Mandukya_Upanishad

and rūpa, name as well as form. It is not merely a sound,though it is also a sound, and a very important aspect ofOm that you have to bear in mind is that Om is not merelya chant or a recitation, a word or a part of human languagebut it is something more than all this. It is something whichexists by its own right, something which is usually calledvastu tantra, as distinguished from puruṣha tantra – thatwhich exists not because it has a reference to anything elsebut because it is something by itself. We do not create Omby a chanting of it, but we only produce a vibrationsympathetic with the vibration that is already there by itsown right and which is called Om. Om is a cosmicvibration. It is not a chant made by us, created by us orinitiated by us. Why do we chant Om? To establish aconnection between ourselves and that which exists by itsown right and which manifests itself as a sound-vibrationin the form of Om.The Supreme Absolute is the rūpa (Form) of Om whichis the nāma (Name). As everything in the world isdesignated by a name, we designate Īsvara, God, also, by aname. As we summon into our consciousness a form bycalling out its name, remembering its name, so also wesummon into our consciousness the Being or the Form ofĪsvara, God, by summoning His Name. And just as thename of a particular object is connected with that object bya description of the character of that object, Om also, as theName of Īsvara, describes Īsvara, and by this uniquedescription of it, it enables us to contemplate the form ofĪsvara. A mountain is a name, a river is a name, fire is aname, man is a name, woman is a name, Rāma is a name,17