Shi, Va, Ya (the Om at the start is counted separately). This is not folklore or a modern devotional invention. The Panchakshara appears in the Shri Rudram Chamakam, part of the Krishna Yajurveda's Taittiriya Samhita, and also in the Rudrashtadhyayi of the Shukla Yajurveda. It is one of the oldest continuously chanted mantras still in use.

Meaning

Om — the primordial sound, discussed in more detail below. Namah — I bow, I surrender, I offer reverence. Shivaya — to Shiva, the auspicious one.

Taken together: I bow to Shiva, the auspicious one.

A commonly taught correspondence links each of the five syllables to one of the five elements — Na to earth, Ma to water, Shi to fire, Va to air, Ya to ether or space. This is a widely repeated tradition across many sources, though I have not traced it back to a single named text, so treat it as traditional teaching rather than a directly cited scriptural claim.

On Om Itself

Almost every mantra in this series opens with Om, and it is worth understanding why, since it is easy to chant a syllable every day without ever asking what it actually means.

The clearest scriptural statement on Om comes from the Mandukya Upanishad, one of the shortest but most concentrated of the Upanishads, devoted entirely to this one syllable. Its opening verse states:

ॐ इत्येतदक्षरमिदं सर्वं तस्योपव्याख्यानं भूतं भवद्भविष्यदिति सर्वमोङ्कार एव । यच्चान्यत्त्रिकालातीतं तदप्योङ्कार एव ॥

Om ityetad aksharam idam sarvam, tasyopavyakhyanam bhutam bhavad bhavishyad iti sarvam onkara eva. Yaccanyat trikalatitam tadapyonkara eva.

The verse states that Om is this imperishable syllable, and that everything is Om — whatever has been, whatever is, whatever will be, and whatever lies beyond the three divisions of time is also Om. The Upanishad goes on to break Om into its three sounds (A, U, M), mapping them to the waking state, the dream state, and deep sleep, with a fourth, silent state beyond the sound itself representing pure, undivided awareness.

That is the philosophical claim behind chanting Om before almost anything: it is treated not just as a sacred sound, but as a symbol for the whole of reality across every state of consciousness.

On Chanting 108 Times

Most of the mantras in this series are traditionally chanted in sets of 108, using a mala of 108 beads. I want to be honest here: there is no single, agreed-upon reason for the number 108. Several explanations exist side by side in the tradition, and I have not found one that is more authoritative than the others:

• Twenty-seven nakshatras (lunar mansions), each divided into four padas, giving 27 x 4 = 108.

• A traditional count of 108 Upanishads (though scholars differ on the exact number of Upanishads that exist).

• The 54 letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, each with a masculine (Shiva) and feminine (Shakti) aspect: 54 x 2 = 108.

• In Buddhist tradition, 108 kleshas, or worldly attachments, that a practitioner works to overcome.

One claim you will see repeated constantly online — that the distance from the earth to the sun or moon is 108 times their respective diameters — is a popular coincidence, not a scriptural explanation, and I would not treat it as fact. If a reliable number matters to you, 108 is worth doing simply because it is the standard; the reasoning behind it is genuinely unsettled.

My Own Practice

I chant Om Namah Shivaya right before I get into whatever is next on my day, and whenever I am stressed or in a difficult moment, aloud or silently. At night, if I wake up, I chant it again. That is not a prescription — it is just what has worked for me.

Sources: Historical and textual claims cross-checked against Wikipedia's articles on Om Namah Shivaya and Shri Rudram, each independently citing the Taittiriya Samhita (TS 4.5.8.1) and Shukla Yajurveda. Mandukya Upanishad text sourced from Swami Krishnananda's translation, cross-checked against Shlokam.org. Recording: Apple Music — Mukteshwar Aanand, Gautam Shukla & Haridas Anand. I have not translated any part of these texts myself; all meaning is drawn from the cited sources.

Om Namah Shivaya