Hence Om became the auspicious word with which the spiritual teacher bad to begin, and the pupil had to end each lesson of his reading of the Veda. '• Let this syllable," the existing Pratis'akhya, or grammar of the R'igveda, enjoins, " be the bead of the read ing of the Veda, for, alike to the teacher and the pupil, it is the supreme Brahman, the gate of heaven." And Maim (q.v.) ordains: "A Brahman, at the beginning and end (of a lesson on the Veda), must always pronounce the syllable Om; for unless Om pre cede, his learning will slip away from him; and unless it follow, nothing will be long retained." At the time when another class of writings, the Purlin'as (q.v.). were added to the inspired code of Hinduism, for a similar reason, Ora is flair introductory word.
That the mysterious power which, as the foregoing quotation from the law-book of Manu shows, was attributed to this word, must have been the subject of early specula don, is obvious enough. A reason assigned for it is given by Manu himself. "Brah ma," he says, " extracted from the three Vedas the letter a, the letter u, and the letter at (which combined result in Om), together with the (mysterious) words Mich' (earth), /Thurak.' (sky), and Steal' (heaven);" and in another verse: "These three great immutable words, preceded by the syllable Om, and (the sacred R'igveda verse, called) GOyatri, consisting of three lines, must be considered as the mouth (or entrance) of Brahman (the Veda)"—or, as the commentators observe—the means of attaining final emancipation; and"The syllable Om is the supreme Brahman. (three) regulated breathings (aceom nanied with the mental recitation of Om, the three mysterious words, Dumb', and the Gayatri), are the highest devotion All rites ordained in the Veda, such as burnt and other sacrifices, pass away; but the syllable Om must lie considered as imperishable, for it is (a symbol of) Brahman (the supreme Spirit) himself, the Lord of Creation." In these speculations, Mann bears out, and is borne out by, several Upanishads. See VEDA. In the Kafka-Upanishad, for instance, Yama, the god of death, in replying to a question of Nachiketas, says: "The word which all the Vedas record, which all the modes of penance proclaim, of which desirous the religious students perform their duties, this word I will briefly tell thee, it is Om. This syllable means the (inferior) Brahman and the supreme (Brahman). Whoever knows this syllable, obtains whatever lie wishes." And in the Pras'aa-Upanishad, the saint PippalAda says to Satyakilma: " The supreme and the inferior Brahman are both the word Ora; hence the wise follows by this support the one or the other of the two. If he meditates upon its one letter (a) only, he is quickly born on the earth; him carry the verses of the R'igveda to the world of man; and if he is devoted there to austerity, the duties of a religious student, and faith, he enjoys greatness. But, if be meditates in his mind on its two letters to and u), lie is elevated by the verses of the Yajur-Veda to the inter mediate region: he conies to the world of the moon, and having enjoyed there power, returns again (to the world of man). If, however, he meditates on the supreme Spirit by means of its three letters (a, u, and m), he is produced in light, in the sun; as the snake is liberated from its skin, so he is liberated from sin." According to the MOu'd'Ilkya Unpanis•ad, the nature of the soul is summarized in the three letters a. v. and m, in their Isolated and combined form—a being Vais'wanara. or that form of Brahman which represents the soul in its waking condition; u, Taijasa, or that form of Brahman which represents the soul in its dreaming state; and m, Priljna, or that form of Brahman which represents it in its state of profound sleep.(or that state in winch it is temporarily united with the supreme Spirit); while a, a, 9n, combined, i.e., Om, represent the fourth or highest. condition of Brahman, "which is unaccountable, in which all manifestations have ceased, which is blissful and without duality. Om, therefore is soul; and by this
soul, he who knows it enters into (the supreme) soul." Passages like these may be con sidered as the key to the more enigmatic expressions used, for instance, by the author of the raga (q.v.) philosophy, where, in three short' he-says t (the supreme Lord's name) is (i.e., Om); its-Muttering (should be on its signification; thence comes the knowledge of the trameentlental spirit and the absence of the obstacles" (such as sickness, languor, doubt, etc., which obstruct the mind of ascetic). But they indicate, at the same time, the further ,course which superstition took in enlarging upon the mysticism of the doctrine of the Upanishads. For as soon as every letter of which the word OM consists was fancied to embody a separate idea, it is intelligible that other sectarian explanations were grafted on them, to serve their special purposes. Thus while S'ankara, the great theologian and commentator on the Upanishads, is still contented with an etymological punning, by means of which he transforms "a" (or rather "4") into an abbreviation of apti (pervading), since speech is pervaded by Vais'wilnara; "u" into an abbreviation of nt/asrsha (superiority), since Taijasa is superior to Vais'aviliara; and " 272" into an abbreviation of miti (destruction), Vais'wanara and Taijasa, at the destruction and regeneration of the world, being, as it were absorbed into Prajna—the Puran'as (q.v.) make of "a" a name of Vishn'u; of "u," a name of his consort and of "m," a designation of their joint-worshipper; or they see in a, 'it, m, the Triad, Brahma', Vishn'u, and S'iva; the first being represented by "a," the second by "u," and the third by "m"—each sect, of course, identifying the combination of these letters, or Om, with their supreme deity. Thus, also, in the Bhagavadgi•a, which is devoted to the worship of Vishn'u in his incarnation as Kr'ishn'a, though it a poem of philosophical tendencies, based on the doctrine of the Yoga, Kr'ishn'a in one passage says of himself that lie is Oat; while, in another passage, he qualifies the latter as the supreme Spirit.—A common designation of the word Om— for instance, in the last named passages of the Blingavadgita—is the word Pran'ava, which comes from a so-called radical nu, " praise," with the prefix pra, amongst other meanings, implying emphasis, and therefore literally means "culog'..um, emphatic praise." Although Om, in its original sense, as a word of solemn or emphatic assent, is, properly speaking, restricted to the Vedic literature, it deserves notice that it is nowa• days often used by the natives of India in the sense of "yes," without, of course, any allusion to the mystical properties which are ascribed to it in the religious works. See also the article Om MAN't PADAI• Mat'.
That there exists no connection whatever, as has been supposed by some writers to be the case, between Om and Amen, requires scarcely any remark, after the etymologi cal explanations given above; but it may not be without interest to observe that, though the derivation of Om, as a curtailment of as-man, from av, "protect, save," is probably merely artificial, and, as stated before, invented to explain the later mystical use of the Vedic word, it seems more satisfactory to compare the Latin omen with a Sanskrit " protection," as derived by the grammarians from av (in the Latin are-o), than to explain it in the fashion of the Roman etymologists: "Omen. quod ex ore priminn datum est, osmen dictum ;" or, "Omen velut °remelt, quod fit ore augurium, quod non avibns aliove modo fit." And since pra-narm, from Sanskrit nu, "praise," is, like Om, used in the sense of " the Deity," it is likewise probable that numen does not come, as is generally believed, from Latin nu-(ere), but from a radical corresponding with the Sanskrit nu, "praise."