Albert Einstein once said, ‘Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a Spirit is manifest in the Laws of the Universe — a Spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we, with our modest powers, must feel humble.’
Many thousands of years ago, our culture was not broken into fragments as it is now. At that time, science and spirituality were not separated as discussed by Indian rishis and knowledge developers. Modern physics really suggests that everything is thus internally related to everything else. We are internally related to the whole. It could be said that science, art, and spirituality are the principal content of culture. Mandukya Upanishad discusses the theory of four states of consciousness; and asserts that Aum is Brahman — and thatBrahman is this self, ātman; Aham brahmasmi, one of the Maha Vakyas).The word Om represents Brahma in the sabda form and is described as Barthrhari in his Vakyapadiya. The present article discusses the fusion of science, spirituality and philosophy as revealed in the mantra Om.
Introduction
History of Indian knowledge generation as is known as from the written documents started from the 8th century BC with the Sulbasutras by a school of Sulbakaras like Katyayana and Apastambha. In contrast, the beginning of Science as knowledge generation started in the west during the 17th century with the works of Galileo and later on with those of Isaac Newton. For example, the west knew of the seven colours of rainbow with Newton’s famous demonstration of dispersion of sunlight by a triangular glass prism, whereas, Varahamihira in the 6th century AD described the formation of rainbow caused by dispersion of sunlight by water droplets present in air just after a rain (see below).
सूर्यस्य विवधवर्णाः पवनेन विघट्टिताः कराः साभ्रे । वियति धनुः संस्थानाः ये दृश्यन्ते तदिन्द्रधनुः ।।
- Brihat Samhita, Varahamihira, 6th century AD
Classical Physics in the west originated with Newton and it has two fundamental components, namely, the observer and the observed. For an observer, there is the world out there to be perceived and the act of observation will not disturb the observed. This led Newton to develop theoretical and experimental works based on the existence of absolute time and space. The situation did not change for the next two-and-a-half centuries till Max Planck led a revolution by creating new physics through energy quantization while discussing the unsolved problem of black body radiation. This revolution caused a paradigm shift with the entry of Albert Einstein who published three papers in Annalen der Physik, namely, ‘Theory of Brownian motion’, ‘Theory of photoelectric effect’ and ‘Special theory of relativity’.
Quantum theory, which was seeded by Max Planck and helped to germinate by Einstein grew to a tree of different branches to be called Quantum Mechanics, or the Physics of the micro world. The arrival of quantum mechanics (QM) destroyed the dichotomy of the observer-observed system with the observer influencing the observed. This caused Heisenberg to introduce the famous uncertainty principle which became the foundation of QM along with Schrödinger’s wave equation. The foundation of QM rests on the concept of operator, state of the system defined with a function (called wave function), eigen value (probable result of the outcome of the observation). Prior to the actual performance of an experiment, observer can predict all the possible outcome of the experiment with specific probability of occurrence. However, once the experiment is performed all the probable outcomes vanish except one, namely the result of the experiment and there is no longer any ambiguity. One can think of that as one system which has different manifestations and one can realise the reality once the observation is made.
Knowledge of different forms
Ever since man appeared on the scene on the earth as a thinking specie (‘I think, therefore I am’ said René Descartes), many questions have arisen in his mind like who am I, whence I came, whence I go, what is death, who is the controller of this entire universe, is there something hidden behind the visible universe? He explores the universe to get answers using his five senses to get knowledge about what he observes directly — knowledge Prathyaksha. From Prathyaksha, he infers knowledge using his mind as instrument which is hidden knowledge — knowledge Paroksha. Conclusions drawn from the acquired knowledge result in what is called scientific reality based on which he judges the world. Better and better knowledge is obtained using better instruments. For example, X-ray machine will reveal the knowledge beneath the skin and getting the horizon of the knowledge expanded. Thus Prathyaksha together with Paroksha knowledge provide what forms scientific reality (SR).
Philosophers define another type of knowledge revealed instantly and immediately to a specially trained mind — knowledge Aparoksha of which scientific reality is a subset. For scientific reality, universe is not an open book, the more we uncover the secrets, horizon of knowledge recedes farther and farther. Man describes the universe through five senses based on Panchabhuta — earth (Prithvi), water (Jal), fire (Agni), ether (Akash), and the fifth at a higher plane, namely Sat. Sat is the first cause of all evolution which is named in Indian philosophy as Parabrahma — the Absolute. It is through highly trained mind that the absolute reality is realised. It is the highest spiritual truth and in fact, is the TRUTH as it is. As Max Muller puts it, our inner life is more perfect, more comprehensive and more universal, in short, more human — a life transformed to eternal life. This is Brahma Bhava described by Sankaracharya.
