Krishna
says, “If someone can remember me in my ‘Aum’ form and live in Aum at the time
of death, he will attain to the ultimate, the eternal- Moksha”. The word Aum is
an extraordinary, rare word. It is extraordinary just because it has no meaning
whatsoever. Every word has some meaning, this Aum has none. For this reason,
the word Aum cannot be translated into any other language of the world. Being
meaningless, finding equivalent is impossible, beyond translation. People who
discovered Aum were in search of something which could be a bridge between the
word and silence. While any word has a meaning, the silence is neither
meaningless nor meaningful; it is beyond both, it is the beyond. Aum is
constituted with the three basic sound forms: a, u and m. A, u and m are the
basic sounds of the science of phonetics. All other letters of the alphabet are
their extensions and combinations. Although Aum was not written in the as a
word; it remains a distinct and distinguished symbol. Aum in its original form is available in
Sanskrit, where it is in the pictorial form, it is neither a word nor a letter.
Aum represents the space where the finite world of the words- sounds end and
the infinite world of the silence begins.
It forms the frontier, the border line between the word and the
wordless; there is no word beyond Aum. Therefore Krishna says if someone can
think of him in his Aum form- which is beyond word and meaning – at the moment
of death, he will attain to reality, the truth. Because Aum is at the boundary
line of the world and beyond; one who can remember at the time of departure
from the world is destined to be carried to the beyond.
Aum is not
even needed to be uttered and chanted; it has to be really heard and
experienced. When we go into deep meditation, when all words disappear, the
sound of Aum will begin to vibrate. This real Aum is heard when all words
disappear, all noises cease. When mind and intellect, thought and word all come
to an end and silence begins, then an extraordinary subtle vibration remains,
which this country has interpreted as Aum. When the immense emptiness comes
into being, it has its own sound, its own music. It is called the sound of the
cosmic silence; it is called the anahatha, the unstruck- the uncaused sound.
The clapping of hands or the sounds of drums are created. But meditation is a
journey into silence; when all sounds disappear, when there is no duality, when
you are utterly alone, then the causeless sound comes into being. India’s sages
have called it Aum.
Similar
sounds of importance are found in other lands, languages and religions.
Christians use a word amen, Mohammedans say Amin. Every invocation of
Upanishads begins with Aum. The English language has three words: omniscient,
omnipresent and omnipotent- all of which can be constituted with the word Aum.
More about the cosmic sounds
in our next meeting…
Wishing you all good health and
happiness,
Dr.Dwarakanath, Director, Mitran
foundation- the stress management people
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