Notes on “Oṃ” from the Upaniṣads

Tukaram Tatya. A Guide to Theosophy. 1887. 71-83

Oṃ as an image of Brahman.

“All are but parts of one Stupendous whole,

Whose body nature is and God the soul;

Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,

Glows in the stars, blossoms in the trees;

Lives through all life, extends through all extent,

Spreads undivided, operates, unspent.”

Pope.

The repetition of the sacred syllable Oṃ is said to conduct the slow aspirant to a gradual and progressive liberation from metempsychosis. Oṃ is a solemn affirmation, yes. It is regarded by the Indian sages as made up of the three letters A, U, M, in euphonic combination. This mystic syllable Oṃ is said to be the nearest similitude of Brahman; it is an image of the self, as the black ammonite serves instead of an image of Viṣṇu. It is said to include all speech, and as names are in some way one and the same as the things they name, it is one with all things, one with Brahman. In the Praśna Upaniṣad the great teacher Pippalāda says, “this syllable Oṃ is the higher and the lower Brahman.” This is to say, Oṃ is Brahman as unconditioned, and Brahman in fictitious manifestation as the Demiurge. In their exposition of this passage the Scholiasts say that the self, as characterless and supersensible, cannot be made an object to the thinking faculty, unless this faculty is previously purified by meditation on the mystic Oṃ, taken and devoutly identified with Brahman as a man may take an image and devoutly identify it with Viṣṇu. Upon the mind thus purified the self shines of itself, undifferentiated. The following verses of the Taittirīya Upaniṣad are an invocation of this sacred utterance:—

Invocation of Oṃ in the Taittirīya Upaniṣad. “May that Indra, Oṃ, that is the highest thing in the Vedas, that is all that is immortal, above the immortality of the Vedas, may that divine being strengthen me with wisdom.”

Māṇdūkya Upaniṣad - Import of Oṃ. The four states of the soul

The mystic import of Oṃ, and the nature of the three states of the soul above which the aspirant to extrication is to rise, and the fourth or undifferentiated state of the self, one and the same in all souls, into which he is to rise are set forth in the Māṇdūkya Upaniṣad, one of the Upaniṣads of the Atharvaveda. This Upaniṣad says as follows.

“Oṃ. This syllable is all. Its interpretation is that which has been, that which is, and that which is to be. All is Oṃ, and only Oṃ, and whatever is beyond trinal time is Oṃ, and only Oṃ.”

“For all this world is Brahman, this Self is Brahman, and this same Self has four quarters.”

“This first quarter is the soul in the working state, extremely cognitive, with seven members, with nineteen inlets, with fruition of the sensible, the spirit of waking souls, Vaiśvānara.”

Literal Analysis of Oṃ

“This same Self is exhibited in the mystic syllable. Oṃ is exhibited in letters. The quarters are the letters and the letters are the quarters,—the letter A, the letter U, and the letter M.”

“The first letter, the letter A, is Vaiśvānara, the Spirit of the waking soul in the waking world, because it permeates all utterances, because it has a beginning. He that knows this attains to all desires, and becomes the first of all men.”

“The second letter, the letter U, is Tejas the spirit of the dreaming souls in the world of dreams, because the letter is more excellent, or because it is the intermediate letter. He that knows elevates the train of his ideas, becomes passionless; there is none in his family that knows not Brahman.”

“The third letter, the letter M, is Prajña, the spirit of sleeping and undreaming souls, because it comprehends the other two, because the other two proceed out of it. He that knows this comprehends all things, and becomes the source of things.”

“The fourth is not a letter but whole syllable Oṃ, unknowable, into which the whole world passes away, blessed, above duality. He himself enters into the Self,—he that knows this, that knows this.”