According to Shankaracharya, Brahma is formless and we all are part of that infinite consciousness and our ultimate goal is to unite with that consciousness. Adi Shankracharya remarked that the ultimate truth is formless but various forms of gods are actually the expression of that formless energy and hence by worshipping our gods and deities, we are actually worshipping the infinite. Brahman, according to Sankaracharya, is the cause of the origination, subsistence and dissolution of the world which is extended in names and forms with characteristics: (1) This world must have been produced as the modification of something which is itself omnipresent and omnipotent. (2) The world is so orderly that it could not have come forth from a non-intelligent source. Brahman is the intelligent source. (3) This Brahman is the immediate consciousness which shines as the self and also through the objects of cognition which the self knows. The word OM represents Brahma in the sabda form and is described as such by Brathrihari in his Vakyapadiya (Vakyapadiya I,1; I, 20):
१ अनादिनिधन ब्रह्म शब्दतत्त्व यदक्षरम् ।
विवर्ततेऽर्थभावेन प्रक्रिया प्रक्रिया जगतो यत ॥
That beginningless and endless One, the imperishable Brahman of which the essential nature is the Word, which manifests itself into objects and from which is the concern of the Universe
२० यत्र वाचो निमित्तानि चिह्नानोवाक्षरस्मृतः ।
शब्दपूर्वेण योगेन भासन्ते प्रतिबिम्बवत् ॥
- in which the symbols of speech, pointers as it were to the ‘one letter scripture’ (Om) shine forth like reflections in association with that (i.e., Om) which is antecedent to all (manifested) speech,
OM, The Maha Mantra described in Mandukya Upanishad
The Mandukya Upanishad is one of the several Upanishads that discuss the meaning and significance of the syllable Aum (Om). In the following sections, let us now explore OM as described in Mandukya Upanishad. The Mandukya Upanishad opens by declaring, ‘Aum!, this syllable is this whole world’. With four fold structure derived from A + U + M + ‘silence’ (or without an element) in verses 3 to 6, the Mandukya Upanishad enumerates four states of consciousness: wakeful, dream, deep sleep and the state of ekatma (being one with Self, the oneness of Self) These four are A + U + M + ‘without an element’ respectively.
The verses 3 through 7 discuss four states of Atman, which can be summarized as these four states of Self, respectively, as seeking the physical, seeking inner thought, seeking the causes and spiritual consciousness, and the fourth state is realising oneness with the Self, the Eternal. The Mandukya Upanishad describes three states of consciousness, namely waking (jagrat), dreaming (svapna), and deep sleep (suṣupti), and ‘the fourth’, (Turiya) beyond and underlying these three states.
The Om mantra isa mahamantra with a single letter but is also labelled as the monosyllabic Brahman in the Shrimad Bhagvadgita. The sage of this mantra is Parabrahman, the deity Parmatma and the rhythm (chanda) Gayatri. The mahamantras from the Vedas, Upanishads, etc. and also the efficacious (siddha) mantras and names denoting ‘the Lord’ are the varied forms of this Omkar. When chanting every mantra, it is essential to start it with the Om mantra, also known as Omkar. ‘The scriptures describe the pranav, that is, Om mantra as the ‘monarch of mantras’. It is considered as the symbol or representation of the individual soul.
OM: Scientific Studies
Scientific studies have shown that when OM is chanted, an alpha wave is produced within the brain. This wave produces a state of calm.
Let us look at the phonetics of the word OM. According to Mandukya Upanishad (Johnston, 1923), OM is the manifestation of all states of time, Atman, consciousness and knowledge. In Sanskrit, the sound “O” is a diphthong spelled “AU”. A diphthong is a mixture of two vowel sounds and can be separately heard. This is why OM sounds “AUM”, which represents the 3-folds division of time.
fig 1. The vibration representing syllables of OM
Fig 2 Spectral analysis of Vedic mantra OM (AUM) (Devi, HJ, Swamy, NVC, and Nagendra, HR (2004). Spectral analysis of Vedic mantra. International Journal of traditional knowledge, 3, 154 – 161.
Conclusion
In AUM, A (apti) represents the waking state (symbolises darkness, inertia, ignorance). U (utkarsha) represents the dream or creative state (symbolises passion, activity, dynamism). M (miti) represents the state of deep sleep or meditative state (symbolises purity, truth, light). Om is also called Pranava, meaning it sustains life and runs through the breath or Prana. The ‘O’ or ‘AU’ sound makes all the bones of the thoracic cage vibrate, which leads to the vibration of lungs and finally to the delicate membranes of the alveolus. This can stimulate pulmonary cells and enables a proper exchange of air in the lungs. These vibrations produce a much accentuated effect in the endocrine glands. This leads to the balance activation of several glands and organs. Besides this vibrational message, which results from the emission of the vowels ‘AU’, the latter acts especially in the abdominal and thoracic cage, whilst the vibration of ‘M’ in the skulls induces a vibration of the cranial nerves.
*The writer is visiting professor at the International School of Photonics, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kochi; Kerala University, Thiruvananthapuram, and MG University, Kottayam. He can be reached at nampoori@gmail.com.
