अथ कस्मादुच्यते मृत्युमृत्युमिति । यस्मात्स्वमहिम्ना स्वभक्तानां स्मृत एव मृत्युमपमृत्युं च मारयति । य आत्मदा बलदा यस्य विश्व उपासते प्रशिषं यस्य देवाः । यस्य छायामृतं यो मृत्युमृत्युः कस्मै देवाय हविषा विधेम तस्मादुच्यते मृत्युमृत्युमिति
atha kasmāducyate mṛtyumṛtyumiti | yasmātsvamahimnā svabhaktānāṃ smṛta eva mṛtyumapamṛtyuṃ ca mārayati | ya ātmadā baladā yasya viśva upāsate praśiṣaṃ yasya devāḥ | yasya chāyāmṛtaṃ yo mṛtyumṛtyuḥ kasmai devāya haviṣā vidhema tasmāducyate mṛtyumṛtyumiti
“And why is he called ‘mṛtyu-mṛtyu’?” — “Because by his own greatness, for his devotees, merely by being remembered he slays both death and untimely death. ‘Who gives self and gives strength, whose command all revere, whose the gods are, whose shadow is immortality, who is the death of death itself — to what god shall we offer the oblation?’ Therefore he is called ‘mṛtyu-mṛtyu’.”
96863c4255e0 · published Jul 29, 2026, 4:39:50 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The eighth word is mṛtyu-mṛtyu, “the death of death”, and this is perhaps the finest place in the whole Upaniṣad.
The explanation is given in one turn: sva-bhaktānāṁ smṛta eva — “for his devotees, merely by being remembered”.
Three things are said at once. Bhakta — the devotee; smṛta — “being remembered”; eva — “merely by”.
Not by worship, not by austerity, not by knowledge: by the fact that He was called to mind.
And He slays not only mṛtyu but apamṛtyu — “evil death”, the untimely one: the one that comes out of season, from mishap or violence. The distinction is usual in the śāstras, and against apamṛtyu one prays specially.
The verse is taken from the famous hymn to Hiraṇyagarbha, every stanza of which ends with the question: kasmai devāya haviṣā vidhema — “to what god shall we offer the oblation?”
That hymn enumerates all the Unknown One has done, and each time asks what to call Him. The line taken here contains the words ya ātmadā baladā — “who gives self and gives strength”.
Mark the first: ātma-dā, “giving himself”. Not gifts — Himself.
We read the same formula in the Gopāla-tāpanī, where Kṛṣṇa promised: “I shall give thee Myself.” And here it stands beside the name “death of death”: He who gives Himself is He who kills the killing.