Om based Meditation

Using 'Om' in Pranayama

All the Vedas unanimously sing the glories of Om. So powerful & pregnant is this mantra that none of the rishis had any doubt or second thought to give the highest possible place to this great mantra. Om is literally taken as 'Brahman' itself. We use some word to point to the ultimate transcendental timeless reality, like I used the word Brahman. There are many other words too which are used to point to that divinity, however every word has some limitation, none of the words can be said to be as divine & perfect as the truth itself. This place is reserved just for Om. It is the most perfect name of the truth, and many Upanishads have devoted substantial place to this mantra.

Mandukya Upanishad is completely devoted to explaining this mantra alone. It gives out in details the secrets of the pregnant significances & secrets of Om. Taittiriya, Mundaka, Katha, Prashna, Brihadaranyaka and Chandogya Upanishads also explain this mantra vividly. Thus all those who follow the path revealed by the Vedas, give a very important place to 'Om in their daily sadhana too. Make your upasana or meditation Om-centric. Use Om at all levels of your sadhana, so that this great mantra gets firmly impressed & imprinted in our hearts, and thus starts revealing its secrets to us. Remember the words of Upanishads that Om is God itself in word-form. It has all the powers & omniscience of God to bless, purify and enlighten us. Here I shall briefly reveal to you a package for your daily sadhana based on Om. We shall see how Om is used for Pranayama, Dharana, Upasana, Dhyana and then for Atma-gyana and Samadhi. We plan to give you a series of three articles in which we shall reveal this entire package. In the first part of this article we shall see the use of Om for Pranayama, in the second we shall see how Om is used for Dharana and Upasana, and in the third & final part of this article we shall see how Om is used for Atma-Gyana and Samadhi. So now, the first part.

One should sit down, early morning, after having a nice sleep, early morning in a quiet place. You should preferably sit down crossed legs on an asana put on the ground. However, if because of old age or any other problem, you cannot do so, then you can sit on a straight-backed chair. However, one should keep the back straight, with upright neck and head. The posture itself should reveal someone who is fully awake, and thus facilitate even further awakening.

Having sat down in such a posture, one should bring to mind the fact, that this is your personal appointment with God and yourself, so keep everything, however important it may be, aside. Just as we keep our slippers outside a temple, so also keep all your worldly thoughts & worries aside, and give out your best, wholeheartedly, for Meditation. To the extent you do justice to meditation to that extent you will do better for fulfilling all your responsibilities and handling all your challenges & problems. So just relax. Remember that a treasure beyond your imagination, is lying within you to be realized and attained. So start with a prayerful mood that 'O God, please bless me to meditate properly so that I may become your good instrument, fulfill all my responsibilities in a nice way, and even realize you - the ultimate divinity.' Thereafter one should do some Pranayama.

Pranayama is the art & science of channelising & optimizing your precious energy. It is basically breathing based. There are three parts in any pranayama - puraka, kumbhaka and rechaka, meaning inhaling, retaining and exhaling. There are some initial practices of pranayama, like, bhasrika, kapal-bhati and anuloma-viloma. All these just prepare us for the real pranayama, and really speaking do not constitute the real pranayama. Real pranayama is to control the rechaka and puraka in such a way that you extend the kumbhaka time. Kumbhaka is retention, and it is basically of two kinds, bahya and antar. The first is to exhale and then retain the empty lung position for some time, and the second is to inhale and then retain the full-lung position. Both these are very potent states of lung. To the extent we fully exhale to that extent we get the best results out of all the later stages of pranayama. Here alone we use Om. Chant Om in a longish way, in one breath, till you exhale all the air out of you lungs. One needs to start this chant loudly which slowly fades off. When chanting Om in such a way, feel that the entire area is getting blessed & purified. Each cell of your body is getting enlivened and charged. All impurities in that entire area, including evil spirits, are removed. Having emptied your lungs, retain the 'empty-lung' position for as long as it is comfortable to you, and then slowly inhale, to your full-lung capacity. Then again retain the full-lung position for so long as it is comfortable, and then again chant Om, to exhale fully. This long-chant of Om is called as Udgitha Pranayama, and is central to all pranayama. In fact all preparatory steps lead to this stage alone. This pranayama, not only involves all the benefits of the nama-japa, chanting of the name of god, but also involves the best of pranayama. Such a person not only becomes a recipient of the blessings of God, but also has good health, and last but not the least - a quiet, alert, and a thoughtful mind.

This is the first use of Om in our daily meditation.

Using 'Om' for Dharana & Upasana

 In the last article on Meditation on OM we discussed the importance of this vedic meditation package. In the first stage we also saw how to use OM for the initial stages of meditation, i.e. in Pranayama. Mind & Prana are intimately connected. If we control one the other too gets simultaneously controlled. Thus the rishi's used pranayama to quieten & energize the mind. However, the quietening of the mind with pranayama is always a temporary phenomenon. The moment the effect of pranayama wanes, then the mind is back to its own mad rushes. Ramana Maharishi compares the quietening of the mind with pranayama with keeping wild birds in a net. As long as the net is there they are quiet, the moment the net is removed they again fly off. However, it is a very helpful initial step to temporarily quieten the mind. Anyone who has practiced this shall see a very evident difference in his or her state of the mind. Lot of vacillations would have stopped, and you will experience an appreciable increase in the energy level too. Now in this article we shall see how OM is used for Dharana and Upasana.

