What Is AUM?

AUM is an aspect of God — it is the divine creative vibration of the whole universe. Everything in creation is vibrating with God’s power. AUM is the sound made by the vibration of God’s presence within us and all around us. Where there is vibration, there is sound, and if there is sound, we can train ourselves to perceive it, to “hear” it, and to attune ourselves to it, thus actually heightening our own vibrations — changing ourselves from material, ego-centered beings, into superconscious, free souls. The AUM technique offers a scientific way to listen andcommune with the sound of AUM.

Traditionally in India, AUM is the third aspect of the three-fold nature of God or Satchidananda (Sat, ever-existing; Chid, ever-conscious; Ananda, ever-new joy). This three-fold nature is called as Sat, Tat, and AUM. Sat represents the God beyond creation, uninvolved and unknowable through ordinary human consciousness. Sat is universal, timeless, formless, omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipresent.

When God (Sat) manifested the universe, the only “building blocks” available were movement, since before that, there was only oneness or perfect stillness. Thus that one, unmoving Presence “moved” or vibrated and thus creating Maya, or opposites, such as left and right; up and down; in and out, darkness and light, and so on. This movement or vibration among opposites is called AUM or sometimes called the Divine Mother. Through the Divine Mother (AUM) was born the second aspect called Tat, the Son of God or Christ Consciousness, which represents the presence of God within all creation.

Sat: God beyond creation

Tat: God within creation

AUM: The cosmic vibration, making it all possible

To go from the knowable to the unknowable, to merge into oneness with God — this is our divine destiny. An efficient way to approach God-realization is through the agency of sound (listening for the AUM vibration).