THE HISTORY AND MYSTERY OF OM

Abstract

OM is the most important tri-syllabic symbol in Hindu tradition. There is no action, no prayer started and ended, with- out uttering Om.2 The story of Om is as old as the Vedas.3 The Brahmanas, Aranyakas, and the Upanishads have their own philo- sophy on Om. Not only the Hindus but also the Buddhists, jains and all the other religious sects-and in modern times Christians and even Muslims-give their own commentary on Om. So much is philosophized on Om that it has been regarded as the utmost limit of what can be uttered or heard. In a sense, therefore, it is better fitted than any other sound to express the bankruptcy of word and thought. What all thought and words fail to express Om succeeds in expressing. According to Mandukyopanishad, Om is the "seed-syllable" of the universe, the magic word par-ex- cellence. Om is the primordial sound of timeless reality which vibrates within us from the beginningless past and which vibrates in us if we have developed the inner sense of perfect pacification of our mind. It is the transcendental sound of the inborn law of all things, the eternal rhythm of all that moves, the rhythm in which the law becomes the expression of perfect freedom.