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The Word That is God
Scriptures and Masters on Om
by
Swami Nirmalananda Giri
©Copyright 2004 by Atma Jyoti Press
Atma Jyoti Ashram
1482 Rango Way
Borrego Springs, CA 92004
www.atmajyoti.org
Contents
Foreword..........................................................................................................................5
Chapter One: The Scriptures on Om .............................................................................. 6
Chapter Two: The Masters of Wisdom on Om...............................................................66
Chapter Three: The Glories and Powers of Om ............................................................94
Glossary.............................................................................................................................
Foreword
“I am Om, the Word that is God.”
1
In searching for material on Om, the Pranava,
2
I came across a kind of digest of the
Upanishads in which the author had made the following paraphrase of the teachings of the
Mandukya Upanishad:
“The Syllable Om is the atman. One who knows this has his jivatman merged in the
Paramatman–yea, one who knows this. Know the Omkara; for he who knows Om need know
nothing further. Meditating, be absorbed in Om. It is Brahman, the fearless. For him who is
ever absorbed in Om there is no fear any more. Om is the lower and the higher Brahman. It is
the beginning of everything, its middle and its end, too. He who thus knows Om is merged in
It forthwith by means of It. Know Om as Brahman, Who is enthroned in the heart of all. The
sage who knows Om as all-pervading grieves not. Partless and with unending parts is the
blessed cessation of duality. Who knows Om as such, he alone is a muni, none else.”
As the Atharvashikha Upanishad says: “He who knows Om in this manner will attain the
fruits resulting from all kinds of meditation, from resorting to Yoga and Jnana.”
3
As I compiled the material on Om from the scriptures and the Masters of Wisdom I was
astounded at the amount I discovered, and even more astounded at how little of it is known to
any but the most scholarly. The panorama of these texts provided me with a vista regarding
Om that awed and inspired me. I easily believed the words of Gaudapada, the guru of the guru
of the great Shankaracharya, who wrote in his commentary on the Mandukya Upanishad: “Om
is indeed the beginning, middle, and end–everything. One should know Om to be God seated
in the hearts of all. Meditating on the all-pervasive Om, the intelligent man grieves no more.
The Om, without measures and possessed of infinite dimension, is the auspicious entity where
all duality ceases. He by whom Om is known, is the real sage, and not so is any other man.”
And Shankara, commenting on these words, affirmed: “He who knows Om is a sage because of
his meditating on the Supreme Reality, and not any other man, though he may be learned in
the scriptures.”
Consequently I wrote
Om Yoga
to share with others what I had learned from both my own
experience in meditation and my researches in the age-old lore of Om. However, it seemed to
me that serious students of yoga would benefit from having access to the entire range of
material on which it was based. And so this book was put into shape for your study along with
some brief comments of my own. I hope you will find it as fascinating and valuable as I do,
concluding with Shankaracharya that: “Through Om the Lord is met face to face.”
Swami Nirmalananda Giri
Atma Jyoti Ashram
Borrego Springs, California
www.atmajyoti.org
1
Bhagavad Gita 7:8. Also: “I am Om” (Bhagavad Gita 9:17), and “Among words I am the sacred syllable Om” (Bhagavad Gita
10:25).
2
Please see the Glossary for the definition of unfamiliar words and also for brief biographical information on unfamiliar
persons.
3
Atharvashikha Upanishad 3:4b. Jnana: Knowledge; wisdom of the Reality or Brahman, the Absolute.
5
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