| The Mystic syllable OM is the choicest point of | | | | much to the students of Vedanta, want them to |
| concentration prescribed for the benefit of the | | | | experience the Pure Subject who, in the |
| student of Vedanta, who is constitutionally more | | | | waking-world becomes the ‘waker’, in the |
| intellectual than emotional. In their early attempts at | | | | dream becomes the ‘dreamer’ and in the |
| developing a highly concentrated mind and intellect, | | | | sleep becomes the ‘sleeper’. |
| such students too need the help of a symbol or an | | | | The sound OM is constituted of three |
| idea which has infinite possibilities to entertain them | | | | syllables. A, U and M; and while chanting continuously |
| with its inexhaustible contents. The genius in the | | | | the sound OM in the mind, the Upasaka is advised to |
| Vedic Masters gave us OM as an ideal-idol to worship | | | | superimpose upon these three sounds the three |
| in the inner temple. | | | | different planes of consciousness we have been |
| Life is a constant flow of experiences, | | | | describing so far, viz., the ‘waking’, |
| and these experiences, when observed, are found to | | | | ‘dream’ and ‘deep-sleep’. The |
| fall in three layers, as the experiences of the | | | | process of superimposition is the same as the |
| waking-state, of the dream-state, and of the | | | | principle underlying all idol worship. We have already |
| deep-sleep-state. The life of everyone of us is | | | | discussed this technique by which the Mighty is seen |
| certainly influenced by our experiences on all these | | | | or imagined in the meager; Siva-Tattwa in the |
| three different planes of consciousness, and they all | | | | Siva-linga; the Divine Mother of Knowledge in the |
| have totally a positive influence in molding our | | | | River Ganga; Sri Narayana in the Saligram; Christ on |
| character and personality. This would read slightly | | | | the Cross! |
| strange to the modern young man, because Western | | | | The practitioner at his meditation thus trains |
| philosophy has been so far striving to discover the | | | | himself consciously to superimpose the waker in him |
| fundamental in life by an analysis and close study of | | | | on the sound A; and then, as the sound A merges |
| merely the life available for us in our waking-state. It | | | | with the sound U, he gains a mental dexterity to |
| is indeed difficult, if not almost impossible, to come to | | | | forget totally his identity with the waking state |
| a right evaluation of life and its meaning by observing | | | | experiences and to come to life in meditation |
| only a third of its field. | | | | consciously the entire identity with the |
| When the Rishis more and more closely | | | | ‘dreamer’ in him; so too, when he comes to |
| observed these three fields of experiences they | | | | the sound M, he is able to black out the entire state |
| discovered that an individual identifying with his | | | | of plurality and arrive at a state of semi-conscious |
| physical body comes to live his waking-state of outer | | | | experience of all negation. Thereafter his spiritual |
| gross objects as the ‘waker’. | | | | growth is assured in proportion to the intensity of his |
| The same entity, totally in oblivion of his | | | | pursuit, purity of his life and his intelligent sense of |
| body and the outer world, when he exclusively gets | | | | detachment. |
| identified with his mind and intellect, comes to revel in | | | | Even this practice of keeping oneself fully |
| an inner world of dream, and experiences subtle | | | | conscious and making the sounds A, U, and M each |
| objects of imagination, as a ‘dreamer’. | | | | marching into the other and getting telescoped into |
| When, again, the very same entity becomes | | | | themselves, is in itself a severe training for the mind |
| forgetful of His body and its outer world, the mind | | | | at concentration. The conscious superimpositions |
| and intellect and their feelings and thoughts, and | | | | unfolded, and again folded up as explained above, is |
| comes to experience a world of nothingness, no | | | | an equally all-absorbing occupation for the entire |
| doubt peaceful and joyful, but conscious of nothing | | | | intellectual capacity in us so that the true practitioner, |
| but ‘nothingness’, he becomes the | | | | if he be sincere and regular, gains in a very short |
| ‘deep sleeper’. | | | | time an infinite amount of integration both in his mind |
| The ‘dreamer’ experiences are | | | | and in his intellectual equipments. |
| totally different and sometimes even contrary to the | | | | Thereafter, the sensitivised instruments of |
| ‘waker’s life’ and the experience of the | | | | the within become subtle in him so as to dare seek |
| ‘deep sleeper’ is common to all and seems | | | | the Pure Awareness which, in the grosser three |
| to have no relationship with the waking and dream | | | | planes, illumines the objects and sustains the mirage |
| conditions of experiences. Yet, it is the experience of | | | | personalities of the ‘waker’, the |
| all of us that we can remember, on our waking, all | | | | ‘dreamer’ and the ‘deep-sleeper’. |
| about our experiences during our last | | | | The silence between two successive OMs is the |
| ‘waking-state’, yesternight’s ‘early | | | | point of concentration which the Yogi attempts to |
| dreams’ and also the ‘peaceful sleep’ | | | | merge with, and experience thereby the infinite |
| that we had afterwards. From these observations | | | | contents of one split second completely divorced |
| the Rishis conceived their bold and adventurous | | | | from the past, and entirely free from the mental |
| theory. | | | | slavery to the future. To live thus dynamically free |
| The ‘Law of Memory’, is that one | | | | from within and from without, one second of a |
| cannot oneself remember the experience of another. | | | | human life, is all that is needed to peep over the veils |
| If one can remember anything at all, they are all | | | | of ignorance and realise for ourselves eternally |
| actual experiences of the individual himself. That is to | | | | thereafter the True Nature of the Self, the Godhood. |
| say, the law of memory enunciates that the | | | | As we explained above, since OM |
| rememberer and the experiences must be one and | | | | represents a symbol for the waking, the dream and |
| the same individual or else, memory is | | | | the deep-sleep states of consciousness, and since |
| impossible. Applying this ‘Law of | | | | our entire life is the sum total of different |
| Memory’ as a test, we find that the | | | | experiences on all these three planes, OM, the |
| ‘waker’ and the ‘dreamer’ and the | | | | symbol, represents ‘All This’. As OM is the |
| ‘deep-sleeper’ are strangers among | | | | symbol of the Infinite Reality that is behind the |
| themselves, each living in his own world, and has | | | | seeming multiplicity and painful plurality, it becomes |
| seemingly no passport to travel beyond its frontiers. | | | | self-evident that the Rishis were not illogical or |
| Since we can remember all our experiences in all the | | | | deliberately mystical when they declared that OM is |
| three different planes, there must necessarily be a | | | | ‘all this universe’. Thank you for reading my |
| single Common Factor which was a witness of all the | | | | article, I love to hear any ones opinion or suggestions. |
| happenings in all the three planes. | | | | Good luck to everyone. |
| The Sages of the Vedas, after indicating this | | | | |