Universal
Om — the primordial sound
ॐ
Oṁ
Simple reading: Om (aum)
About this mantra
The pranava — the seed of all mantras. The Mandukya Upanishad opens by declaring that Om is everything: what was, what is, and what is yet to come.
Meaning
Om is chanted as three sounds flowing into silence — A, U, M — and the silence after is counted as its fourth limb. The Mandukya reads the four as the whole of experience: waking, dream, deep sleep, and turiya — the awareness holding the other three. So the shortest mantra is also the largest claim: one syllable wide enough that everything that exists, and the stillness it rests on, fits inside.
When to recite it
The seed of all practice — chanted 3, 11, or 21 times to open and close meditation, before the study of any scripture, and alone as a complete sadhana; no day or hour restricts it.
Word by word
- अa
- the waking state (jāgrat)
- उu
- the dream state (svapna)
- मm
- deep sleep (suṣupti)
- ( मौन )—
- the silence after: turīya, the fourth
Source: Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad 1 and 8–12