Sadhana 2 - Chant OM

Sadhana for Week 2

Speech  - Chant “OM” 5 times every morning & Say Hello to God.

Quote:

Anecdote:

Each day of Poojya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda would start very early. The first thing he would do on waking up is Chant OM loudly three-five times.

How to?

Fix a time to wake up every morning.  Wake up everyday at the same time for the next one week. 
When you get up, sit up straight on your bed, take 2-3 breaths to ensure you are completely awake and in the moment. 

Take a deep breath and chant Om mentally as you inhale. 
Hold the breath for 3 seconds.

As you exhale, Chant “om” aloud. 

Hold your breath for 3 seconds

Inhale (Om mentally)…hold……Exhale(Om Loudly)…..hold.

Repeat the process 5 times.

Visualise the image of OM as you chant. (Either the regular OM or Gurudev's OM.  Both are given below)

Feel that you are connecting to the Divine through OM.  It is not merely a sound.  Chant with this feeling. 

If you share a room, you can chant it softly or go to another room.

Maintain a few seconds of silence after you finish the chanting and then resume with the morning chores. 

Benefits:

·         Atha & Om are the primordial sounds or the first sounds of the universe. It is considered therefore to be the shortest sound symbol of the Truth.  Chanting Om invokes Auspiciousness. 

·         The essence of the Vedas is in the Gayatri Mantra, whose essence is in the 3 Vyahritis – Bhuh Bhuvah Suvah, whose essence is in OM.  Chanting OM, we are chanting the essence of the Vedas & remembering the Lord. 

·         Om is considered to a complete sound and completes all others mantras, therefore helps us return to feeling complete.  Chanting OM invokes completeness /Perfection.

·         A loud & long recitation of “OM” first thing in the morning is a great way to get the Body activated, Pranas energized, Mind focused and Intellect empowered. 

·         OM is made up of 3 sound – A, U, M.  Between A and M all the sound possibilities are covered in Sanskrit Language.  Creation is nothing but sound vibrations.  Hence OM pervades the whole creation.  Mandukya Upanishad says – “OM – this Eternal word is all:  What was, what is and what shall be.”  Chanting OM is to be one with the Universe.

·         In the Vedas, AUM is the sound of the Sun, the sound of Light.  Recent audio samples collected by NASA do give us a glimpse of this fact, though NASA does not say it is the sound OM.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=34&v=jgQ9THRckJ0

·         It is the sound of assent (affirmation) and ascent (it has an upwards movement ) and uplifts the soul. Chanting OM is uplifting. 

Beginners and Advanced:

Beginners would do exactly as said above

Advanced seekers:

·         May choose to do an entire mala of chanting “om”.  For those who want can do somewhere in between, 21 or 27 or 54

·         Some of you may have studied the Taittiriya Upanishad.  Chapter I Section 8 Mantra 1 is about OM.  Poojya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda’s commentary says -
“The sound of Om is constituted of 3 syllables – A, U and M, and while chanting continuously the sound OM in the mind, the upasaka (meditator) is advised to superimpose upon these three sound, the three different planes of Consciousness. 
A – Waking State
U –Dream State

M- Deep Sleep State.
If a practitioner is sincere and regular in this pursuit, he gains in a very short time an infinite amount of integration in his mind and intellect equipment.

Thereafter, the sensitivised instruments of the within become subtle in him to dare seek the Pure Awareness which in the grosser three planes illumines the objects and sustains the mirage-personalities of the ‘waker’, ‘dreamer’ & the ‘deep sleeper’.  The silence between the two successive OMs is the point of concentration which the Yogi attempts to merge with and experience thereby in infinite contents of one split second – completely divorced from the past, and entirely free from mental slavery to the future. To live thus dynamically, free from within and without, one second of a human life is all that is needed to peep over the veils of ignorance and realize for ourselves, eternally hereafter, the true nature of the Self, the Godhood. “

Practice for advanced seekers:  Superimpose Waking, Dream and Deep sleep on AUM and then focus on the silence between the two OMs.  That Silence is Consciousness – Our True Nature. 

May we return ‘Home’ through OM.

OM Sweet OM

Unto Him Our Best

To Register FREE for #42ChinmayaSadhanas, click here.