Day 22: Om

A lot of religions have symbols that make it easy to identify them—the Christian cross and the Jewish Star of David, for example. The Hindu Om may be one of the most recognizable sacred symbols (see picture below). But it’s more than just a graphic reminder of the Hindu faith. It’s in and of itself a way to connect with the Brahman—the eternal and absolute divine.

\

The word Om (or Aum) comes from the combination of three Sanskrit letters: aa, au, and ma. Together, Hindus believe, they make a sound that contains all possible sounds. (Okay, so I know my Sanskrit sucks, but as someone whose name begins with a T, I find this concept just a tad confusing. But let’s roll with it.)

According the Upanishads, the first sound of Aum—A—represents the first of the three states of consciousness: the state of waking. The U represents the state of dreaming. And the M represents the state of sleeping, without dreams—the sleep of real peace.

Put together, the three sounds create a fourth state: “supreme consciousness.” The Upanishads say that this state of consciousness is “beyond the senses and is the end of evolution. It is non-duality and love.”

Om is more than just a word, though. Ideally, you don’t so much say it as intone it, like music. When properly chanted, or vibrated, it allows a person to move beyond the physical body and, according to the Prasna Upanishad, become “united with the effulgent Sun.”

By chanting Om, we can realize “that which is tranquil, free from decay, death and fear and which is the Highest.” Hinduism says that Om is “the beginning, middle, and end of all things. He who has realized Aum as immutable immediately attains the Supreme Reality.”

I’ve got to say that I love the idea of boiling everything down to one single syllable. I also love the notion that one symbol can not only serve as a reminder of what you should be doing all day, every day—trying to get closer to God—but can actually bring you closer to God.

I’m big on visual reminders in general. Maybe it’s because I have a short attention span or because (I admit it) I can be a little ditzy, but having a visual symbol (like my own personal Om ring—see picture below) to keep me focused really helps. And if chanting the sound of that symbol can also, as the Katha Upanishad says, allow me to obtain all I desire, than I say “All righty!” Sounds great.

So I think I’ll be using Om a lot. I’ve read that many Hindus wear an Om as a pendant or other jewelry (I’ve got that covered) and that they utter the sacred syllable before beginning a project or a trip. Some even write Om at the opening of their correspondence or on test papers in school. Having that kind of constant reminder of the divine seems like something that may be missing from my life, so all I can say is . . . Om.