Nachiketa’s story is central to the Katha Upanishad, where his steadfast determination to seek knowledge and truth lead him to learn the nature of the soul and the truth from Yama (God of Death and Justice). Nachiketa was the son of a greedy sage, who was offered to Yama by his father.

Yama said to Nachiketa: Aum is the goal, which all the Vedas declare, which all austerities aim at and which men desire when they lead the life of continence, I will tell you briefly what is Aum. – Kathopanishad: Section1, Part II, Verse 15

Explanation

Aum is the truth, it is Pranava, it is the symbol or the representation of universal reality. If one knows this, then one is self-aware and has everything under control. One has everything in one’s hands. Therefore, the moment one wants something that is in one’s hands, provided one knows what Aum is.

The great truth and secret is Aum and one when has attained Aum then one has attained everything is the principal mantra attached to every single mantra and it is a sound vibration, which produces a sympathetic effect in the system of the person who recites it properly. Aum is never chanted in a hurry.

There are four stages of sound:

• Para
• Pashyanti
• Madhyama
• Vaikhari

Vaikhari is the audible, articulated speech. Madhyama is mental speech without sound, involving lip movement. Pashyanti is mental speech without movement and Para is the unmanifest state of pure consciousness where the chanter and the mantra become one.

Aum contributes to the three states of Consciousness.

• A represents the waking state (jagrat).
• U represents the dream state (swapna).
• M represents the deep, sleep state (sushupti).

The silence that follows the Aum sound represents the fourth state is Turiya. It is the pure consciousness. And is the ultimate goal of life.

Aum Meditation

Sound has a vibration which starts with the navel, and when one chants Aum, one should feel a sense of vibration in the navel itself. It should start from the very root of one’s solar plexus, corresponding to the navel. The solar plexus is a bundle of nerves in the abdomen that sends and receives messages to and from the local organs. It rises up gradually.

Para is inaudible, pure vibration, having no characteristic of sound. It is a pressure that one is exerting and it comes from a source which is beyond the constitution of the physical body. One summons into oneself, as it were the forces of nature, all things and everything. The power of the mountains, the power of the ocean, the power of all the rivers, the power of the sun, moon, the stars and the power of the sky, one withdraws into myself. One has purified one’s elements.

Dear ones, feel like this when you recite Aum. And as the saying goes, what you think you are, that you really are.

Aim Hrim Klim