Om or Aum , IAST:Oṃ, ॐ) is a sacred sound and a spiritual symbol in Indian religions. It signifies the essence of the ultimate reality, consciousness or Atman. More broadly, it is a syllable that is chanted either independently or before a spiritual recitation in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. The meaning and connotations of Om vary between the diverse schools within and across the various traditions. It is part of the iconography found in ancient and medieval era manuscripts, temples, monasteries and spiritual retreats in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism
In Hinduism, Om is one of the most important spiritual symbols. It refers to Atman (soul, self within) and Brahman (ultimate reality, entirety of the universe, truth, divine, supreme spirit, cosmic principles, knowledge). The syllable is often found at the beginning and the end of chapters in the Vedas, the Upanishads, and other Hindu texts. It is a sacred spiritual incantation made before and during the recitation of spiritual texts, during puja and private prayers, in ceremonies of rites of passages (sanskara) such as weddings, and sometimes during meditative and spiritual activities such as Yoga
INTRODUCTION
OM, like many Sanskrit words, has various meanings. This symbol is actually a sacred syllable representing the supreme consciousness or the absolute the source of all existence. The syllable OM occurs even in English words having a similar meaning, for instance, omniscience, omnipotent and omnipresent. As the cross is to Christians, the OM is to Hindus. It is made up of three Sanskrit letters, AA, Au and ma which, when combined, make the sound AUM or OM. It occurs in every prayer and invocation to most deities begins with it. As the symbol of piety, OM is often found at the head of letters, pendants, enshrined in every Hindu temple and family shrines.
Repetition of OM or AUM dissolves the mind in its divine source . If you chant OM several times out loud it is said to purify the atmosphere and connect you to the universal life force of all creation vibrating at the same wavelength. Before some decades, Yogis and meditating professional affirmed that chanting. mantra improves our concentration, gives peace and steadiness to our mind, reduces the mental stress and clears all worldly thoughts. Although, it’s required to verify importance of mantra chanting systematically, no schemes have demonstrated yet. In this research work, we have confirmed the significance of OM chanting.
CHANTING MEDITATION
Chanting meditation means keeping a not-moving mind and perceiving the sound of your own OM. Perceiving your voice means perceiving your true self or nature. Then you and the sound are never separate, which means that you and the whole universe are never separate. Thus, to perceive our true nature is to perceive universal substance. With regular chanting, our sense of being centered gets stronger and stronger (Khalsa, 2000). However, when we do chanting meditation correctly, perceiving the sound of our own voice, we learn that chanting meditation is not for our personal pleasure, to give us good feeling, but to make our direction clear. At the moment of true perceiving, there is no thought, no separation, only perceiving sound. This is the crucial point (Andersen, 2000).
This study is a part of scientific investigations on time-frequency analysis of acoustic generated by devine sound OM
Our attentiveness and concentration are pilfered from us by the proceedings take place around us in the world in recent times. Different challenges and impediments are faced by the people work in the industries, offices and even in business. It is tough to handle the stress some times. Therefore, to come out of the aforementioned troubles, meditation is essential for all human beings. In the same way, for pschychological stress, speech signal is uttered to be a considerable indicator. In the direction of mediating human subject, OM is a spiritual mantra, outstanding to fetch peace and calm. The entire psychological pressure and worldly thoughts are taken away by the chanting of OM mantra. Elimination of disruption and introduction of new dynamism in the body are given by the OM chanting. The consciousness could be promoted through the repetition of OM mantra. Furthermore, this mantra transcends the restrictions of a mentality. To systematically understand the meditative chant, termed the divine sound OM, is the endeavor of this research work. Spectral analysis has been carried out for OM mantra to study its structure and to identify the factors, which have been found to influence the human nerve system. By this analysis, we could conclude stress gets minimized after OM chant.
Indians have a long history. And it would not be exaggerating if one said that the ancient Indian sages discovered the existence of Om and the health benefits of Om chanting.
