Ом

What it means

Om is a sound before it is a sign. The Upanishads speak of it as the sound of Brahman, the ultimate reality, and one short text, the Mandukya Upanishad, is given entirely to it. There its three sounds stand for waking, dreaming and dreamless sleep, and the silence after them for the state beyond all three.

The written sign

The curved sign in Devanagari script has marked the beginning of texts and inscriptions since about the sixth century. Today it hangs over doorways, opens wedding invitations and sits on home altars across India, Nepal and beyond. Buddhists use the syllable too, most famously in the mantra Om mani padme hum.

In Hindu homes the syllable opens the day: the Gayatri mantra, recited by many each morning, begins with it, and so do countless other prayers.

At home

Hindu custom keeps the Om sign in a clean, high place: above the door, on the altar, on the wall of a practice room. It does not belong on the floor, on rugs or on doormats, where feet would touch it.

Chanting it

Om is meant to be heard. Breathe in fully and let the sound go out on the breath: a long open a, rounding to u, closing to a hum on m, then silence. Three rounds are enough to change the pace of a morning.

There is no need to be loud. A low, steady hum that you feel in the chest and the face is closer to the practice than volume, and it works on a chair at a desk as well as on a mat. Some count rounds on a mala, a string of 108 beads.