The Māṇdūkya Upaniṣad is thus an exposition of the significance of the sacred syllable Oṃ, of the three unreal states, and of the one real state of Brahman. The several vestures or involucra of the migrating Souls in the ascending order, the mode in which they arid their spheres of migration emanate out of Brahman overspread with Māyā; and the scale of beatitudes by which the soul may re-ascend to its fontal essence, the one and only self, are the themes of the second and third sections, the Brahmānanda-vallī, and the Bhṛgu-vallī of the Taittirīya Upaniṣad. This Upaniṣad belongs, as its name imports, to the So-called Black Recension of the Yajurveda. From the first section, the Śikṣā-vallī, treating of the imitation and purification of the aspirant to release from Metempsychosis, the hymn to Oṃ has been already presented to the reader. The second and third sections of the Taittirīya are not so engaging and impressive as many portions of the Upaniṣads are; but as they contain many of the texts of most frequent occurrence in the records of Indian philosophy a translation is subjoined. One of these texts occurs in the opening lines of the second section, the Brahmānanda-vallī which is as follows:—

“Hari. Oṃ. May he preserve us both, may he reward us both. May we put forth our strength together, and may that which we recite be efficacious. May we never feel enmity against each other. Oṃ. Peace, peace, peace.”

This invocation on the part of the teacher and his disciple, to remove any possible obstacles to the communication and acquisition of the science of Brahma. The preserver and recompenser is the universal soul or Demiurge.

Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad - The use of the Syllable Oṃ

“Let a man take the great weapon of the Upaniṣads, for his bow and let him fix upon it his arrow sharpened with devotion. Bend it with the thoughts fixed upon the Self, and hit the mark, the undecaying principle.”

“The mystic utterance Oṃ is the bow, the soul the arrow, the Self the mark. Let it be shot at with unfailing heed, and let the soul, like an arrow, become one with the mark.”

“It is over this Self that sky and earth and air are woven, and the sensory with all the organs of sense and motion. Know that this is the one and only Self. Renounce all other words, for this is the bridge to immortality.”

The Self dwells in the heart where the arteries are connected variously manifesting itself. Oṃ; thus meditate upon the Self. Ma)’ it be well with you that you may cross beyond the darkness.

Kaṭha Upaniṣad - The mystic syllable Oṃ must be employed by the seeker of the Self 

“Yama said: I will tell thee briefly the utterance that all the Vedas celebrate which all modes of self-coercion proclaim, and aspiring to which men live as celibate votaries of the sacred science. It is Oṃ.”

“This mystic utterance is Brahma, this Mystic utterance is Brahma. He that has this has all that he would have.”

“This is the best reliance, this is the highest reliance; he that knows this reliance is glorified in the sphere of Brahma.

“The repetition of the mystic monosyllable, and meditation upon it, is said to raise the less skillful aspirants to the paradise of Brahma, the highest of the deities, the first emanation of the divine Self. To the highest order of aspirants it serves as a help on the way to the knowledge of the Brahman, and extrication from the miseries of metempsychosis, as being an image or a substitute for the characterless Self.”

“This Self is not born, and dies not, it is omniscient. It proceeds from none and none proceed from it, it is without beginning and without end, unfailing from before all time. It is not killed when body is killed.”

Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad - Repetition of Oṃ reveals Brahman 

“The Self is to be made to shine forth in the body by repetition of the mystic Oṃ; in the same way as fire is unseen so long as it is latent in the fire-drills, and so long as its latency is not put an end to, and is seen as often as it is struck out of the fire-drills that it resides in.”

“Let the sage make his body the nether, and the mystic syllable the upper fire-drill and by the prolonged friction of meditation let him gaze upon the divine Self that is concealed within him.”

“This Self is to be found within himself by the sage that seeks it with truthfulness and with self-coercion; like the oil that is in the oil-seeds, the butter within the cream, the water within the rivers.”

He finds the Self that permeates all things, the fount of spiritual insight and of self-coercion within his body, as the curds are within the milk. That is the Self in which the fullness of bliss resides.”

