The Sacred Word Which is
Connected to the Essence of
the Universe
William Q. Judge
Aum, in Sanskrit
The most sacred
mystic syllable of the Vedas is Aum. It is the first letter of the Sanskrit
alphabet, and by some it is thought to be the sound made by a new born child
when the breath is first drawn into the lungs. The daily prayers of the Hindu
Brahmin are begun and ended with it, and the ancient sacred books say that with
that syllable the gods themselves address the most Holy One.
In the Chandogya
Upanishad [1] its praises are sung in these words:
“Let a man meditate
on the syllable OM, called the udgitha, [2] ……. it is the best of all
essences, the highest, deserving the highest place, the eighth.”
It is then
commanded to meditate on this syllable as the breath, of two kinds, in the body
- the vital breath and the mere breath in the mouth or lungs, for by this
meditation come knowledge and proper performance of sacrifice. In verse 10 is
found:
“Now, therefore, it
would seem to follow that both he who knows the true meaning of OM, and he who
does not, perform the same sacrifice. But this is not so, for knowledge and
ignorance are different. The sacrifice which a man performs with knowledge,
faith, and the Upanishad is more powerful.”
Outwardly the same
sacrifice is performed by both, but that performed by him who has knowledge and
has meditated on the secret meaning of OM partakes of the qualities inhering in
OM, which need just that knowledge and faith as the medium through which they may
become visible and active. If a jeweler and a mere ploughman sell a precious
stone, the knowledge of the former bears better fruit than the ignorance of the
latter.
Shankaracharya in
his Sharir Bhashya dwells largely on OM, and in the Vayu Purana a
whole chapter is devoted to it. Now as Vayu is air, we can see in what
direction the minds of those who were concerned with that purana were tending.
They were analyzing sound, which will lead to discoveries of interest regarding
the human spiritual and physical constitution. In sound is tone, and tone is
one of the most important and deep reaching of all natural things. By tone, the
natural man and the child express the feelings, just as animals in their tones
make known their nature. The tone of the voice of the tiger is quite different
from that of the dove, as different as their natures are from each other, and
if the sights, sounds, and objects in the natural world mean anything, or point
the way to any laws underlying these differences, then there is nothing puerile
in considering the meaning of tone.
The Padma Purana
says:
“The syllable OM is
the leader of all prayers; let it therefore be employed in the beginning of all
prayers”, and Manu in his laws ordains:
“A Brahmin, at the
beginning and end of a lesson on the Vedas, must always pronounce the syllable
OM, for unless OM precedes, his learning will slip away from him, and unless it
follows, nothing will be long retained.”
The celebrated
Hindoo Raja, Ramohun Roy, in a treatise on this letter says:
“OM, when
considered as one letter, uttered by the help of one articulation, is the
symbol of the supreme Spirit. ‘One letter (OM) is the emblem of the Most High,
Manu II, 83.’ But when considered as a triliteral word consisting of 
(a), 
(u), 
(m), it implies the three Vedas, the
three states of human nature, there three divisions of the universe, and
the three deities - Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, agents in the creation,
preservation, and destruction of this world; or, properly speaking,
the three principal attributes of the Supreme Being personified in those three
deities. In this sense it implies, in fact, the universe controlled by the
Supreme Spirit.”
(a), (u), (m), it implies the three Vedas, the
three states of human nature, there three divisions of the universe, and
the three deities - Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, agents in the creation,
preservation, and destruction of this world; or, properly speaking,
the three principal attributes of the Supreme Being personified in those three
deities. In this sense it implies, in fact, the universe controlled by the
Supreme Spirit.”
Now we may consider
that there is pervading the whole universe a single homogeneous resonance,
sound, or tone which acts, so to speak, as the awakener or vivifying power,
stirring all the molecules into action. This is what is represented in all
languages by the vowel a, which takes precedence of all others. This is
the word, the verbum, the Logos of St. John of the Christians,
who says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God, and the
word was God.” [3] This is creation, for without
this resonance or motion among the quiescent particles, there would be no
visible universe. That is to say, upon sound, or, as the Aryans called it, Nada
Brahma (divine resonance), depends the evolution of the visible from the
invisible.
But this sound a,
being produced, at once alters itself into au, so that the second sound u
is that one made by the first in continuing its existence. The vowel u,
which in itself is a compound one, therefore represents preservation. And the
idea of preservation is contained also in creation, or evolution, for there
could not be anything to preserve, unless it had first come into existence.
If these two
sounds, so compounded into one, were to proceed indefinitely, there would be of
course no destruction of them. But it is not possible to continue the utterance
further than the breath, and whether the lips are compressed or the tongue
pressed against the roof of the mouth, or the organs behind that used, there
will be in the finishing of the utterance the closure or m sound, which
among the Aryans had the meaning of stoppage. In this last letter there
is found the destruction of the whole word or letter. To reproduce it a slight
experiment will show that by no possibility can it be begun with m, but that au
invariably commences even the utterance of m itself. Without fear of
successful contradiction, it can be asserted that all speech begins with au,
and the ending, or destruction of speech, is in m.
