From time immemorial, humanity has tried to find a way to represent God and has come up with several symbols/names. God may be refered to as Bhagwaan, Khuda, The Holy Father etc. But if we try to go a step backwards and try to find out how the ancient people may have represented God without the benefit of the written word, it will take us on a facninating journey of discovery which can become a Dan Brown novel at some point! The oldest civilizations worshipped Fire, Lightning or anything powerful in Nature as God. But we are not talking of the method of worship or the object of worship. We are embarking on a journey which will tell us how God was symbolized by the ancient Indian sages.
The first thing in any symbol is to have something which is universally understood and recognized. To any physics student, the symbol T always stands for time. Similarly, the ancient sages started looking for a symbol by which they could invoke God. Remember that, there was no written language then and everything was conveyed through speech. They in their infinite wisdom understood that God was something who was at the beginning, middle and end of everything and even beyond that. So they had to find a symbol which would convey that. When we try to solve an equation for distance travelled, just as we say, let distance = S, they wanted a symbol with which they could say, Let God = ???? What was the best symbol to represent God?
Based on the sound they could produce, they looked for the first sound that humans uttered and most of us know it is A(pronounced as A in America). This is the sound that comes from the base of the throat and needs the lips to be opened. This is the sound that babies first cry when they come out. I am sure none of you have heard of babies crying uuuuuuuuuuuu when they are born! So the sages selected the letter A as one of the sounds to use in building their symbol because it represented the first or beginning just as God is the first or beginning. The next sound they identified was the U(U pronounced as u in "put"). This is the sound that arises from further up in the throat than the A and is produced with the lips partially open. Hence U is the middle and hence representative of God being in the middle in addition to the beginning. The last sound they identified was M(pronounced as in Jim). This is the sound that comes much further up the throat and is with the lips fully closed. Hence from a sound perspective, it represents the end, just as God is the end in addition to being the beginning and the middle.
Now they had three sounds A, U and M. When A and U are combined, it produces the sound O(pronounced as in Oats). So now they had a singe word OM which represented the beginning, middle and end of everything which is how they conceived God. So they decided to represent God as OM. So, in the above equation, we can put Let God = OM.
Now we need to find out the right hand side of the equation to define OM. We experience three states of consciousness or awareness. The first state is the waking state where our body(consisting of the senses), the mind and the intelllect are active. Since my sense is active, I can smell a beautiful flower. Since my mind is active and can feel, I feel happiness when I smell the flower. Since my intelllect is active, I know based on the smell that it is a rose flower. But what gives me the ability to smell, the ability to feel and the ability to think. This ability is nothing but that energy or consciousness or God within me that is giving me such ability. So we have one componenty of God. God is that energy or consciousness which gives me the ability to perceive, emote and think in my waking state. Let us call this energy or consciouness of the waking state as W.
Next let us move on to a dream state. In this state, my senses are not active at all. Imagine a situation when in your dream a lion is attacking you and you actually feel the pain of its jaws sinking into you. The very fact that you do not feel the pain and wake up to rush to doctor is proof that the senses are not active in dream state. However, inspite of the senses not being active, how am I still seeing a dream, experiencing emotions and able to make some sense of it and remember it when I get up. That means someone or something was awake and giving me the ability to dream and also remember it(some atleast) when I get up. This energy or consciousness is the second component of God. God is that energy or consciousness which gives me the ability to experience a dream. Let us call this this energy or consciouness of dream state as D.
Now let us move on to the deep sleep state. This is the state where I know nothing. The world does not exist. I dont know whether I am boy/girl, whether I am black/white, I am married/single. I know nothing in this state. But when I wake up, I know everyhting. I also know I slept well. This then is the third component of God. This is the energy or consciousness or awareness that even though I was fast asleep, I existed. Let us call this this energy or consciouness of deep sleep state as S.
Now, is consciouness or energy just to include my waking state, my dream state and my deep sleep state. We know that there is so much that we dont even know we dont know. To explain further, the entire field of knowledge consists of :
1. What I know that I know(I know that Rajajinagar is part of Bangalore and I know Rajajinagar.).
2. What i know I dont know(I know Jayanagar is part of Bangalore, but I dont know Jayanagar.)
3. What I dont know I dont know(Let us say a new place called USANagar was added to Bangalore and I have not even heard of it. So USAnagar is something i dont even know that I dont know. But just because I dont know, it does not mean it is not in Bangalore)
Similarly I know consciousness exists in my waking state. I know it exists in my dream state. I know it exists in deep sleep but have no understanding of it. In addition, there is a state of consciousness which I don't even know exists. This is far beyond the waking, dream and deep sleep awareness. This is called the fourth statge or the Turiya stage. I guess this is difficult to conceptualize.
Let us try to understand this through a dream analogy. In my dream there are several characters. some of them may be spiritual and could wonder about the world and who created it. Again my dream character would know about his own existence. He would know that some super power created his world , but he would not know who the super power was. But beyond what he does not know, there is no way that he would know that I the creator of his world had my own life, that I took a subway to work, that I fought with my wife daily etc. This is the fourth dimensuon we are talking of, a dimenson where we dont even know we dont know. Let us call this consciousness or energy, which is the fourth component of God as T.
So now we have n equation for God or consciouness. We represented God as Om. God is something that is the consciouness in our waking state(W), the consciousness in our dream state(D), the consciousness in our deep sleep state(S) and the consciousness beyond all this (T).
Hence OM = W+D+S+T.
Is this not a highly amazing and logical representation of God? Hence any time we utter the word Om, we are invoking God.
As readers may be aware, 3 of my books on spirituality are available on Amazon.com.
