Om/ Aum
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What is Aum?
A vibration in the Absolute Consciousness
The awareness of a human being passes through various modes of consciousness. The Mandukya Upanishad is a short exposition on layers of consciousness and their relationship to the Divine Sound. At the beginning if one can demarcate a beginning to the Self-existent universe there was a vibration in the Absolute Consciousness. The vibration was Aum, consciousness itself, for consciousness and its vibration are one and the same.
Sage Mandukya related the Aum to various stages of Consciousness: ` Aa' is jagrat, the waking consciousness; `Uu' is swapna, dream consciousness, the subconscious mind; and `Mm' is sushupta, dreamless sleep consciousness, the unconscious mind.
The silence between two successive Aums denotes the fourth dimension of consciousness, the Turiya, which is the matrix of all sounds and its creations, giving rise to and supporting the other three dimensions of consciousness.
In the waking state we are extroverted; the five senses are active and the mind experiences pleasure or pain in the external world of gross objects. In dream-sleep, the five senses are inactive, but the still active mind enjoys the motion picture of subtle objects of the inner world. In deep sleep, the five senses and mind are suspended and the self sinks down to the deeper layers of the unconscious, deeper than the subconscious and due to its proximity to cosmic consciousness, returns recharged and revived.
If consciousness is graded like the rungs of a ladder, in sleep you sink down from waking to dream to deep sleep and from there may descend inadvertently into collective and cosmic consciousness. But, awareness is lost during this stage, though the sense of `i' is main tained and we say `i had a restful sleep’.
In deep meditation, when the object of meditation, the process and meditator lose their distinction, you climb up the ladder of consciousness, and ascend to the realms above mind to Superconsciousness or Turiya. From there, you soar into cosmic consciousness. Samadhi is an elevated state where the fourth, pristine dimen ion of consciousness, the very ssence, is experienced which rases all samskaras. If sleep is deep unconsciousness, samadhi is heightened awareness. One may awaken refreshed from a deep sleep but not get transformed unless it is aware deep sleep, in which case it is Sushupta Sama dhi, and technically not sleep.
The Divine Mother is the vibration, the energy , of Absolute Consciousness; in fact, the two are one and same. And she holds the jivataman in thrall by the iridescent play of her myriad colourful roles. In deep sleep, she absorbs all colours to appear black and is Kalaratri the deep night of dissolution. Kalaratri is the compassion of the Divine mother as Prajna which forces us to be antarmukhi, introverted, and thus draw sap from the source of life by sheer intimacy , In samadhi, she is Tripurasundari, the exquisitely beautiful form of the Universal Mother, universal energy; as the sovereign Raja Rajeshwari and Mother of the triad of jagrat, swapna and sushupta awasthas, (Tripura Ambika), which emanate from her and are her.
Showering unconditional love, she finally takes us to Oneness with our greater Self, earning the name Kaivalya Pad Dayini, the only One. As Lalita, she is transcendental Consciousness, pervading the universes and yet remains above them, enjoying the delightful play of dualities.The whole of Creation emanates from her effulgence.
The range of experiences of life that Aum contains
Pranav Khullar, Mapping The Universe With The Aum Syllable, Nov 25 2016 : The Times of India
The Mandukya Upanishad maps out the entire range of the ex perience of life in the sound of Aum, the Pranava Mantra. It sketches out the mystery of Brahmn, Pure Consciousness, in twelve short verses by juxtaposing the four states of consciousness with the syllable Aum and alludes to how this sound-syllable corresponds to each of those states.
The opening aphorism sets the tone for an enquiry into the cause of this material-temporal world, by asserting that the Aum principle lies at the root of not only the manifest universe, but is at the heart of the cosmic rhythm itself.While establishing Aum as the sonic measure of the universe, the Mandukya Upanishad equates it with the “fourfooted“ Atman.
A description of the four stages of Consciousness defines the Atman as the jagrat or waking-state; the swapna or dream-state, sushupti or sleep-state and turiya, the fourth, transcendentstate. Analysis of the Self as Consciousness begins with the immediacy of sense-perceptions felt in the jagrat or waking-state where all of us are alive to the body and visible world. Vaishvanara or waking-consciousness, makes us aware of and respond to the external, as we go about our daily lives, operating through `seven limbs' and `nineteen mouths' the five jnanendriyas, five karmendriyas, five pranas and four inner faculties of manas, buddhi, ahamkara and chitta.
Taijasa is the second aspect of the Self, the dreamconsciousness, which interiorises the external world within the mind. Mind creates an entire world of its own, coming alive with the same intensity as one was feeling the external world earlier in the waking-state. This dream-state could be triggered as a result of unfulfilled desi res or by tapping into a subtle realm inadvertently , but the dream-state is as real to the dreamer as is the waking-state to a person awake. The Mandukya Upanisahd indicates that the mind is active in both these states.
When the mind has withdrawn itself completely, arises the sushupti state of deep sleep. This prajna-ghanah, where there is no external or subtle movement of mind, induces a happiness greater than the one obtained through the senses. Ananda, bliss of deep sleep, is a causal state where one is not distracted by desires, a state enjoyed he momentarily by each of us in sleep, and we wake up refreshed and energised.
The Mandukya urges the seeker to refine his consciousness in such a way as to summon up this bliss ful state at will, through yogic sadhana.
Turiya is the fourth state of consciousness wherein thought itself has found its source and has got absorbed in it and the knower and the known become one.
The Mandukya corresponds the turiya state of pure consciousness with the syllable Aum, the primordial Sound of Silence. It then breaks up the syllable Aum into the three mantras of A, U and M, with the letter `A' corresponding to the waking-state of consciousness, the letter `U' to the dream-state and the letter `M' to the deep sleep-state. The fourth letter and state is the sound of Aum itself, from which the manifest universe has burst forth, Sphuta, the frequency at which Primal Energy resonates, into which all sounds of the world get absorbed.When sounds merge into pranava, Atman alone remains.