Extracts from Maitrī Upaniṣad

It has been also said elsewhere, Two Brahmans are indeed to be contemplated, Sound and Non-Sound. By Sound is the non-Sound manifested. Of these two Oṃ is the Brahman called Sound. By means of this (Oṃ), rising above (all things) a man becomes merged in the (Supreme Brahman called) Non-Sound. This is the end, this is immortality, this is absorption and beatitude. As the spider, rising up by its thread, reaches a free space, so this thinker, rising up by means of Oṃ, reaches absolute freedom. But others who maintain the Brahman palled Sound, hold otherwise. By fixing their thumbs on their ears, they listen to sound in the ether within the heart. It has seven-fold similitude. It is like the sound of rivers or a bell, or brazen vessel, or a wheel, or croaking of frogs or rain, or a sound heard in a still place. Passing beyond this variously-likened sound, they lose themselves in the Supreme Non-sound, the unmanifested Brahman. Therein they merge all their individual attributes, they can no longer be severally distinguished, as the various flavors of the flowers are lost in the honey. Thus saith (the Śruti); He who is the Deity, Superior and Inferior, Oṃ by name,—who is without Sound and absolute—on Him let a man meditate in the topmost place.^[1]

Praśna Upaniṣad

Fifth Praśna

1. Then asked him Satyakāma the son of Śiva: — Which of the worlds gains he who among men has unceasingly (tad) meditated on the word “Oṃ” until his departure from life?

2. He said to him:—O Satyakāma, the supreme and the inferior Brahma are the word “Oṃ.” Hence the wise follows by this support one of the two.

3. If he meditates upon one letter, being enlightened thereby, he is quickly born upon earth;—Him carry the Mantras of the Ṛg to the world of man. There, devoted to austerity, the duties of a Brahmana-student (and) faith, he enjoys greatness.

4. Again, if ho meditates in his mind on two letter (A, U) he is elevated by the Mantras of the Yajur to the atmosphere; he (obtains) the world of the moon. Having enjoyed power in the world of the moon, ho returns again (to the world of man).

5. Who again meditates by three letters, by the word “Oṃ” on the supreme soul, is produced in light in the sun. As the snake is liberated from the skin, so gets he liberated from sin. He is elevated by the Mantras of the Sāma to the world of Brahma (Hiraṇyagarbha). (There) he beholds the soul which is greater than the great totality of the individual souls, and which is pervading (all) bodies. Hero the following two memorial verses are recorded:—

6. There are three letters, (A, U, M,) subject to death, designed for the meditation of the soul, they are designed (either) connected among themselves, or (each) designed for (meditation on) a special object. When the external, internal and intermediate actions, are fully directed (to their objects), then the wise does not tremble.

7. The wise obtains by the Mantras of the Ṛg this (world of man), by the Mantras of the Yajur the atmosphere, (the moon) by the Mantras of the Sāma that which the sages know (as the world of the Brahma), (he obtains) this (three-fold world) by the word “Oṃ” as means (and) even the highest (Brahma) who is without strife, without decay, without death and without fear.

Māṇdūkya Upaniṣad^[2]

1. “Oṃ” this is immortal. Its explanation is this all; what was, what is, and what will be, all is verily the word “Oṃ.” And everything else which is beyond the threefold time is also verily the word “Oṃ.”

2. For this all (represented by “Oṃ”) is Brahma; this soul is Brahma. This soul has four conditions.

3. The first condition is Vaiśvānara, whose place is in the waking state, whose knowledge are external objects, who has seven members,^[3] who has nineteen^[4] mouths, (and) who enjoys the gross objects,

4. His second condition is Taijasa, whose place is in dreams, whose knowledge are the internal objects, who has seven members, and nineteen mouths and enjoys the subtle (objects).

5. When the sleeper desires no desire, sees no dreams, this is sound sleep. His third condition is Prajña^[5] (who completely knows) who has become one, whose knowledge is uniform alone, whose nature is like bliss, who enjoys bliss,^[6] and whose mouth is knowledge.^[7]

6. He (the Prajña) is the lord of all; he is omniscient, he is the internal ruler; he is the source of all; for he is the origin and destruction of (all) beings.

7. They think the fourth him, whose knowledge are not internal objects, nor internal, nor both^[8] who has not uniform knowledge, who is not intelligent and not unintelligent, who is invisible, imperceptible, unseizable, incapable of proof, beyond thought not to be defined, whose only proof is the belief in the soul, in whom all the spheres have ceased, who is tranquil, blissful, and without duality.

