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> EXPOSITION OF THE SACRED SYLLABLE OM

Source: Markandeya Purana Chapter 42

Dattatreya spoke:

The Yogi who lives thus, rightly busied in religious devotion, cannot be turned away even by hundreds of other lives. And when he has beheld the Supreme Soul, visible, existing in all
forms, whose feet and head and neck the universe composes, the Lord and Creator of this universe, let him in order to attain there to utter the one mighty and holy syllable OM! Let it be his
study as he listens to its true form.

A and U and M are its three letters; these are its three
instants; they are characterised by goodness, passion and ignorance. And another, a half instant, which has its seat on the top (of the syllable, of the head) is without quality and can
be understood by Yogis only. It is called gandhari, as it is to be uttered in the gandhara note (Ga). Being pronounced it reaches the head and it conveys the feeling of ants moving
(over the body, on the top of the head).

AS the syllable OM being pronounced reaches the head, the Yogi who is lost in meditation of OM should become united with Brahma, the Supreme Soul. Life is his bow, the soul is his arrow, Brahma is the target sublime. It is to be pierced by the heedful man; he should be united with Brahma, as the arrow becomes embedded in the target.

The syllable OM, consisting of three and a half instants, should be known in its true sense as the three Vedas " the Rig, Sama and Yajus" the three worlds, the three fires, and the three deities Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva. And the Yogi who is absorbed in religious meditation thereon, may obtain extinction therein.

Moreover the letter A is designated the Bhur-loka (Earth), and the letter U the Bhuvah-loka (Sky) and the letter M with its nasal mark is decided to be the Swah-loka (Heaven). Now the first instant is called the discrete (manifest) the second the indiscrete, and the third instant is the intellectual faculty (consciousness, attention); the half instant is the highest abode (final emancipation from existence). In this very order must these stages of religious meditation be known. By uttering the word OM everything both existent and non-existent may be grasped. Now the first instant is short the second is long (two instants) and the third is prolated (three instants) and the half instant is not cognisant to speech.

Such is this word. Brahma is designated the Supreme OM. The man who truly understands it and further meditates on it, escaping the circle of mundane existence casts off the three-fold bonds, and gains sublime extinction in Brahma, the Supreme Soul. And he who is bound with the unconsumed results of his actions, after experiencing death through ill omens, and recollecting it at the time of his departure, attains to a yogi's condition again. Hence by means of imperfect religious devotion, or again by perfected religious devotion are always to be known the ill omens‚ so that he does not sink into despondency at the time of his departure.
End of chapter 42.

Note:This corresponds to the order in which creation took place according to this book. The Undifferentiated and Attributeless Supreme Spirit, Brahma, awoke from the night of dissolution of the first creation (Padmavasana) first clothed Itself in goodness and manifested as Nârâyana (The One who lies on the waters, Shri Vishnu, the All-pervading). Next It clothed Itself in passion and manifested the creation as Shri Brahma, the God of knowledge, and thirdly became clothed in darkness, ignorance and weeping as Rudra (Shri Shiva)