The traditional pronunciation of Om is a single syllable made up of four parts - three phonemes and a period of silence - produced in succession and then repeated. Each part has a symbolic, spiritual, and psychological significance. Taken in order the four parts symbolically represent the Hindu Trinity - Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva - and Brahman. They also reflect the stages in the spiritual journey: awakening, awareness, renunciation, and union. Reciting the syllable reenacts the quest for union with Brahman, the quest for Samadhi. The mantra is also effective psychologically because the specific phonemes and the silence evoke the deep structures of language that we respond to no matter what our language or our cultural background.
The first sound produced in this mantra is Ah. The Ah represents the power of Brahma, the creator god. Brahma as the lowest in status of the Hindu Trinity because the act of creation is viewed as a negative act - the physical universe is a distraction from Brahman, it is maya or illusion.
The status of Brahma is similar to the status of the Demiurge in the Gnostic sect of Medieval Christianity. The Gnostics believed that the good forces of the universe were just about evenly matched by evil forces. Existence was a war between good and evil. Since the pleasures of the physical world led one into sin, the Gnostics couldn't accept that a good God would have created the physical world, so they postulated the Demiurge, an evil god responsible for the creation. Gnosis means knowledge, so the goal of the Gnostics was direct knowledge of God, similar to the path of contemplation as described in the Gita. Of course, the orthodox Christian Church branded the Gnostics heretics.
Om Mani Padme Hum youtube video
"The mantra Om Mani Padme Hum (literally: "Aum, to the Jewel in the Lotus, hum) is recited by Tibetan Buddhists to invoke Chenrezi, the Bodhisattva of Compassion. Repeating this mantra accumulates merit and eases negative karma; meditating upon it is believed to purify the mind and body.
Spinning prayer wheels, physical or digital, are believed to confer the same benefit as speaking the mantra. It is often recited with the aid of a mala (string of prayer beads.)
namo amitabha!
PS: I know many of you have been requesting me to make a video thats 24 minutes longer.But iam sorry to say that youtube doesn't allow videos that are more than 10 minutes longer.
Well,if youtube changes this rule,i shall upload the longer version. :)
Also,this song is from the album,'Tibetan Incantations' by various artists.You could buy the album CD only from www.amazon.com"
Brahma, however, is not seen as evil in Hinduism, but as the power of Brahman that is responsible for the creation of maya.
The first stage of the spiritual journey is awakening and this is represented by the Ah sound also. The initial sound of the mantra is parallel to waking consciousness, recognition of the world of experience. If we look at this phoneme in the widest possible context, the sound may be heard as an almost involuntary exclamation in all cultures and languages - Ah, is the exclamation that denotes discovery. Wherever one is in the world one will hear people who see something for the first time, people making discoveries exclaiming, "Ah!" Thus it is a most appropriate phoneme to begin the mantra.
The second sound in the mantra is Oh. The Oh represents the power of Vishnu, the sustainer god. Vishnu is the Lord of Maya. It is his role to keep the illusion from falling into a chaos of injustice and suffering. Since all that can be experienced and all that can be thought is considered to be illusion in Hinduism, then everything can easily change. The illusion of reality is incredibly plastic. Actions, words, and thoughts can change the nature of this illusion of reality, so the uninitiated can believe that actions, words, and thoughts can change reality. Because of this mutibility, a sustaining force, Vishnu, is needed so that selfish and cruel people will have an opponent when they try to manipulate reality for their own benefit causing suffering and injustice. Using this power is magic.
The power that can be derived from the manipulation of the illusion of reality can be illustrated by looking at the power of a historical figure whose motto was a statement that recognized the plastic nature of maya. Hassin I Sabbah was a leader of a ferocious warrior sect of Muslims during the Crusades and his motto was, "Nothing is true, everything is permissible." Sabbah had an unusual boot camp that he used to train his soldiers. He built a beautiful walled garden. Inside was exquisite food and drink, beautiful women. His recruits lived in this pleasure garden for a while and then Sabbah kicked them out telling them that they had been in heaven and to return they must fight bravely and well. When the English Christians met these soldiers in battle, they were amazed at the overpowering determination of these followers of Sabbah, who was also known as the Old Man of the Mountain because his mountain-top fortress couldn't be broached. The Christians were told that these young men were called the Hashashin.
