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The significance of a sacred syllable
Om is an extremely important sound that you encounter while learning yoga. Vedic scriptures define Om as the sound of creation. According to these scriptures, the sound om was produced during the origin of the primordial earth and the start of Creation. The spiritual vibration it generates not only uplifts your brain into a higher consciousness, but also purifies the atmosphere of the environment where you are uttering this word.
Om is a mantra. The word mantra is said to come from a root meaning that which protects the mind. A mantra is a sound (words or phrases) that is used as an object of concentration. This sound can be chanted out loud, or heard internally.
In the class, we will chant out loudly in unison. While you utter this sound simultaneously with everyone else in the class, you can feel the vibration penetrating your inner self, and then you will experience a moment devoid of stress or mental tension.
The Right Way of Pronouncing Om
- The sound om can be broken into three components:- a, u, and m. The phoneme a sounds like au in autumn or a or u in abut. u sounds like oo in boot. And, the phoneme m sounds like m in mouth. The combination of a and u sounds like o in go, but you extend it much longer. There should be a good transition between a, u, and m.
- Say each component slowly, giving equal time to utter each phoneme.
- It sounds like an airplane that is approaching, and later that is flying away. So it starts softly at first, becomes louder and louder, and then slowly relapses in silence.
Significance of Om
The significant of om is immense. You cannot speak any word without the a sound because every consonant is generally combined with a vowel, usually a, whenever you are trying to convey your ideas. u is like an intermediate sound which you pronounce through the tongue. It comes from the palate to the lips. m is the sound that generates when lips close. So om represents every sound between the extremes of a and m. Thus, it symbolizes the universe of all sounds.
It is also known as seed mantra, a mantra that is thought to compress awareness of the potentiality of all reality into a single syllable.
For instance, a represents the state of wakefulness. u represents the dreamlike state, m symbolizes the state of sleep. So you can reap the benefit of all these three states by uttering these great vibrations.
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