17 Facts About Om

1.

In Indian traditions, Om serves as a sonic representation of the divine, a standard of Vedic authority and a central aspect of soteriological doctrines and practices.

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2.

Om emerged in the Vedic corpus and is said to be an encapsulated form of Samavedic chants or songs.

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3.

Syllable Om is referred to as Onkara and Pranava among many other names.

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4.

Syllable Om is first mentioned in the Upanishads, the mystical texts associated with the Vedanta philosophy.

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5.

The symbolic foundations of Om are repeatedly discussed in the oldest layers of the early Upanishads.

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6.

When occurring within spoken Classical Sanskrit, the syllable is subject to the normal rules of sandhi in Sanskrit grammar, with the additional peculiarity that the initial o of "Om" is the guna vowel grade of u, not the vrddhi grade, and is therefore pronounced as a monophthong with a long vowel, ie.

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7.

However, this o reflects the older Vedic Sanskrit diphthong au, which at that stage in the language's history had not yet monophthongised to o This being so, the syllable Om is often archaically considered as consisting of three phonemes: "a-u-m".

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8.

However, Om is attested in the Upanishads without pluta, and many languages related to or influenced by Classical Sanskrit, such as Hindustani, share its pronunciation of Om.

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9.

Om came to be used as a standard utterance at the beginning of mantras, chants or citations taken from the Vedas.

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10.

Second volume of the first chapter continues its discussion of syllable Om, explaining its use as a struggle between Devas and Asuras (demons).

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11.

The syllable Om is thus implied as that which inspires the good inclinations within each person.

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12.

Om who knows that syllable, Whatever he desires, is his.

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13.

The text asserts that Om is a tool of meditation empowering one to know the God within oneself, to realize one's Atman.

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14.

In Jainism, Om is considered a condensed form of reference to the Panca-Paramesthi by their initials A+A+A+U+M.

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15.

In East Asian Buddhism, Om is often transliterated as the Chinese character or.

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16.

In Tibetan Buddhism, Om is often placed at the beginning of mantras and dharanis.

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17.

Om appears in this extended form throughout Crowley's magical and philosophical writings, notably appearing in the Gnostic Mass.

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