1.Omkar ੧ॐ- The Primordial Sound 1.Onkar-The Primordial Sound
Why is Omkar called as pranav mantra?
This is written as ‘Om (੧ॐ)’ and is considered as the sacred vowel. Not only is Omkara a mahamantra with a single letter but is also labelled as the monosyllabic Brahman in the Shrimad Bhagvad Gita.
The sage of this mantra is Parabrahman, the deity Parmatma and the rhythm (chanda) Gayatri. The mahamantras from the Vedas, Upanishads, etc. and also the efficacious (siddha) mantras and Names denoting The Lord are the varied forms of this Omkar. When chanting every mantra it is essential to start it with Omkar.
‘The scriptures describe the pranav, that is, Om as the “monarch of mantras”. It is considered as the symbol or representation of the individual soul. Omkar is the main Name of The Supreme Brahman (Parabrahman). Since acquisition of the knowledge about it means realisation of Parabrahman, worshipping it is the same as worshipping The Supreme God. The famous quote from the Upanishads ‘अयमात्मा ब्रह्म’ means ‘This soul is Brahman’. Once one realises through meditation that the entire universe is composed of Omkar and develops conviction that every object in the universe and every individual soul itself is Brahman, the realisation of Brahman as the soul, is achieved and finally one attains Self-realisation of the unmanifest (nirguna) Brahman in the form of “I am Brahman (अहं ब्रह्मास्मि)”.
Mr.Shantaram Athavale has explained the process of this mode of worship as follows: In the worship of Omkar, the embodied soul (jiva) should harbour the emotion that the letter ‘a’ in Omkar represents the dissolution of the physical body in The Absolute Being’s (Virat Purusha’s) body. The ‘u’ means the dissolution of one’s subtle body in the subtle body of the universe that is, the hiranyagarbha and the ‘m’ means the entry of one’s causal body into the great illusory body (mayadeha) of the universe. The dot shaped like the moon (chandrabindu) indicates that one’s supra causal body (mahakaran deha) has dissolved in the all witnessing Lord, that is the basic (mul) Prakruti.’
The table below clarifies the meaning of the four parts of Omkar – a, u, m and half matra.
| a | u | m | The half matra | |
| 1. The site
of operation |
Waking state (jagruti) | Dream state
(svapna) |
Deep sleep state (sushupti) | Super conscious state (turya) |
| 2. The name
of the soul |
Vaishvanar | Taijas | Pradnya | Turiya
performing a specific action
|
| 3. Whose
worship is |
Then visible universe | The invisible or Layayoga | Non-duality (advait)
being performed |
subtle universe
(Dissolution of the ego)
|