I invite readers of my blog to try any of the books and give me feedback so that I can make changes in the next edition.
1. My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality
My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality
2. Attain Infinite Bliss
Attain Infinite Bliss - A Spiritual Guide
3. The Spirit Of Spirituality
The Spirit Of Spirituality
The first thing in any symbol is to have something which is universally understood and recognized. To any physics student, the symbol T always stands for time. Similarly, the ancient sages started looking for a symbol by which they could invoke God. Remember that, there was no written language then and everything was conveyed through speech. They in their infinite wisdom understood that God was something who was at the beginning, middle and end of everything and even beyond that. So they had to find a symbol which would convey that. When we try to solve an equation for distance travelled, just as we say, let distance = S, they wanted a symbol with which they could say, Let God = ???? What was the best symbol to represent God?
Based on the sound they could produce, they looked for the first sound that humans uttered and most of us know it is A(pronounced as A in America). This is the sound that comes from the base of the throat and needs the lips to be opened. This is the sound that babies first cry when they come out. I am sure none of you have heard of babies crying uuuuuuuuuuuu when they are born! So the sages selected the letter A as one of the sounds to use in building their symbol because it represented the first or beginning just as God is the first or beginning. The next sound they identified was the U(U pronounced as u in "put"). This is the sound that arises from further up in the throat than the A and is produced with the lips partially open. Hence U is the middle and hence representative of God being in the middle in addition to the beginning. The last sound they identified was M(pronounced as in Jim). This is the sound that comes much further up the throat and is with the lips fully closed. Hence from a sound perspective, it represents the end, just as God is the end in addition to being the beginning and the middle.
Now they had three sounds A, U and M. When A and U are combined, it produces the sound O(pronounced as in Oats). So now they had a singe word OM which represented the beginning, middle and end of everything which is how they conceived God. So they decided to represent God as OM. So, in the above equation, we can put Let God = OM.
Now we need to find out the right hand side of the equation to define OM. We experience three states of consciousness or awareness. The first state is the waking state where our body(consisting of the senses), the mind and the intelllect are active. Since my sense is active, I can smell a beautiful flower. Since my mind is active and can feel, I feel happiness when I smell the flower. Since my intelllect is active, I know based on the smell that it is a rose flower. But what gives me the ability to smell, the ability to feel and the ability to think. This ability is nothing but that energy or consciousness or God within me that is giving me such ability. So we have one componenty of God. God is that energy or consciousness which gives me the ability to perceive, emote and think in my waking state. Let us call this energy or consciouness of the waking state as W.
Next let us move on to a dream state. In this state, my senses are not active at all. Imagine a situation when in your dream a lion is attacking you and you actually feel the pain of its jaws sinking into you. The very fact that you do not feel the pain and wake up to rush to doctor is proof that the senses are not active in dream state. However, inspite of the senses not being active, how am I still seeing a dream, experiencing emotions and able to make some sense of it and remember it when I get up. That means someone or something was awake and giving me the ability to dream and also remember it(some atleast) when I get up. This energy or consciousness is the second component of God. God is that energy or consciousness which gives me the ability to experience a dream. Let us call this this energy or consciouness of dream state as D.
Now let us move on to the deep sleep state. This is the state where I know nothing. The world does not exist. I dont know whether I am boy/girl, whether I am black/white, I am married/single. I know nothing in this state. But when I wake up, I know everyhting. I also know I slept well. This then is the third component of God. This is the energy or consciousness or awareness that even though I was fast asleep, I existed. Let us call this this energy or consciouness of deep sleep state as S.
Now, is consciouness or energy just to include my waking state, my dream state and my deep sleep state. We know that there is so much that we dont even know we dont know. To explain further, the entire field of knowledge consists of :
1. What I know that I know(I know that Rajajinagar is part of Bangalore and I know Rajajinagar.).
2. What i know I dont know(I know Jayanagar is part of Bangalore, but I dont know Jayanagar.)
3. What I dont know I dont know(Let us say a new place called USANagar was added to Bangalore and I have not even heard of it. So USAnagar is something i dont even know that I dont know. But just because I dont know, it does not mean it is not in Bangalore)
Similarly I know consciousness exists in my waking state. I know it exists in my dream state. I know it exists in deep sleep but have no understanding of it. In addition, there is a state of consciousness which I don't even know exists. This is far beyond the waking, dream and deep sleep awareness. This is called the fourth statge or the Turiya stage. I guess this is difficult to conceptualize.
Let us try to understand this through a dream analogy. In my dream there are several characters. some of them may be spiritual and could wonder about the world and who created it. Again my dream character would know about his own existence. He would know that some super power created his world , but he would not know who the super power was. But beyond what he does not know, there is no way that he would know that I the creator of his world had my own life, that I took a subway to work, that I fought with my wife daily etc. This is the fourth dimensuon we are talking of, a dimenson where we dont even know we dont know. Let us call this consciousness or energy, which is the fourth component of God as T.
So now we have n equation for God or consciouness. We represented God as Om. God is something that is the consciouness in our waking state(W), the consciousness in our dream state(D), the consciousness in our deep sleep state(S) and the consciousness beyond all this (T).
Hence OM = W+D+S+T.
Is this not a highly amazing and logical representation of God? Hence any time we utter the word Om, we are invoking God.
As readers may be aware, 3 of my books on spirituality are available on Amazon.com.
I invite readers of my blog to try any of the books and give me feedback so that I can make changes in the next edition.
1. My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality
My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality
2. Attain Infinite Bliss
Attain Infinite Bliss - A Spiritual Guide
3. The Spirit Of Spirituality
The Spirit Of Spirituality
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