This is a short video of my beloved grandson who is a special needs boy. He doesn't speak much at all--it is a real challenge for him. In this video, we are trying to get him to brush his teeth in a playful way. He has a charming, sweet way of wiggling around things he doesn't want to do, and chanting 'Aum' is one of them. Notice how he pronounces each sound with perfection. We never taught him this, somehow, he just knows. Which supports all the evidence out there of what 'Aum" really means.
The mystic symbol "Om"or "Aum" represents pure consciousness, the true source of all that is manifested in world, the sound of absolute reality. The individual syllabic sounds of "AUM" is said to each represent a different state of consciousness--(A), waking, (U), dreaming, (M), the state beyond the mind and spirit, and the silence after Aum, the true essence of absolute reality. The dot about the symbol Aum is the fourth state which combines all three states and transcends them.
Aum conveys the concept of omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. Aum is said to mean the best prayer, or the best praise. The letters A,U,M, symbolize speech (vak), mind (manas), and the breath of life (prana), while the entire symbol stands for the living spirit which is but a portion of the divine spirit. The three letters also represent the three genders, masculine, feminine, and neuter. They stand for the three gunas or qualities (sattva-balanced, rajas-light, tamas-dark). The letters correspond to the three tenses-past, present, future, while the entire symbol itself stands for the Creator, who transcends the limitations of time. They also stand for the three teachers--mother, father, and Guru, and the three stages of yogic discipline--asana (poses), pranayama (breathing regulation), pratyahara (regulation of the senses) while the entire symbol stands for Samadhi--the goal of these three disciplines. They represent the triad of divinity--Brahma (the creator), Visnu (the maintainer), and Shiva (the destroyer), but the whole symbol together represents Brahman from which the entire universe emanates.
The letters A,U,M, and stand for the mantra, "Tat Twam Asi" "that Thou Art." And so we may conclude that the word Aum might be too vast, too abstract to define it into one thing. It is all things. It is beyond definition, beyond tangible. It is everything.
And so, as I listen to my grandson chant it as a way of skipping out of brushing his teeth, it gives me another meaning, another sweet meaning and understanding of inclusion.
Aum, Shanti!
