The name of God
Tasya Vachakah PranavahaTajjapah Tadartha Bhavanam
Tatah Pratyakchetanadhigamopyantarayabhavascha
Everything that is known has a name. You talk of a world and it is called the earth. It is represented b a map. The letter Om, is written in Sanskrit, is a map to describe God. Patanjali says that the word t describe God is Om. It is considered as the root sound of all the letters and words. It is considered as the essence of speech and sound. The sound of thunder, the sound of a crashing wave, the sound of a flowing river, the sound of a revving engine or a concorde jet, the sound of the air inside a sea shell - all vibrate with Om.
Om is a combination of three letters A (as in aunt) - creation, U (as in pooh) - preservation and the nasal M (as in hmm...) - destruction. Many call the word God as Generator, Operator and Destroyer which is synonymous with Creator, Preserver and Destroyer that Om stands for.
Om or Aum may be a gift of the Sanskrit language of ancient India, but Aum is present in words of blessing such as Amen or Ameen.
Setting aside the philosophy of the sound Om - Patanjali says that repeated chanting of the Mantra (a sound tool), Om, feeling the essence of the consciousness that ir represents all along the chanting, is a technique to turn the wavering mind to one's own essence by making it one-pointed.
This removes the several obstacles to the realisation of one's being. The obstacles to such a realisation are listed out in the subsequent Sutras.
At Ukhimath in the Himalayas recently, I came across a Brahmachari by name Sudhir, who was particular that I sat down and chanted 'Om' along with him in the evenings. He explained that the house of the mind is always littered with thoughts. Om is the broom with which one can sweep away those thoughts and experience pure consciousness.
What I write here is almost always born out of a direct experience. Some with these Sutras too. As I began to study and write them, I was seized by some unnameable indolence (an obstacle enumerated in the next Sutra). It was a kind of laziness that made me push aside my books and pen and just lie down exhausted. I experimented with the chanting of Om loudly and later silently to remove this obstacle. And soon, I find myself writing and completing this post with a picture that has just been taken too! It is a sound that has the energy to work in our lives.
- Swahilya Shambhavi (swahilya.soulmate@gmail.com)