Dharana is one of the steps of Ashtanga Yoga, and deals with the focusing of the mind on one object. It is basically concentration. We need to focus our mind steadily on something to practice Dharana. Fixation of mind on one thing is a quality which manifests latent qualities of mind. Please understand that concentration is not meditation. While concentration is simply our capacity to focus attentively on any one object, meditation is awakening to our real self, and then just consciously 'being' that to the exclusion of all other thoughts. Meditation is awareful, silent, awakening.

Normally we use some external form for practicing Dharana. Initially external form is helpful too. So initially we just use this special OM mantra written on something in front of us, but subsequently we need to use a 'sound' object rather than a 'form' object. Sound is more subtler than a form, so this sadhana is certainly more helpful. Subtler the object of our attention, subtler shall the mind become. So we chant OM, and then focus our attention just on the wave-like sound syllable. It slowly rises like a wave, and then slowly wanes out like a wave. This sound syllable alone needs to become the object for practicing Dharana. We should not mentally see OM written on something, but merely be conscious of the sound (Shabda). One should try to be fully sensitive to the sound. Focus on the sound, be fully conscious of the sound, be blessed to hear the divine sound. Be steady on this, without any wavering. This is Dharana.

Once someone has practiced Dharana on OM, and has been blessed by a focused, steady, sensitive & and an attentive mind, then that sadhaka needs to do 'Upasana' of OM. Upasana is a sadhana which not only involves focusing our attention on something, but there is emotional involvement & its upliftment too. Practice of concentration doesn't requires emotional involvement, it is more of a practice. For Upasana we take any manifestation of God, and then using this as an instrument we invoke & pour out our 'feelings' for God. God has both personal & impersonal dimensions, for upasana we need to take some personal form, which is not only 'perceptible' but is also very inspiring, and with which we see ourself as intimately related. Ishwara or Sopadhika Brahman is an embodiment of God is omniscient, omnipotent & omnipresent. Brahman wielding his divine Maya shakti alone creates, sustains and then then later dissolves the world. He alone is the self of all, he is the truth of all, he resides in all as their very self, so any of his manifestation which can be perceived and which has been revealed by the scriptures should be taken for the purpose of upasana.

Out of the many 'objects' which are taken for upasana, OM stands right on the top for upasana. Here when we chant the mantra OM, we 'see' & feel' it as the very manifestation of Ishwara. OM is Shabda-Brahman. Brahman manifested as Shabda or sound. It should be seen in that way. Imagine that God has given you darshan, he has presented himself in front of you. How would you see him? What will be your emotions? You will obviously be on top of the world with unimaginable ecstasy & joy. You will feel blessed thoroughly. Just being in front of him would be a matter of unspeakable joy. You will an embodiment of bliss. You will learn to be in the presence of someone who is omniscient etc. You will see what does it mean to be truly blessed & contented. It will be a blissful silence. There will be no thoughts, you will not be conscious of anything else, neither will you be conscious of yourself. The thought & emotion of God would have enveloped & overpowered everything else. Let such emotions rise, then just 'be' in that state, and let all your worries, anxieties etc drop & disappear. You will come back a relieved, charged and an inspired person. The qualities of Ishwara would have touched you so deeply that their fragrance would linger in your mind, and soon become a part of your mind. So in the Upasana of OM, we dont take any other form of God, just this sound, which has been sung so gloriously in so many Upanishads. This sound is enough for our 'take-off' into an emotionally charged & inspiring state of mind.

Anyone who regularly does upasana is a very blessed, quiet, peaceful, sensitive & and also an intelligent person. That person is basically a sattwic person now. Selfless, loving and inspired. Thus proper use of OM helps us to awake to such a state of mind. However, the OM-package of meditation has far more potential to take us to still greater heights, rather to the ultimate height. That we shall see in the next & final part of this article series.

Using 'Om' for Self-Enquiry & Samadhi

In the last two articles on 'Meditation on OM' we saw how OM is used for Pranayama, and then for Dharana and Upasana. Now in this article we shall see how OM is used for Self-Enquiry and Samadhi.

Looking upon Om as God himself helps us to invoke deep devotion & a feeling of profound blessedness. However great this blessedness is, as long as we see God as separate from us - it is ignorance. If God pervades everything, then how can 'I' remain like an untouched island in an ocean of all-pervasive divinity. He who sees God as something who is different from his or her self knows not what God is. If God is the truth of all, if he is timeless, eternal and infinite then he needs to be the truth of everything that is. He should necessarily be my 'self' too. In fact I cannot not have any existence apart from God. My isolated limited & fragmented individuality has to be nothing about an illusion, a figment of my imagination. Not only logic says so, but all the scriptures unanimously thunder such vision of total identity & non-duality. All the Mahavakya's declare total identity, and say That Thou Art. If this be so, then devotion unto God should help us turn to Self-Enquiry and Self-Knowledge. Rishi's used this great mantra for this purpose also. In this article we shall see how this self-enquiry is done with the help of Om.

