The sound of the universe

It is perhaps the single most spoken mantra in a common Hindu household and can be seen virtually everywhere, an emblem for Hinduism, its philosophy and theology. The syllable pronounced as Aum is a sacred symbol in Hinduism representing Brāhman, the Absolute — the source of all manifest existence. Brāhman, in itself, is incomprehensible; so this symbol helps us realize the omnipresent. The Mandukya Upanishad which contains the pinnacle of the wisdom and practices of our ancient sages outlines the philosophy and practices of the aum mantra. The Sanskrit name for aum is pranava, to mean that it pervades life and runs through our prana or breath. In fact, aum is considered as the ‘pranava mantra,’ i.e. the source of all mantras. It is believed that aum represents the sound of the universe and the three deities in the Hindu trinity, the trimurti (”three images”), of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. The vibration of the three aspects of A-U-M represents the fullness of creation.


It is interesting to note that there are several other interpretations of this syllable too. One translation suggests that the letter A symbolizes the conscious or waking state (jagratha-avastha ), the letter U the dream state ( svapna-avstha ) and the letter M the dreamless sleep state ( susupta-avastha ) of the mind and spirit. The entire symbol, together with the crescent and the dot, stands for the fourth state (turiya-avastha ), which combines all these states and transcends them. This is the state of samadhi . Another thought suggests that the letters A, U and M symbolize respectively speech ( vak ), the 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. It has also been interpreted that the letters correspond to the three tenses - past, present and future - while the entire symbol stands for the Creator, who transcends the limitations of time. Although there are many other such translations which shed light on the various aspects of this sacred symbol, ironically there is no meaning of aum. It is actually not a word, but rather an intonation. It is the sound of the supreme consciousness. It is said to be the original primordial creative sound from which the entire universe has manifested. It is also known as the 'Anahat Nada', the "Unstruck Sound" which means the sound that is not made by two things striking together. It rather emanates on its own. It is believed that the whole universe, in its fundamental form, is made up of vibrating, pulsating energy and Aum is considered as the humming sound of this cosmic energy.

However, going by the philosophical explanation does not help in realizing the importance of aum in our lives. The effect of the chant must be felt deep inside by proper meditation .If repeated with the correct intonation; it can resonate throughout the body so that the sound penetrates to the centre of one's being, the atman or soul. For proper intonation, one must start with the "A" in the back of the throat. If done properly, it can be observed that the vibration is strongest in the solar plexus, representing the strength of the physical body and stimulating the third chakra and stomach, liver and spleen. The "U" is made in the front of the throat. It can be noticed that the vibration of this sound is strongest in the chest or heart region, representing love, passion and energetic aliveness and stimulating the fourth chakra and heart, lungs. With a long, slow, exhaling breath, one must bring the two vowel sounds together and end with the hum of the "M". Slowly and steadily energy starts shifting to the forehead or third eye region. This represents presence, mind, essence or soul and stimulates the sixth chakra and pineal gland. Chanting over a period of time makes one attain a state which is associated with trance-like mental, visual or imaginative state and possibly little or no sense of the physical body. A person may experience his body as an energy field or as body parts floating but not connected.

This whole practice helps us in slowing down the brain functions below the normal waking state but not to where we drift to sleep. In scientific terms this corresponds to decreasing the brain state from BETA i.e. 12 Hz or higher to THETA which falls between 4Hz to 7Hz. This magical chant works similar to brainwave entrainment causing brainwave frequencies to fall in step with a periodic harmonious stimulus which evidently qualifies as the sound of the universe as per our sacred texts. However, we are talking about very low frequency waves which would require an astronomically long antenna for reception. If chanting aum aligns our brain in resonance with cosmic vibrations then we ought to have such receptors virtually implanted in us from birth which is quite unimaginable. And even more unimaginable is the thought of such sound waves being present all around us and yet being received by a blessed few.

Interestingly, in September 2003, astronomers at NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory found what can be described as sound waves emanating from a super massive black hole. The black hole can be seen in the Perseus cluster of galaxies located 250 million light years from Earth. The frequency of these sound waves was measured as B flat. But this was not a B flat somebody could hear. It was 57 octaves below middle C. A piano, by comparison, contains only seven octaves. Hence if a black hole hums, it hums at a frequency a million billion times lower than you can hear. On a bigger scale this can be compared to the hum associated with the energy flowing across the entire universe after the Big-Bang. If it is argued that our brainwaves are capable of falling into some specific harmonics of this universal hum then a possibility of resonance cannot be ruled out. But to achieve this, the receptors we talked about earlier now probably need to extend across our whole solar system in order for our ancient teachings to be authentic. Our genetic blueprint gives us an indication that this might be possible too. The genome which is our total gene complement is contained inside the nucleus of each cell. The length of one complete genome is about six feet. Considering we have some thirty trillion cells in our body and we stretch out our entire DNA into one single line, it would circle the earth about 5 million times. Now that's a long antenna capable of receiving very low frequencies!

Is it possible that our ancient sages had the wisdom and capability to harness their entire energy to align themselves with this cosmic energy all around us? We may never be able to verify the veracity of the same using classical communication fundamentals or mathematics. But every human being who does believe in the power of this magical chant and meditation does realize how it helps us to heal our illusions, learn our true sense of being, express our soul and manifest the divine blueprint present in each one of us.