What does Om mean?

Upanishads

In the Katha Upanishad, Yama tells Nachiketas that the word “which all the Vedas record, which all penances proclaim” is Om, and that this syllable means Brahman, the highest. The Shvetashvatara Upanishad uses an image from fire-making: with the body as the lower firewood and Om as the upper, a person who keeps up the drill of meditation will see the bright god, like the spark hidden in the wood.

Sources for this reading

• The Upanishads, Part II, translated by F. Max Müller (The Sacred Books of the East, vol. XV; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1884) (Katha Upanishad 1.2.15–16 (first Adhyaya, second Valli), p. 10 (leaf n67), quoted verbatim; Shvetashvatara Upanishad 1.13–14, pp. 236–237 (leaves n293–n294); checked on the page images)

Dharmashastra (Manu)

The law books treat Om as the gateway of the Veda. Manu says that Om is said at the beginning and at the end of a lesson in the Veda (2.74); that the three great words, “preceded by the syllable Om”, and the Savitri verse are “the portal of the Veda” (2.81); that “The monosyllable (Om) is the highest Brahman” (2.83); and that while rites pass away, the syllable Om is imperishable (2.84).

Sources for this reading

• G. Bühler (tr.), The Laws of Manu (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 25, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1886), 2.74 and 2.81–84. Bühler died 1898: public domain. Quoted verbatim; checked on the page images. (2.74 (p. 43, leaf n188); 2.81–84 (p. 45, leaf n190))

Bhagavad Gita and Vaishnava readers (Ramanuja)

In the Gita, Krishna lists what he is within the world: “I am the taste in water … I am ‘Om’ in all the Vedas, sound in space, and manliness in human beings” (7.8, Telang). Ramanuja reads verses 8 to 11 together: the taste of water, the light of sun and moon, the Om of the Vedas and the rest all spring from the Lord alone; they belong to him and are his body, and he is their Self.

Sources for this reading

• Bhagavad Gita, 7.8
• Sri Bhagavad-Gita with Sri Ramanujacharya's Visishtadvaita commentary, translated by A. Govindacharya (Madras, 1898) (commentary on 7.8–11, pp. 237–238 (leaves n242–n243); checked on the page images)

Yoga (Patanjali)

Patanjali's Yoga Sutras speak of the Lord (Ishvara) as the teacher even of the ancients, and then say, in Max Müller's translation, “His name is Pranava”, that is, Om (1.27). Müller explains that for Patanjali this Lord is the highest of the selves (purushas), yet one among them; a later commentator, Vijnana-Bhikshu, says that devotion to him consists in contemplation. Here Om names that Lord.

Sources for this reading

• F. Max Müller, The Six Systems of Indian Philosophy (London and New York: Longmans, Green, 1899), “What is Isvara?”, on Yoga Sutras 1.24–27, and “The Four Books of Yoga-Sûtras”. Müller died 1900: public domain. Quoted verbatim; checked on the page images. (pp. 420–422 (leaves n455–n457) and 439 (leaf n474))

Sources

• Bhagavad Gita, 7.8
• Om Jai Jagdish Hare, refrain
• The Upanishads, Part II, translated by F. Max Müller (The Sacred Books of the East, vol. XV; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1884) (Taittiriya Upanishad 1.8 (“Om means Brahman”; Om before the chants, the hymns and the Veda lesson), p. 50 (leaf n107); 1.5 (the three sacred words), p. 48 (leaf n105))
• Monier Williams, Religious Thought and Life in India, part 1 (London: John Murray, 1883): at the morning Sandhya the prayers “must be introduced by the solemn utterance of the monosyllable Ōm”, “This most sacred of all Hindū utterances” (p. 402); the Mandukya Upanishad “makes the whole monosyllable Om stand for the impersonal Brahmă” (p. 44, note 2). Monier-Williams died 1899: public domain. Quoted verbatim; checked on the page images. (p. 402 (leaf n419); p. 44 (leaf n61))
• R. G. Bhandarkar, Vaiṣṇavism, Śaivism and Minor Religious Systems (Strassburg: Karl J. Trübner, 1913), § 105: among the Vīraśaivas, “Instead of the Gāyatrī-mantra of the latter, they have the Mantra ‘Om namaś Śivāya’”. Bhandarkar died 1925: public domain. Checked on the page image (title page, leaf n1, “Strassburg … 1913”). (p. 138 (leaf n138))

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