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Is it correct to say Om or Aum?

Posted by Sita Chaitanya on January 9, 2011 at 9:33pm in Open Forum
What is the proper way to pronounce Om? I hear some people say it Aum, and some people say it Om. Which is correct? One of our Facebook friends asked this question and received the following replies. Do you have anything to add to this? Shoumava: Om and Aum are two different beejas..OM for the Sahasrar and Aum for the Angy Shoumava: The most sacred symbol in Hindu dharma. Aum (OM) is the sound of the infinite. Aum is said to be the essence of all mantras, the highest of all matras or divine word (shabda), brahman (ultimate reality) itself. Aum is said to be the essence... of the Vedas. By sound and form, AUM symbolizes the infinite Brahman (ultimate reality) and the entire universe. A stands for Creation U stands for Preservation M stands for Destruction or dissolution This is representative of the Trinity of God in Hindu dharma (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva) The three portions of AUM relate to the states of waking, dream and deep sleep and the three gunas (rajas, satva, tamas) The three letters also indicates three planes of existence, heaven (swarga), earth (martya) and netherworld (patala) All the words produced by the human vocal organ can be represented by AUM. A is produced by the throat, U & M by the lips In the Vedas, AUM is the sound of the Sun, the sound of Light. It is the sound of assent (affirmation) and ascent (it has an upwards movement and uplifts the soul, as the sound of the divine eagle or falcon. Natasha: you are trying to spell it . the potency of Ohmm comes when you speak it in the mind silently and feel it vibrating in the entire body . Shobhana: AAAA......UUUUUUUUU...MMMMMMMMMMMMMM...................Say it like this. Why do we chant OM or AUM? Whats its significance? Julie: What are both??? Anandhan: "Aum" is the correct pronounce Swami Saradananda: OM includes all sounds. Shoumava: I have read it in a book of Reiki both are seperate mantras.... OM for Sahashrar and Aum for Angya chakra and as you spell it so is the result Rashmi: ‎'om includes all sounds' because, om's primary components are a, u, m. 'a' is pronounced with the mouth open. 'm' is pronounced with the lips closed. 'u' is the connector. om hence engulfs all sounds that are generated. a-u-m is used in praaNaayaama. ''a' is for naval breathing, 'u' thoracic breathing, 'm' is shoulder and above. As a beejaakshara, (meaning, the source for all sounds) it is pronounced as om. Trupti: @ Rashmi i didnot understand the meaning of a is for naval breathing, u thoracic breathing and m is shoulder. can u explain..... Rashmi: @Trupti, while saying 'a', for one whole breath, inhale air into the stomach region. exhale. saying 'u' for one whole breath, inhale air into the chest region. exhale. then with 'm', for one whole breath, inhale air into the region of the shoulders and above. The final one can be felt by raising the shoulders closer to the ears with the inhalation. Hope that helps. Sita Chaitanya: From two different sources, one a self-realized hatha yoga master and swami, and the other a swami with some years of sanskrit, they say that saying it aum is wrong. And that there being two different mantras for the anja and the sahasrara ...is also wrong. By the rules of Sanskrit internal sandhi, the spelling of aum becomes om. Always. The aum thing has become popular because when you translate the sanskrit characters to latin characters, it's there, but it doesn't account for the internal sandhi that sanskrit has and english doesn't.

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