Tapping the Power of OM
by Sherry Roberts
Aum
(or as Westerners like to spell it: om) is a
vital part of the science of yoga. It’s a tool, a phenomenon, a
mystery. To many people, aum is just a word chanted in
meditation or as a closing prayer in yoga practice. Aum is
considered the all-connecting sound of the universe — one word
interpreted as having three sounds representing creation,
preservation, and destruction.
Aum became the
sacred word hum of the Tibetans, amin of the
Moslems, and amen of the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and
Christians. Amen in Hebrew means “sure, faithful.”
Chanting
Aum
Aum
is a way of deepening the concentration of the mind, which leads
to realization of the divine. The mantra aum may be sounded
aloud, whispered, or repeated mentally. The correct pronunciation
of aum is to pronounce it om so it rhymes with home.
In
The Yoga
Book,
author Steven Sturgess offers a technique
for chanting aum. He suggests beginning meditation by
chanting aum aloud for ten minutes, then chant aum
in a whisper for the next ten minutes, and then mentally chant
aum for ten minutes. Finally, be still and meditate on the
spiritual eye (the point between your eyebrows). Surrender into
the vibrations of aum. “Feel your awareness expanding still
further into the field of pure consciousness, become one with
om,” Sturgess says.
Healing with
Aum
The
Self-Realization Fellowship, founded by Paramahansa Yogananda in
1920, offers instructions on its Web site for using the
Yogananda's
aum
healing technique. Yogananda noted that
everything in the universe is composed of energy and that the
apparent differentiation between solids, liquids, gases, sound,
and light is merely a difference in their vibratory rates. He
maintained that by chanting the aum, the divine vibration,
we can increase the body’s supply of cosmic energy and even direct
it as a healing force to any part of the body, mind, and soul.
The Aum Symbol