Ever since then, it has been followed in each and every Hindu religious household as a symbol of purity with great spiritual powers.
Om chanting also has been found to be helpful in encouraging good physical and mental health. Anyone can experience the power of Om by chanting it without using his tongue.
The whole body will feel certain vibrations when you chant this pious mantra. The modern world has evolved a special Om therapy with the help of which specializes in the field claim to cure various forms of diseases.
Here are the Health Benefits of Om Chanting
1.Helps to Improve Concentration
When you chant Om, you sort of detach yourself from the whole world putting aside all your worries and tensions. With regular chanting, your mind becomes focused on this small Sanskrit word.
As you keep on practicing, you become more attentive in whatever you do and you’re level of concentration improves.
2.Reduces Stress and Anxiety
According to a recent medical report, chanting Om has been associated with reducing stress. One of the biggest health benefits of Om chanting is that it brings down stress levels.
It provides relief from anxiety and tension. Regular chanting ensures that you feel peaceful from within and are less distracted while doing any form of work.
A person practicing Om chanting regularly feels serene and pious from within. It is a form of meditation which helps you to know more about your inner self and add more meaning to everything that you do.
3.Rejuvenating & Pacifying
Tensions are a regular part of life. But too much anxiety and stress produce toxins in the body leading to harmful physical and mental diseases. And Om chanting eliminates the possibilities of toxin production by reducing stress and making you feel rejuvenated whenever you start chanting.
Thus, one of the health benefits of Om chanting is that it makes you feel happy, rejuvenated and pacifies your troubled heart.
Regular Om chanting also helps to reduce your mood swings and thus improve your work capacity and performance.
So, it indicates that with regular Om chanting practice you can improve your personal as well as professional life as well.
4.Gives Strength to Spinal Cord
Research suggests that Om or AUM chanting creates a significant impact on the spinal cord of a person.
The vibrations created during chanting improve the efficiency of the spinal cord. But for that, you must practice it regularly under proper guidance.
5.Detoxifies Body
Chanting of Om is a type of meditation. And when you regularly perform this meditation, it contributes to improving the detoxification process of your body. Improvement in blood circulation and oxygen enriched supply to the body cells are the two most important health benefits of Om chanting. When you chant Om, you have to breathe deeply. This deep breathing process helps to get rid of toxins.
That is why; ancient people believed that Om chanting restores your sexuality and youthfulness externally and internally.
6.Improves Functioning of Heart & Digestive System
Chanting of OM regulates the blood flow to different body parts. Thus, it helps in controlling blood pressure and symptoms of hypertension. When you disconnect from the outer world during chanting, your breathing, respiration and heart beat normalizes.
Regular practice thus improves the working of your heart. Moreover, it also helps to improve your digestive system’s functioning.
You can improve your sleep by chanting om
7.Ensures Sound Sleep
Stress and hectic lifestyle impact your lifestyle badly. Late nights of working and waking up late in the morning disturb your overall body cycle.
You can improve your sleep and wake up the pattern by practicing Om chanting regularly. It not only ensures that you fall asleep quickly, but also that you get sound and enough sleep.
8.Makes You Emotionally Stable
Emotional instability is one of the reasons for failure. When you are worried, angry, frustrated or irritated, it directly impacts your career.
Your behavior becomes irrational and impractical due to which you may even become disturbed. However, you can benefit immensely by chanting Om regularly as it helps you to gain control over your emotional state.
9.Improves Reasoning Ability, Reduces Negativity
A disturbed mind has a tendency to think negative first whenever some untoward incidence happens. But regular Om chanting ensures that you stay positive even in dire circumstances.
Your reasoning ability improves and you are able to take right and better decisions in difficult conditions.
You even start distinguishing between right and negative people and thus choose a positive group of friends.
So there are immense health benefits of Om chanting.
However, it is very much important that you practice it perfectly under the guidance of an able teacher to get good results.