THE MAGIC BEHIND "OM" WORD!

Whenever you do Yoga, you use to enchant a word “OM”. You have chanted OM, thousands of times, and the symbol is, well present everywhere. However, have you ever thought what it is about “OM” that makes a yogi to chant its splendor and live in the symbolic presence of it?

Here I am going to tell you 5 facts that you may not know, and which will help you to increase your knowledge about Hinduism & the deep science behind it.

1. The sound of OM covers all words, all sounds in human language:

OM is a milieu of all sounds, when in its diversified figure gives rise to all words used in language spoken by human beings. Linguistically, all perceptible sounds are produced in the space within the mouth beginning at the root of the tongue and ending at the lips. The throat sound is A, and M is the sound of lips; and the sound U depicts the rolling forward of speech expression which initiates at the root of the tongue, ongoing until it ends in the lips. To say OM correctly, remember, the sound shaking is pronounced “oom” as in home.
 
2. AUM and OM

In Sanskrit langauge, the sound “O” is a diphthong spelled “AU”. A diphthong is the amalgamation of two vowel sounds where both are normally heard and make a gliding sound. As a result, the difference between OM and AUM is simply one of transliteration.

3. AUM presents the 3 side Division of Time

  A –   is the waking state
  U –   is the dream state
  M – is the state of deep sleep

At the end of AUM is a pause, a silence. This represents the state known as Infinite Consciousness.

4. The visual symbol represents the meaning of AUM

The symbol OM visibly consists of three curves, one semicircle, and a dot. The large bottom curve symbolizes the waking state, A. The middle curve signifies the dream state, U. The upper curve denotes the state of deep sleep, M. The dot signifies the fourth state of consciousness, Turiya/infinite consciousness. The semi circle at the top represents Maya and separates the dot from the other three curves. It signals to us that it is the illusion of Maya that is an obstacle to realization of the Highest. 

5. OM is associated with Ganesha 

The physical form of Lord Ganesha is said to be that of OM.  The upper curve, of OM, is identified with the head or the face of Ganesha. The Lower curve his belly. The twisted curve, on the right side of OM is the trunk.

OM Shanti Shanti Shanti

A TALE OF BAIJNATH!

Its Dussehra, on this day Lord Rama defeated King of Lanka Ravana. It’s a day of victory of truth/good over evil. This day is very auspicious in our nation and it is also a countdown for biggest festival of Hindus, “Diwali”. But on this blog I am not going to talk about “Dussehra”, I am going to tell you why in Baijnath – my village we don’t celebrate “Dussehra”.

Religious belief keeps the people of Baijnath from celebrating Dussehra. At Baijnath, a town of Kangra district located about 60 Km from District Headquarter Dharamshala, people do not burn the effigy of Ravana.

According to the Purana, “This is the place where Ravana worshipped Shiva as a sincere devotee and burning his effigy would bring bad luck for the people of this area,” Ravana worshipped Lord Shiva here and he is considered great a great devotee in Baijnath and burning the effigy of such a great devotee was not right. Legend has it that during the Treta Yug, Ravana worshipped Lord Shiva on Kailash and offered his 10 heads in a Havan Kund.

Lord Shiva was touched by this deed and agreed to accompany him to Lanka. Shiva took the shape of “ling” and asked Ravana not to place it on the ground on his way. However, when Ravana reached Baijnath, he felt the need to answer nature’s call (toilet). On seeing the shepherd, Ravana handed over the “ling” to him. The shepherd, on finding the “ling” very heavy, put it on the ground and it got installed there.

Some decades ago few people tried to burn the effigy of Ravana on Dussehra, up to next Dussehra they faced an enormous financial loss or they went seriously ill. You can connect that with the wrath of Lord Shiva. There is no shop of goldsmith in our area because of the same religious belief. We have heard from our ancestors that Lord Shiva hates gold and Ravana's Lanka was made of gold, which reflects a disagreement between the lord and the devotee. You can’t open a jewellery shop in this town, those who opened it, got burned.

Anyway we love Lord Shiva too much and we have no problem with not celebrating the Dussehra here. It’s a place of Mahadev and every inch of this holy town is filled with chants of “Harr Harr Mahadev”. So while Ramleela is enacted on stages across the country and effigies of Ravana and his brothers are also made, this town keeps away from it.