This Arabic word is difficult to pronounce for English speakers, so by the time the Crusaders returned to England, they were telling stories of the fierce assassins. That's the origin of the word.
It is the role of Vishnu to sustain the illusion in order to counter the force of magic, the selfish manipulation of reality. Vishnu is the enemy of the magician. It is Vishnu who comes to earth as a avatar to set things right. He is Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita.
The second stage of the spiritual journey is awareness and this is represented by the Oh sound also. The second sound of the mantra is parallel to sleeping consciousness, recognition of the world of dreams and of the power of the imagination. Recognition of the power of magic and illusion. If we look at the sound of this phoneme in the widest possible context, this sound may be heard, as well, as an almost involuntary exclamation in all cultures - Oh, is the exclamation that denotes wonder. Wherever one is in the world one will hear people who are feeling awe or are filled will reverence after witnessing a great work of art or a illusion by a master illusionist. They will be exclaiming, "Oh!" Thus it is a most appropriate phoneme to follow Ah in the mantra.
The third sound in the mantra is MMM. The MMM represents the power of Shiva, the destroyer god. Shiva is Lord of the Void. Just as the plasticity of the illusion of reality can contribute to injustice and suffering because it can be changed by actions, thoughts, and words; actions, thoughts, and words can also cause injustice and suffering by too rigidly defending the illusion of reality. Shiva is the liberator who helps to defeat the oppression put on us by the physical universe. The suffering caused by disease, old age, hunger, and poverty are the enemies of Shiva. Shiva destroys the illusion of reality when reality become too oppressive and allows political action and magic to creep in.
The third stage of the spiritual journey is renunciation and this is represented by the MMM sound also. The third sound of the mantra is parallel to dreamless sleep, the peaceful embracing of nothingness, release from the restrictions of both the physical world and the mind. If we look at the sound of this phoneme in the widest possible context, this sound may be heard, like the first two, as an almost involuntary exclamation in all cultures and languages - MMM is the sound of doubt. Whenever someone begins to be disillusioned, begins to see through the magician's trick, begins to see that what he or she thought was the truth was in fact someone's political agenda, he or she says, "MMM." Thus it is a most appropriate phoneme to follow Ah and Oh in the mantra.
The fourth part of the mantra is not a sound but the absence of sound. The silence that follows the three sounds represents Brahman. We can receive no information about Brahman, yet Brahman is behind all information, like silence is always behind all sound. Think of how silence is often the most eloquent of communications and the most informative. The richest and most profound of nonverbal gestures is often simply silence. Thus it is a most appropriate for silence to follow Ah, Oh, and MMM in the mantra.
Think about ordinary, everyday experience. Notice how often you see new things - Ah -become interested for a moment -Oh- lose interest- MMM- forget - - then begin again. Life is the is mantra OM, repeated continuously.
OM - Mantra chant youtube video
"Om is the symbol for the whole universe. It carries three basic sounds: A-U-M. These three basic sounds through which all the sounds have evolved.
So Om is the basic trinity of sound, the synthesis of all the basic roots.
That's why Om is considered the secret mantra, the greatest mantra, because it implies the whole existence,
it represents the sound of soundlessness, the beauty of silence.
OM represents the music of existence, the soundless sound, the sound of silence. OM represents the inner most music of our being, the inner harmony,
the inner humming sound which happens when our body, mind, soul are in deep totality, when the visible and the invisible, the un-manifest and the manifest, the relative and absolute, the-outer and inner are in deep togetherness.
To become one with OM-the music of existence is to attain fulfillment."
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