What is meant by the AUM symbol?
AUM is the most sacred symbol, mantra and sound in all Hindu traditions. Hindu creation myths hold that it is the primordial sound from which all other sounds emerged; it is the mantra which comprises all other mantras. A full description of its significance would run into volumes, so here is a (comparatively brief!) extract from ‘The Concise Light on Yoga’ by B. K. S. Iyengar (Unwin Paperbacks, 1980): The symbol AUM is composed of three syllables, namely the letters A, U, M, and when written has a crescent and dot on its top. A few instances of the various interpretations given to it may be mentioned here to convey its meaning. The letter A symbolises the conscious or waking state (jagratha-avastha), the letter U the dream state (svapna-avstha) and the letter M the dreamless sleep state (susupta-avastha) of the mind and spirit. The entire symbol, together with the crescent and the dot, stands for the fourth state (turiya-avastha), which combines all these states and transcends them. T
