- April 14th, 2011, 1:53 pm
#57843
UNDERSTANDING AUM
AUM
PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPT:
Hindu philosophy from the Vedas explains GOD as an energy that binds all of creation. This “energy” pervades everything in the cosmos. One gets a glimpse of this whenever one carries any form of experience to its farthest limit. We recognize this experience as “Divine,” yet, we are unable to grasp or understand it, because it is beyond the limitations that condition our thinking, our powers of reasoning and logic. It begins where understanding fails. Yet, even if we cannot understand its nature, we intuitively know that some form of “being” beyond the sphere of our perception exists. The sages from the Vedic times reasoned that if GOD exists in everything then all of nature’s forms could be used to understand and approach him. “Tat – Tvam – Asi”. The Sanskrit symbol Aum was thus designed as the visible symbol of God.
SOUND STRUCTURE:
The ancient Indian grammarians / mathematicians and sages, Nandikesvara, Panini, Bhartahari, and Patanjali, 1500-3000 BC, created an alphabet that recognized five places of articulation, five groups of consonants and five pure vowels. It had fifty symbols and an accurate pronunciation of the sounds was essential for the effectiveness of this language. This language was called “Sanskrit”. According to these sages, the intonation of the word Aum takes place in three stages.
First, an intention or an impulse appears. This mental impulse is called “pasyanti”, the voice that sees.
Second, in the silence of the mind, transcription of this impulse in terms of sound is formed. This sound is called “madhyama”, the silent verbal form.
Third, the impulse is now manifested in perceptible sound. This is called “vaikhari”, the voice manifest.
The cosmic place from whence all sound originates, “the voice beyond” is called “para-vac”, the seat of Aum.
AUM is thus the first undifferentiated sound in the triangle of pasyanti-madhyama-vaikhari or ideation-wording-utterance.
QUANTUM MECHANICS
A profound mathematical and musical logic exists in the sound structure of Aum. Aum came into existence in the Vedic period, a culture in which sound was the primary vehicle of truth. The Rgvedic sage was enveloped by sound. He looked for centers of experience in the experience of sound. To him sound was the original substance of the universe. In the discovery of AUM he found the model for complete and absolute communication with the divine.
The song-poems or the “shlokas” of the RgVeda abound in mysterious arithmetical, musical and geometrical detail. In the intonation of the word Aum, the Vedic sage discovered the steadfast musical octave ratio of 1:2, the basic miracle of music. There is a deep internal logic in the quantum mechanics and musical-mathematics of the sound structure of Aum. To understand this, scholars today use a technique called “Harmonical Analysis”. Musical imagination is required to employ this technique to uncover the meaning encoded in this mysterious symbol Aum.
The problem encountered in trying to describe the word Aum arises from the fact that we have no simple guide for correlating this symbol with concepts of ordinary language. We realize quickly that our common linguistic concepts cannot be applied to the structure of this ancient symbol. The predicament of language here is serious. We wish to speak in some way about this symbol, but we cannot speak about it in ordinary language.
This contradiction so puzzling to the ordinary way of thinking comes from the fact that we have to use words to communicate an inner experience which by its very nature transcends language. Thus the understanding of Aum till now was a pure experience that one could not share with any one else.
Mathematicians today believe that understanding the equation of AUM at its quantum – harmonical level could lead us to the very origin of our creation, the roots of our civilization and the secrets of the universe.
Although one civilization after another has perished from the earth, wisdom and knowledge acquired through mathematics and music of Aum has never really been lost. The sound and musical structure of Aum is the one single force that is most capable of projecting all intuitive knowledge into a philosophic synthesis. Aum is the soul of the universe. This monosyllable AUM is considered to be the seed sound, “bija-mantra”, from whence all language, thought, sound, wisdom and existence begins. This elemental sound is hence called the “Brahma-Vidya-Mantra” or the “Thought-Form-of-the-Knowledge-of-the-Immensity”.
Encoded in this simple yet profound symbol are the mysteries of the past, present and the future. Everything is embedded in the word AUM. (Mandukya Upanishad).
This stanza from the RgVeda (10.72.1) says it all.
Let us with tuneful skill, announce these
Gods of our generation, that when this sacred Aum
Is chanted in a future age, the Gods will be seen again.
References
Wendy O’Flaherty The Rig Veda, 1981
Antonio T. de Nicholas The Philosophical Methodology of the RgVeda
Ernest G. McClain The Myth of Invariance
Dimmitt and Van Buitenen Classical Hindu Mythology 1977
Stephen P. Huyler Meeting God, 1995
Alain Danielou The Gods of India, Hindu Polytheism, 1985,
PUBLISHED IN: AUM'S SOUND STRUCTURE ON OCTOBER 19, 2008 AT 12:13 PM LEAVE A COMMENT
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