The word “tone” is
derived from the Latin and Greek words meaning sound and tone. In the Greek the
word “tonos” means a “stretching” or “straining”. As to the character of the
sound, the word “tone” is used to express all varieties, such as high, low,
grave, acute, sweet, and harsh sounds. In music it gives the peculiar quality
of the sound produced, and also distinguishes one instrument from another; as
rich tone, reedy tone, and so on. In medicine, it designates the state of the
body, but is there used more in the signification of strength, and refers to
strength or tension. It is not difficult to connect the use of the word in
medicine with the divine resonance of which we spoke, because we may consider
tension to be the vibration, or quantity of vibration, by which sound is
apprehended by the ear; and if the whole system gradually goes down so that its
tone is lowered without stoppage, the result will at last be dissolution for
that collection of molecules. In painting, the tone also shows the general
drift of the picture, just as it indicates the same thing in morals and
manners. We say, “a low tone of morals, an elevated tone of sentiment, a
courtly tone of manners”, so that tone has a signification which is applied
universally to either good or bad, high or low. And the only letter which we
can use to express it, or symbolize it, is the a sound, in its various
changes, long, short, and medium. And just as the tone of manners, of
morals, of painting, of music, means the real character of each, in the same
way the tones of the various creatures, including man himself, mean or express
the real character; and all together joined in the deep murmur of nature go to
swell the Nada Brahma, or Divine resonance, which at last is heard as
the music of the spheres.
Meditation on tone,
as expressed in this Sanskrit word OM, will lead us to a knowledge of the
secret Doctrine. We find expressed in the merely mortal music the seven
divisions of the divine essence, for as the microcosm is the little copy of the
macrocosm, even the halting measures of man contain the little copy of the
whole, in the seven tones of the octave. From what we are led to the seven colors, and
so forward and upward to the Divine radiance which is the Aum. For the Divine Resonance, spoken of above, is
not the Divine Light itself. The Resonance is only the outbreathing of the
first sound of the entire Aum. This goes on during what the Hindoos call a Day
of Brahma, which, according to them, lasts a thousand ages.[4]
It manifests itself not only as the power which stirs up and animates the
particles of Universe, but also in the evolution and dissolution of man, of the
animal and mineral kingdoms, and of solar systems. Among the Aryans it was
represented in the planetary system by Mercury, who has always been said to
govern the intellectual faculties and to be the universal stimulator. Some old
writers have said that it is shown through Mercury, amongst mankind, by the
universal talking of women.
And wherever this
Divine Resonance is closed or stopped by death or other change, the Aum has
been uttered there. These utterances of Aum are only the numerous microcosmic
enunciations of the Word, which is uttered or completely ended, to use the
Hermetic or mystical style of language, only when the great Brahm stops the
outbreathing, closes the vocalization, by the m sound, and thus causes
the universal dissolution. This universal dissolution is known in the Sanskrit
and in the secret Doctrine as the Maha Pralaya, Maha being “the great”,
and Pralaya “dissolution”.
And so, after thus
arguing, the ancient Rishees of India
said: “Nothing is begun or ended; everything is changed, and that which we call
death is only a transformation.” In thus speaking they wished to be understood
as referring to the manifested universe, the so-called death of a sentient
creature being only a transformation of energy, or a change of the mode and
place of manifestation of the Divine Resonance. Thus early in the history of
the race the doctrine of conservation of energy was known and applied. The
Divine Resonance, or the au sound, is the universal energy, which is
conserved during each Day of Brahma, and at the coming on of the great Night is
absorbed again into the whole. Continually appearing and disappearing it
transforms itself again and again, covered from time to time by a veil of
matter called its visible manifestation, and never lost, but always changing
itself from one form to another. And herein can be seen the use and beauty of
the Sanskrit. Nada Brahma is Divine Resonance; that is, after saying Nada,
if we stopped with Brahm, logically we must infer that the m sound at
the end of Brahm signified the Pralaya, thus confuting the position that the
Divine Resonance existed, for if it had stopped it could not be resounding. So
they added an a at the end of the Brahm, making it possible to
understand that as Brahma the sound was still manifesting itself. But
time would not suffice to go into this subject as it deserves, and these
remarks are only intended as a feeble attempt to point out the real meaning and
purpose of Aum.
For the above
reasons, and out of the great respect we entertain for the wisdom of the
Aryans, was the symbol adopted and placed upon the cover of this magazine and
at the head of the text.
With us OM has
signification. It represents the constant undercurrent of meditation, which
ought to be carried on by every man, even while engaged in the necessary duties
of this life. There is for every conditioned being a target at which the aim is
constantly directed. Even the very animal kingdom we do not except, for it,
below us, awaits its evolution into a higher state; it unconsciously perhaps,
but nevertheless actually, aims at the same target.
“Having taken the
bow, the great weapon, let him place on it the arrow, sharpened by devotion.
Then, having drawn it with a thought directed to that which is, hit the mark, O
friend, - the Indestructible. OM is the bow, the Self is the arrow, Brahman is
called its aim. It is to be hit by a man who is not thoughtless; and then as
the arrow becomes one with the target, he will become one with Brahman. Know
him alone as the Self, and leave off other words. He is the bridge of the
Immortal. Meditate on the Self as OM. Hail to you that you may cross beyond the
sea of darkness.” [5]
AUM!
Path, April, 1886 - Hadji-Erinn
NOTES:
[1] Khandogya
Upanishad, 1st Khanda. See Vol. 1, Sacred Books of the East. Müller.
[3] St. John, Ch. I,
v. I.
000
The
article above is reproduced according to its publication in “Theosophical
Articles”, Theosophy Co., Los Angeles, 1980, a collection of articles in two
volumes, see volume I, pp. 559-564.
000
In September 2016, after
a careful analysis of the state of the esoteric movement worldwide, a group of students
decided to form the Independent Lodge of
Theosophists, whose priorities include the building of a better future in
the different dimensions of life.
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