[Shreya Singhal]

What is the importance of aum why does almost every mantra comprise of aum?

[Aaradhana M]

Om denotes the supreme Brahma:

omiti brahma omitīdaṃsarvam [Tait. Up. – 1.8.1]
Om is Brahman. Om is everything here.

girām asmy ekam akṣaram [BG – 10.25]
Of sound vibrations I am the single syllable (OM)
But as we know God is threefold is nature, same is the case for the single syllable Om. It consists of three differnt letters A, U, M which are the seed of all other letters, sounds and words.

sa vā eṣa omityetadātmābhavat sa tredhātmānaṃ vyākuruta omiti tisro mātrā etābhiḥ [Mait. Up. 6.3] Meaning
He(God) came to have Om as his soul. He divided into three parts. So Om is the three units (a,u,m).
Significance

Now the letters of A,U,M can be signified differently as Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, or creation, preservation, annihilation, or satva(goodness), rajas(passion), tamas(ignorance). The Mandukya Upanishad which deals only the pranava (Om) defines the three units as below:

jāgaritasthāno vaiśvānaro’kāraḥ prathamā mātrā [Mandu. Up. – 9]
Waking state is the first unit (A)

svapnasthānastaijasa ukāro dvitīyā mātrā [Mandu. Up. – 10]
Dream state is the second unit (U)

suṣuptasthānaḥ prājño makārastṛtīyā mātrā [Mandu. Up. – 11]
Sleeping state is the third unit (M)
These three states are related to a person. But these are also synonymous to creation, preservation, annihilation and other meanings when analyzed from the universal point of view.

Usage of Om at the beginning of mantras

Om is the primeval sound from which everything originated. By Om speech is held together:

yathā śaṅkunā sarvāṇi parṇāni saṃtṛṇṇānyevamoṃkāreṇa sarvā vāksaṃtṛṇṇoṃkāra [Chg. Up. 2.23.3]
Meaning
Like with a spike(stem or branch of a tree) all leaves are hold together, through the syllable Om all speech or voice is hold together.
So it is said that, without the presence of Om at the beginning all the following letters of the mantra will fall apart and hence won’t work. Om at the beginning holds the rest of the mantra together. So on a similar context the Manu Smriti also says:

Let the Brahmin always pronounce the syllable Om at the beginning and at the end of (a lesson in) the Veda; (for) unless the syllable Om precedes, (the lesson) will slip away (from him) and unless it follows, it will get scattered. [Manu – 2.74]
Om is the seed mantra from which every other letter and mantra originated. Hence, om goes in the beginning of the veda mantras while reciting it. Because chanting of the vedas begin from Om, it is also known as udgitha (chanting of Veda mantra).

omityetadakṣaramudgīthamupāsīta [Chg. Up. – 1.1.1]
One should worship Om as the udgitha
I think this answers all the four questions you asked.

Ref: This thread on Stackexchange.

[Vinayak Iyer]

Om signifies the four states of the supreme being mainly the three sounds in Om (Aum) denote the waking, dreaming ,deep sleep state and the silence between successive repetitions of the mantra represents the turiya state or the fourth state. The three states denotes the conscious, sub conscious and the unconscious state of the mind. According to some of the scriptures and samkhya, they believe that the whole material creation which includes the human mind and body are a manifestation of the mula prakriti (primordial creation) which in turn is formed of the three gunas mainly the sattva, rajas, tamas. The 3 letters corrsoponds to the 3 gunas as:

A for tamas which means darkness, ignorance. U for rajas which means passion, dynamism and M for sattva which means purity, truth and light. And the last state which is the silence between the 2 Aums represents a state of pure consciousness which transcends the three gunas. Some literature also have interpreted the meaning of Aum as A for Brahma the creator, U for Vishnu the sustainer and M for Shiva who is the destroyer and the silence between the 2 Om sounds as the reality that lies beyond trinity. Certain other scripts have modified it and said that A means the present, U is for the past an M is for the future and the silence between the sounds is to represent the reality beyond time and space.

Significance of Chanting Om on the Vedic Vaani section discusses this in detail.

[team]

Om denotes the supreme Brahma:

`omiti brahma omitīdaṃsarvam [Tait. Up. – 1.8.1]
Om is Brahman. Om is everything here.

girām asmy ekam akṣaram [BG – 10.25]
Of sound vibrations I am the single syllable (OM)`

But as we know God is threefold is nature, same is the case for the single syllable Om. It consists of three differnt letters A, U, M which are the seed of all other letters, sounds and words.

`sa vā eṣa omityetadātmābhavat sa tredhātmānaṃ vyākuruta omiti tisro mātrā etābhiḥ [Mait. Up. 6.3] Meaning
He(God) came to have Om as his soul. He divided into three parts. So Om is the three units (a,u,m).`

[Srinath Seshadri]

The OM mantra is a universally chanted mantra even though it has its origin in Sanatana Dharma. The fact that it has spread and transcended various boundaries clearly shows and proves it significance.

There are 2 scientific explanations to why the OM mantra is widely practiced.

1. When the Om mantra is chanted, the frequency of the vibrations is said to be 432Hz which happens to be the vibrational frequency of everything in the universe. This scientific finding is the justification of the saying ‘in harmony with the being’.

2. Not to long ago, scientists conducted a research in which the subjects had never chanted Om mantra were asked to chant it for few minutes and each of their chants were recorded. The time frequency analysis of it showed irregular waveforms which indicated unsteadiness in the mind. They were requested to chant the mantra frequently for a few days, the experiment was repeated. The time-frequency analysis this time had some surprising insights. The waveforms were improved with regular spacing, had almost perfect symmetry and harmony. Not only had these participants witnessed dramatic improvements in focus, concentration & steadiness, but found themselves to be in peace, witnessed reduction in mental stress & could remain calm all the time.

[Karava Visnu]

om you say…. i have perceived the spirit of narayan he is beautiful. In my opinion shiva was the great padronanza of om. Narayan is alive

[Travomonk]

nice information

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