8. This soul depends upon the word Oṃ which depends upon its parts. The conditions (of the soul) are parts (of the “Oṃ”); these parts conditions (These parts are) the letters A. U. and M.

9. Vaiśvānara, who abides in the waking state is the letter A, the first part, (either) from pervading (aptē), or from its being the first (letter). He verily obtains all desires and is the first who thus knows.

10. Taijasa who abides in dream, is the letter U, the second part, from its being more elevated or from its being in the midst. He verily elevates the continuance of knowledge, and becomes like (to friend and foe) and has no descendant ignorant of Brahma who thus knows.

11. Prajña (the perfect wise) who abides in sleep deep, is the letter M the third part, from its being a measure (mitē), or from its being of one and the same nature. He verily measures this all and becomes of the said nature who thus knows.

12. (The “Oṃ”) which is without part is the fourth (condition of Brahma) which is- imperceptible in which all the spheres have ceased, which is- blissful (and) without duality. This “Oṃ” thus meditated upon is soul alone. He enters with his soul, who thus knows, who thus- knows:

Maitrāyaṇīya-Brahmana Upaniṣad^[9]

23. The syllable Oṃ is sound; its end is silence, soundless, void of all fear or sorrow, full of joy and satisfaction, firm, immoveable, indestructible, imperishable, certain,—its name is Viṣṇu. To attain this state other than all else, let a man worship these two. Thus saith (the Śruti) ‘He who is the Deity, Superior and Inferior, Oṃ by name,—who is without sound and absolute on Him let a man meditate in the topmost place.’

24. The body is the bow, Oṃ is the arrow, its point is the mind; having pierced the error—distinguished darkness he proceeds to that which is unenveloped by darkness. Piercing that which was (once) enveloped thereby, he beholds Brahman flashing like the circle of a whirling torch in color like the sun, full of vigor, beyond the bounds of darkness, (that Brahman) which shines in yonder sun, and in the moon, fire, and lightning. Then having verily seen him, he goes into immortality. Thus saith (the Senti); ‘The contemplation is fixed (first) on the objects, (then) on the internal supreme Brahman; thus the dim perception attains distinctness. All that belongs to the mind being thus absorbed, the bliss which is its own witness (arises) this is the indestructible, resplendent Brahman, this the end, this is the only world.’

25. He who with all his senses absorbed as in sound sleep, with his intellect perfectly clear, dwelling in the cavern of the senses, but not subject to their power, beholds, as in a dream, the mover, called Oṃ manifest as light, the sleepless, the ageless, the deathless, and sorrowless, he too himself becomes the mover, called Oṃ, manifest as light the sleepless, the ageless, the deathless, the sorrowless. Thus saith (the śruti); since he thus joins (yuj) or they join to prāṇa and Oṃ all the world in its manifold variety; hence is this called in tradition Yoga. The uniting of the prāṇa, the mind and the senses, the abandonment of all individual existence this is (also) called Yoga.

Extracts from Mr. H. T. Colebrooke’s works.

The names of the worlds are preceded by the triliteral monosyllable, to obviate the evil consequence announced by Manu, “A Brahmana, beginning and ending a lecture of the Veda (or recital of any holy strain), must always pronounce to himself the syllable Oṃ: for unless the syllable Oṃ precedes his learning will slip away from him: unless it follow, nothing will be long retained.” Or that syllable fixed to the several names of worlds, denoting that the seven worlds are manifestations of the power signified by that syllable. “As the leaf of the Pālāśa ^[10]says Yājñavalkya, is supported by a single pedicle so is this universe upheld by this syllable Oṃ, the syllable of the supreme Brahma.” All rites ordained in the Veda, oblations to fire, and solemn sacrifices, pass away; but that which passeth not away, says Manu, “is declared to be the syllable Oṃ, hence called Akṣara, since it is a symbol of God, the lord of created beings.” (Manu Chap. II. V. 74-84).

In treating the Sāṅkhya system Mr. C. quotes the passage that the promptest mode of attaining beatitude through absorbed contemplation, is devotion to God, consisting in repeated muttering of his mystical name, the syllable Oṃ, at the same time meditating its signification. It is this which constitutes efficacious devotion, whereby the deity, propitiated, confers on the votary the boon that is sought; precluding all impediments, and effecting the attainment of an inward sentiment that prepares the soul for liberation.

