If you have read the previous article about mantras & if you know something about Einstein’s theory of relativity, then you will find out that what Yogis spoke about thousand’s of years ago and what Einstein proposed during 20th century (E=MC2 i.e everything in this universe is a one single energy) is the same thing. There is a form of yoga which is referred to as the Nada Yoga. Nada means sound. If you have studied science, particularly physics during your college or university, I hope you must have seen an oscilloscope in the physics laboratory. An oscilloscope is an instrument using which we can see the output as the waveforms. For e.g let’s say there is a source of light or sound coming as an input to the oscilloscope, so corresponding to the wavelength, amplitude, and frequency of that light you will see a wave-like structure as an output. What it means is that every sound has a form attached to it. There can be no sound which can exist independently. If there is a sound, there has to be a form. For. e.g we all humans are nothing but forms and at the very core of creation, we are sound or a certain level of reverberation as we deeply looked at it in the previous article.

Hence when you can control a sound, you can have the control over the form. That’s the reason the mantra chanting is not a philosophy, it’s the real science. If you know how to chant a mantra, you can consciously control & manage your whole body, mind, emotions & energies. Sanskrit is the only language in the world which is sound sensitive. That’s why the Sanskrit language is called as the mother of all languages. Almost all the other languages which emerged are in some way or the other related to the Sanskrit language.

AUM (The fundamental universal sound): Let’s understand the very basics of the sound ‘AUM’. If we divide this word into three parts, it becomes as follows. A: Aaaa, U: Uuuu, M: Mmm. Hence AUM is the combination of three different sounds, Aa, Uu & Mm. These three sounds have been called as the universal sounds and all the other sounds which exist in the creation are essentially the emergent sounds of these three sounds. To experiment this thing, I need you to think of any other sound except Aa, Uu & Mm, wherein you are not using your tongue. Try as much as you can but there is no other sound except these three fundamental sounds which can be uttered without using your tongue. If you have observed a person who can not speak, even he can utter AUM, because tongue has no role to play.

Let’s understand it scientifically. If you have studied physics, you must have studied about color television. Now if you know something about it, you will come to know that there are only three basic fundamental colors  RGB (Red, Green, Blue) and all the millions of other colors are basically coming up from these three colors. Hence other colors are simply the complex mixture of these three colors in different ratios and proportions. Same is true for the sounds. Aa, Uu & Mm are the three fundamental sounds and what your tongue essentially doing is that it is mixing these 3 sounds in different proportions within your mouth cavity to produce a variety of sounds which we use in the form of language.

That is the reason AUM is a very significant & auspicious sound. In many people’s understanding, AUM is a trademark of a specific religion. Let’s look at this aspect. If you look at the major traditions and cultures of the world you will find out that where ever there have been realized beings, who had experiences beyond their physicality, the presence of AUM is inevitable. Let’s look at the Christianity. After the prayer, people usually say ‘Amen’. Now if you remove ‘n’ from Amen, it becomes Ame: which again leads to AUM. If we look at the Islam, they end their prayers with ‘Amin’. Again if we remove ‘n’ and pronounce it leads us to AUM. So what this implies is that there are essentially few changes in the way we utter the words which are subjected to our cultural differences/infliction and demographics, but the fundamental message & sound remains the same. The AUM mantra also has a special mention in Sikhism (ik onkaar satnaam), Jainism (Om ekaakshara panch parmesh thinaamadipam) and Buddhism (Om mani padme hum). Even the pet animals like dogs and cats produce the same AUM sounds on the daily basis. When a cat says ‘Meeaaoow’, essentially it is the Aa and Uu sounds which are dominant. Have you ever seen a dog yawning? If you observe, he will produce a sound like ‘Aaauuuun’. Similarly the sound of an owl, wolves, lions, the bear will lead us to the universal sound AUM. So we can have numerous examples from our day to day life itself.

Yogic Vs. Quantum Mechanics/Physics interpretation of the Sound AUM: If you study the quantum mechanics fundamentals, you will come to know that the quantum mechanics talk about three fundamental actions which are happening at all levels within the universe. These three actions are Creative action, Maintenance action & Destructive action. If you pay little deep attention and think about it, you will find that everything in this universe is revolving around these three actions only. Now in Indian texts what we refer to as the Brahma (The creative action), Vishnu (The maintenance action) & Mahesh (The destructive action) is the same thing or what we call as GOD (G: Generator, the creative action Brahma; O: Operator, the maintenance action Vishnu; D: Destroyer; the destructive action Mahesh) is again the same. In India, these are known as ‘Tridevas’, which basically imply the three basic fundamental actions of this universe. Tridevas are not some kind of entities sitting up there in the sky, In yoga when we say Tridevas, we are talking about the three fundamental actions of the universe. The only difference is that in Yoga we have always known this for thousands of years and quantum mechanics talked about it just a few decades ago. 

