yoga aum (28)

pranava heralding the
big bang

By Kulamarva Balakrishna

Vienna,Friday, March 7,2008:When we talk
of the sound =aum=,we should take note that
Indian classic Vedic Literature built up some
time between six thousand years before
Christ to about six hundred years before him,
according to scholars of East and West,trace
it in a way to the =Big Bang= causing the
evolution of the universe.If nineteenth century
an twentieth century scholars placed the
advent of the literature to about three thousand
years before Christ, current scholars like Prof.
David Frawley tend to think the calculation of
the late Bal Gangandhar Tilak, who led India´s
freedom struggle before Mahatma Gandhi,
is closer to reality on the basis of their findings
that yoga system was indeed as old as the
Vedic literature. Tilak sitting in British jail
during 1890s wrote about the nature of Siberian
dawn, the change of climate during the past
seven thousand years and the velocity of
movement of planets around the sun in his
scholarly works.According to him, Iranian
Zorashtrian fire worship religion and Vedic
fire worship religions were somewhat sister
religions traceable to the same roots.Tilak based
his calculations on ancient astronomical literature
also.

When I see afresh on brahminic prayer literature
of dawn and dusk practices, I notice the linkage.
It is said there =aum= was the sound heralding
the big bang causing the universe. This covered
the earth we live in and several other earth like
planets,several levels of space between the planets
lives,solid mass, intense heat,and reality,the sun.
This apart, the literature mentions water,light,
natural chemistry,and infinity. The sound =aum=
is expressive of all these identities. Although
the brahmin prayer is addressed to sun seeking
flowering of human intelligence to the full potential,
the prayer itself is enriched by ten time recitation
of the sound immediately before and after the
prayer.

It notes the seven level of planet and space territories
and water, light,natural chemistry and infiniteness
as part of the universal consciousness that is named
=brahma=.The territories are defined as seven
=vyahritis=,to be reited before the prayer and the
chemistry of water light etc after the prayer.All
these are meant by the sound =aum= individually
and collectively.The sound was taken to mean the
first letter of universal alphabets as =a=,middle
vovel =u= and nasal sound =m=. These are also
incorporated in the body of th Vedic literature itself.
It begins with Rigveda where the first hymn raising
fire begins with the word =agnim ilhe=, I pray the
fire etc.

Most of the world´s religions either sing the sound
or at least produce it by instruments like bell,
drums of different kinds, or musical instruments
which expand by linking digitalized sounds.That
explains also the spiritual value of the music.It
is simply radiative that brings together the whole
environment.It is this sound the propounder of
yoga sutras,sage Patanjali calls as =pranava=
the name of special consciousness known as
purusha by the =sankhya= philosophers.He
not only advises to repeat the sound but also
directs the yoga student to meditate on the
sound´s meaning.

As if confirming him Vedanta literature, the
final philosophical and knowledge part of the
Vedas desribe =aum iti ekaksharam brahma=,
aum one letter is brahma reality. In practice,
it is said =pranavasya parabrahma rishih
daivi gayathree chandah parabrahma paramatma
devata= meaning the sound has universal
consciousness as its causative sage,three
part sacred metre,universl consciousness as
god.Therefore,no religious prayer of the ancient
Indians are meaningful or complete without the sound
being recited at the beginning and end of the
worship.The practice is valid even today even if
many priests may not be aware of it.(end)