In treating the Vedānta he has again quoted the following passage.

The mystic syllable Oṃ, composed of three elements of articulation, is the subject of devout meditation; and the efficacy of that meditation depends on the limited or extended sense in which it is contemplated. The question concerning this mode of worship in the dialogue between Pippalāda and Satyakāma is in the Praśna Upaniṣad.

The Maheśvaras and Pāśupatas (followers of certain doctrines) uphold that Yoga, abstraction; as perseverance in meditation on the syllable Oṃ, the mystic name of the deity; the profound contemplation of the divine excellence etc.

Extracts from the works of Sir W. Jones.

The Gāyatrī, called by Sir William Jones the mother of the Vedas, and in another place the holiest text of the Vedas, is expressed by the triliteral monosyllable AUM or ॐ  and means, if I understand it correctly, that divine light of know ledge dispersed by the Almighty, the sun of righteousness to illumine the minds of created beings. Sir William Jones thus translates it; “Let us adore the supremacy of that divine sun, the Godhead who illumines all, delights all, from whom all proceed, to whom all must return, whom we invoke to direct our understandings aright in our progress towards his holy seat.” And in another place he defines that divine sun as “not the visible material sun, but that divine and incomparably greater light, which illumines all, delights all, from whom all proceeds, to which all must return, and which can alone irradiate not our visual organs merely, but our souls and our intellects.” Mr. Colebrooke again explains it. “On that effulgent power which is Brahma himself and is called the light of the radiant sun, do I meditate, governed by the mysterious light which resides within me for the purpose of thought. I myself am an irradiated manifestation of the Supreme Brahma.”

Notes

^[1] The earlier Upaniṣads divide Oṃ into four parts (31/2 mātrās), but in the Rāma-tāpanīya Upaniṣad we find a division into seven, scil. a. (2) u, (3) m, (4) bindu, (5) nāda (the nasal half circle?), (6) the sakte (the nāma of Oṃ nāma?), (7) śānta or the ensuing silence after the word is uttered.

^[2] [See Bibliotheca Indica. 1853. 15:167.]

^[3] The seven members are: His head the heavens, his eyes the sun, his breathing the wind, his center the ether, his place for wine the water, his feet the earth and his mouth the fire. Anquetil gives the five senses mind, and intellect as his seven members.

^[4] According to 8^th the nineteen doors of perception, viz. the five organs of intellect, the five organs of action, the five vital airs, mind, intellect, self-consciousness, and citta. According to Anquetil the sixteen Kala and the three guṇa, and by the sixteen Kala he means the five elements, the five senses, the five organs of action and the mind.

^[5] Prajña (sarvavishayajnatritam asya eva iti Prajña) who has knowledge of every object, according to Śaṅkarācārya the derivation of the commentator of the Vedantasara (Rama Krishna Tirtha,) on the other hand, is prayenajna: prajña is a person who is nearly ignorant. In the present Upaniṣad, however, Prajña has the sense which Śaṅkarācārya ascribes to it.

^[6] Not bliss but like bliss, because it is not eternal. (Śaṅkarācārya.)

^[7] Cētōmukha [चेतोमुख] it is called, because conscience (cetas) is the door (mukha) to understand the dream etc. or conscience characterized by intellect is his door to enter the state of dream etc.— Śaṅkarācārya. And Ānanda Girī adds, there would be on such things as dream and the waking states independent of the state of profound sleep, because they are the effects of the latter. |Neither of these explanations appear to me here called for, but Cētōmukha to be taken rather in its literal sense “whose mouth is knowledge,” in accordance with the expression in the third and fourth mantras.

^[8] Whose knowledge are not internal objects nor internal, nor both successively prohibits to think Brahma as Taijasa, as Viśva, and as being in the state between waking and dream.—S.

^[9] [The three passages were originally given without sources and started with ‘it has been said elsewhere.’ See M. Müller (Tr.), The Upanishads. 1900 2:322-323.]

^[10] [Flame of the forest (Butea Frondosa).]