OM / The Praṇava (Auṃ)

OM (more precisely Auṃ) is the most sacred sound in the Hindu tradition — chanted at the opening of recitation, meditation, and worship. Far more than a syllable, it is treated as the sonic form of the absolute itself. The Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad analyzes its three letters as the three states of consciousness, with the silence that follows pointing to the transcendent fourth. It is both a meditation object and a symbol of the whole.