The Upanishads declare that Atma is Brahman, and also that Om is Brahman. Thus the implication is clear, that Om represents our Atma too - our real Self. To know the truth of our Self, we need to get a proper insight into the truth of Om. Om represents our complete existence - manifest or unmanifest, immanent or transcendental. To know the real truth of ourself we need to look at out complete existence - holistically, and not just the fragmented, partial, & vague truth of one state. Whoever discerns his or her truth on the basis of just one state, that person alone begins his or her life in delusion, and when the fundamental premise is wrong all calculations go haywire. Something always appears to be missing & lacking. So we need to look at our self holistically, into our complete existence.

Our complete existence encompasses our three states of existence. The waking, dream and the deep-sleep states. All these are 'my' states, I am in all of them, so my real truth should be seen in all the states where I am, and I exist. Today, my perceptions about myself are on the basis of what I see myself to be in just one state, i.e. the waking state. Even here we do not take all the different facets of our personality into consideration, but define ourself on the basis of what I prefer to see. Our identity today is more of a matter of my choice rather than a matter of fact. Having limited ourself we aspire to attain the limitless fulfillment, and thus go round & round in a never ending circles, and in the process end up more deep into the mire of limitations & suffocation. To break this shell of limited existence and then to spread our wings to fly in the infinite sky, we need to take the call of having a re-look into our self. The Upanishads give us a model of enquiry. They reveal that your existence is not merely confined to the waking state, but 'I' am in the dream and deep-sleep state too. The 'I' with which we associate ourself with is not seen in the dream state, neither it is there in the deep-sleep state, yet I exist there too. This enquiry is called 'Avastha-traya Viveka', and it is this viveka which is revealed in the Om too.

Om is made up of three alphabets (called maatras), they are Aa, U and Ma. These three combine to form the word Om, because as per the sanskrit grammar, whenever A is followed by U, then it gets converted to O. These three maatras represent our three states of existence, the waking, dream and the deep-sleep. Our life goes on cyclically from one to another, and then the cycle re-starts endlessly, till we exist. Each of these three states is a great blessing, and we have tons of literature on the importance & blessing of every state. Aa represents our waking state, U the dream state and Ma the deep-sleep state. Waking is defined as a state where we wield our sense organs in order to experience objects, dream is the state where we see & experience objects only with our mind, and deep-sleep is the state where our mind goes into the unmanifest state, called laya. In waking our faculties our fully bloomed, in dream they are partially manifest, whereas in the deep-sleep all our faculties too are asleep. In waking we have both the sense of doership and the enjoyership, in the dream we just have the enjoyership, whilst in the deep-sleep state there is none. Thus not only the field of our experiences vary but even our identity varies. The 'I' which exists in the waking state is called as Viswa, in the waking state the unique identity is referred to as Taijasa, and in the Ma state as Pragnya. Every word indicates a different object, so also here, each of these identities are exclusive and unique. What the one is, the other is not, and the interesting thing is that 'I' alone am all these. These are my states of existence, this is a picture revealing my complete existence. Our identity needs to take all these facts into consideration before we dare to define ourselves. All these identities are not only exclusive, but mutually exclusive too, when one comes the other is displaced. When we endeavor to define ourself on the basis of all these three states, then we see that we cannot hold on to any of the identity, because that identity is not something steady, it gets negated the very moment when I enter the next state. I am that which pervades all these three states like a thread which pervades all the different flowers in a garland. Enquiry into that common denominator reveals that, that thread is just the self-effulgent, blissful, existence (Sat-Chit-Ananda). This alone is our real self, because this alone is seen wherever & whenever 'I' exist. Everything else is negated & displaced. Om reveals to us that 'I' am not the so-n-so individual but pure infinite Sat-Chit-Ananda. One who sees that which pervades all the three states, yet exists when the states are not knows the truth of his or her self. Such a person may be in the waking state, yet he or she is not technically in the waking or any of the other three states. The state of such a person is referred to as the fourth state (Turiya).

This Turiya state is represented in Om as the 'A-Maatra'. When we chant Om, we start with silence, and when the chant stops we have silence once again. This silence is called 'A-maatra', that which is not an alphabet. This is also part of Om, Om encompasses all - the manifest and the unmanifest, the all-pervasive and that which transcends all. This A-Maatra symbolizes the very basis of all states of existence. That which existed before this cycle starts, that unto which all the states finally merge back. This is the transcendental Brahman. That alone Thou Art, reveals the Om.

One who has awakened to this realm & truth is the enlightened one, the state of mind of such a person is the real essence of Samadhi too. Om becomes a great facilitator to practice samadhi. Chat Om in a longish way, and then become conscious of the thread which not only pervades all the three states, but even transcends them. See and own up yourself as that and that alone. One needs to own up this divine identity as nicely as we have owned up our present identity, and then alone the human life will be seen as a blessing.

With this we end this 'Meditation on Om' series of three articles.