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transcendental Om in Jain tradition

In Jainism, Om is regarded to be a condensed form of reference to the five parameshthis. The Dravyasamgrah quotes an ancient Prakrit line:

"om" one akshara, is made from the initials of the five parameshthis . It has been said: "Arihanta, Ashiri (i.e. siddha), Acharya, Upadhyaya, Munis(sadhus)"

(om namah) is a short form of the Namokara mantra .

When you pronounce AUM:

"A - emerges from the throat, originating in the region of the navel U - rolls over the tongue M - ends on the lips A - waking, U - dreaming, M - sleeping It is the sum and substance of all the words that can emanate from the human throat. It is the primordial fundamental sound symbolic of the Universal Absolute.

In fact, when correctly pronounced, or rather, "rendered", the "A" can be felt as a vibration that manifests itself near the navel or abdomen; the "U" can be felt vibrating the chest, and the "M" vibrates the cranium or the head. The abdominal vibration symbolises Creation; It is interesting that the "creative" or reproductive organs are also located in the lower abdomen. The vibration of the chest represents Preservation, which is also where the lungs are situated (the lungs sustain or preserve the body through breath). The vibration of the head is associated with Destruction or sacrifice, since all that gives up or destroys is first destroyed mentally. Hence, the entire cycle of the universe and all it contains is said to be symbolised in AUM.

Today, in all Hindu art and all over India and Nepal , 'Aum' can be seen virtually everywhere, a standard sign for Hinduism and a vast but economical storehouse for the deep mythology inherent in the world's oldest religion.

It has been argued that Aum can be translated, into English, as "Eternal Yea". Notes the Chandogya Upanishad , "That syllable, is a syllable of permission; for, whenever we permit anything, we say Aum." However, this is seen by others as a myopic perspective because the same Hindu scriptures, the Upanishads, that aver this function also attribute to it the divine property of the source of the universe. Aum is seen as the source of existence as we know it within the causal dimensions of time and space, and thus affirmatory meanings in languages are a natural progression. Aum is not only affirmation, but negation, and transcends both.

The AUM sound is sometimes called "the 3-syllable Veda". The third syllable arises because in Devanagari and similar alphabets, a consonant at the end of a word is sometimes written as a separate consonant letter with the virama "no vowel" sign, and this combination is treated as a syllable when talking about Devanagari writing rather than about phonetics.

The Sanskrit word omkara (from which came Punjabi onkar , etc), literally "OM-maker", has two families of meanings:-

Brahma (god) in his role as creator, and thus a word for "creator".

Writers' term for the OM sign.

Some quotations from Hindu scriptures regarding AUM

In the Rig-veda we find the following information; "One who chants om, which is the closest form of Brahman, approaches Brahman. This liberates one from the fear of the material world, therefore it is known as tarak brahman."

"O Vishnu your self-manifest name, om, is the eternal form of cognizance. Even if my knowledge about the glories of reciting this name is incomplete, still, by the practice of reciting this name I will achieve that perfect knowledge. "He who has unmanifested potencies and is fully independent, manifests the vibration omkara, which indicates Himself. Brahman, Paramatma, and Bhagavan are the three forms He manifests."

"Aum takes the form of Gayatri, then Veda and Vedanta sutra ; then it takes the shape of Srimad Bhagavatam and the lila, the divine pastimes, of the Lord."

Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita 7.8 and 9.17, "I am Om", and that one must chant Om thinking of Him in order to attain Him personally ('mam anusmaran', 8.13).

"Just as a spider brings forth from its heart its web and emits it through its mouth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead manifests Himself as the reverberating primeval vital air, comprising all sacred Vedic meters and full of pleasure. Thus the Lord, from the ethereal sky of His heart, creates the great and limitless Vedic sound by the agency of His mind, which conceives of variegated sounds such as the sparsas. The Vedic sound branches out in thousands of directions, adorned with the different letters expanded from the syllable om: the consonants, vowels, sibilants and semivowels. The Veda is then elaborated by many verbal varieties, expressed in different meters, each having four more syllables than the previous one. Ultimately the Lord again withdraws His manifestation of Vedic sound within Himself." (Bhagavata Purana 11.21.38-40)

Other traditions, interpretations and understandings

Tibetan " Om " symbol

With Buddhism's evolution and breaking away from Vedic/Hindu tradition, Aum and other symbology/cosmology/philosophies were co-opted from the Hindu tradition. This character often appeared as "?" in Buddhist scripts in East Asia .

In Buddhism this syllable is almost never transliterated as Aum , but instead as Om .

This syllable is also incorporated in the mantra "Om Mani Padme Hum".

The Beatles reference the symbol in their Let It Be song "Across the Universe", singing "Jai Guru Deva Aum," meaning "Salute Guru Deva, Aum."

John Coltrane released a work entitled " Om " which begins with an allusion to the Bhagavad Gita

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