Now when you chant Aaaa, The maximum impact happens in your navel area, and this area is referred to as the maintenance area (Manipura chakra). This is the region where all the 72000 naadis/nerves meet and redistribute themselves in the whole body. If you know this thing, when you were born out of your mother’s womb, you were still connected to your mother through your navel only, because this is your maintenance area which kept you going even when you were inside the womb. When you chant Uuuu, This produces the vibrations in your diaphragm (Anahata chakra). This region has been identified as the creative area of yourself. And when you chant Mmmm, this area produces the vibrations at the pit of your throat (Vishudhi chakra). Vishudhi literally means a filter. Which means that when this gets activated, you will only allow those things to enter your body which is required and rest of all you can filter it out. This is an inferential term, what it means to imply is that you will reach such a level of awareness wherein you can take conscious decisions every moment of your life and you become really powerful in the sense that you have gone beyond the level of body, mind, and emotions. These things do not bother you anymore.

There is a very famous legend which revolves around it. It is said that during ‘Sagar Manthan’ (Churning of the sea) where on one side there were Devas or Devtas and on the other side there were demons, there came out numerous things in this churning process and one of them was the lethal poison, which could destroy the whole creation & the universe. Then the devtas approached Shiva for protection. Shiva consumed the poison in an act to protect the universe from destruction, and his wife Shakti (Parvati) grabbed Shiva’s throat in an effort to prevent him from swallowing the poison, which was the deadliest poison in the existence, harmful even to Deva’s. As a result, Shiva’s throat turned blue. For this reason, Lord Shiva is also called Neela Kantha (the blue-throated one). “Neela” = “Blue”, “Kantha” = “Throat” in Sanskrit).

So when you collectively chant AUM, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that you start to get an access to your source (The three fundamental actions of the whole creation). The sound AUM is the root sound in your physical existence. As it is said everywhere in the world that GOD is within us. If you have understood whatever is written above, we can actually say that for now theoretically, it is true. The only thing is we are not aware of it experientially right now. But if you do the AUM chanting with full awareness along with various other meditations you can easily experience the presence of creative, maintenance & the destructive action within you. You will realize that the very source of life is within you, not outside of you. And what is throbbing within you is throbbing in every other creature in the whole existence. Hence it wouldn’t be wrong to say that we are the children of the same mother. You and the whole existence is just an outcome of the same source.

There is one more thing which needs to be corrected as it has become very common, specifically in northern parts of India. Normally we people call ‘AUM’ as ‘Om’ which is not the right way to utter it. The word AUM should be pronounced as Aaaa, Uuuu & Mmmm, and all these three syllables should be uttered for the equal amount of time. When we say Om, it’s not the right Nada or sound. AUM is the perfect utterance of the universal sound. Many mental and psychological problems can be cured just by the daily chanting of AUM mantra on a regular basis. Problems like lack of concentration, anxiety, anger, stress, inability to sit quietly, nonstop thinking monkey mind, fear etc. can easily be cured. When you chant mantra you become more and calmer, which enhances the mind-body coordination and give you more control over your emotions & energies.

When our mind is calm, it gives us a great clarity in terms of expression. Our observation, sense perception improves a lot. As a result, we can do things in a better way. Most of the horrific things are done when a person is angry & stressful, hence if you consciously decide not to produce anger & stress, you are all set. Mantra as a tool can help you achieve that state. AUM chanting is like taking a bath into the river of bliss and when you come out of this river you don’t come as a separate self, rather you become a part of that bliss itself.

Hope this article will leave you with a deep understanding of the AUM chanting and the science which works behind it. I am not asking you to believe whatever I have written. If you are a real enthusiast, experiment with it, try doing it and if you feel the difference, then accept it. There is no point believing or disbelieving anything for that matter. In the upcoming article, we would talk about ‘Mother Earth’ the Mother of all beings on this planet & our intrinsic relationship with her. So stay tuned.

Happy Reading 🙂