Sutra 1.28
तज्जपस्तदर्थभावनम्॥२८॥
tajjapastadarthabhaavanam
Aranya
"Repeat it and contemplate upon its meaning"
It has been said, "through contemplative mantra repetition, yoga (one-pointedness) is consolidated and through yoga, chanting of mantra is improved. As both chanting of mantra and yoga are deepened, the supreme soul is revealed.
The word "OM" symbolizes the concept of Ishvara. When OM is repeated while contemplating on its significance, Ishvara-Pranidhana is well established.
Normally to perceive or to think of something, we need a receiver, instrument of reception and the object received. The object perceived can be inside or outside of us. An outside object is perceived through form, color etc. An internal object is perceived through its association with intellect or the I-sense. Beginners in yoga practice normally perceive Ishvara as an external object consisting of form and color and other attributes.
The practice of Ishvara Pranidhana has to be practiced inside the heart. Here "heart" is not the anatomical entity that we know of but a place where pleasure, pain, fear etc are experienced. As a technique for practicing contemplation, one can visualize Ishvara as a luminous light in the heart and then repeating the mantra OM. Once the mind becomes calm and restful, the devotee should contemplate that the I-sense is one with Ishvara. In the Mundaka Upanishad the following is described, "Brahman within the heart is the target; OM is the bow, and the self or ego is the arrow. With the mind one-pointed, one should hit the mark so the self is fully absorbed in Brahman."
While repeating OM, the "O" is pronounced comparatively short and "M" long; it should be repeated mentally, not articulately. Another technique is to use the breath to guide the repetition – while inhaling repeat "O" and while exhaling repeat "M" keeping the recollection of Ishvara always in the mind.
Discussion
Among the Hindus, there are four major sects to which people belong – Vaishnavites (who worship Lord Vishnu), Shaivites (who worship Lord Shiva), Shaktas (who worship Shakti) and Smartas (who predominantly follow Advaita Vedanta of Shankaracharya). Devotees belonging to these sects use their own respective ishta-devata (chosen deity) when contemplating on the supreme. Patanjali is proposing a method of contemplation which is largely non-sectarian.
Mandukya Upanishad is fully devoted to extolling the meaning and significance of OM. The word OM is also described in terms of its constituent sounds – ‘a’, ‘u’ and ‘m’. The Self is described as consisting of four aspects:
- Vaishvanara (fire or agni): associated with the letter “a” and the state of wakefulness; conscious, gross existence
- Taijasa (splendor, luminosity): associated with the letter “u” and the state of dream; unconscious, subtle
- Prajna (wisdom): associate with the letter “m” and the state of deep sleep; subconscious, causal
- Turiya (the fourth state): beyond the above three states; pure consciousness (state of Samadhi in yoga)
On searching the internet, I found this website by ‘Swami J’ which has a nice summary of Mandukya Upanishad.
We made one observation on the pronunciation of OM. As per Aranya, the sound “O” should be shorter than the sound “M”. However, we noted that the word is normally written in Sanskrit as (ओ३म्) or (O3M), i.e., ‘O’ followed by the digit 3 and then the letter ‘M’. The digit 3 represents what is called the ‘pluta swara’ or the long vowel sound in Sanskrit. This means that a letter followed by the digit 3 should be pronounced for a much longer time than the regular letter. We notice that in traditional chanting of OM, the sound ‘O’ is made much longer than the sound ‘M’.
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