Will intoning aum cause one to reach enlightenment/godhood where all one desires is attained etc?
Yes; but it takes a lot of understanding about AUM and years & years of practice.
Our gross to subtle states is a single continuum. Vibrations, with only their intensity varying, are common among all the states. Vibrations cause sound and thoughts verbalize it. A word holds a middle ground between a form on the physical plane and its unarticulated purpose on the causal. Sound is the subtlest sense of the subtlest element of ākāś. The primordial sound, the first word of the Universe, is considered to be ?AUM.?
The import and potency of the sound of ?AUM? is enormous. But even as a simple process, when the mouth is opened to let the breath (air) in or out, it creates a sound of a syllable ?A? (?o? in come), the sound of ?M? (?m? as in jam) emerges when the lips slowly close from a fully open mouth, and ?U? is a complete trajectory of sounds of ?A? expanding into ?O? (as in foam) and fading back into ?M.? Thus it is a basic human sound. It does not differ from person to person, culture to culture, or age to age. That is one of the reasons why it is an external symbol of Īśvara. It is also the prāṇava, the primordial sound of all conscious life and hence is regarded as the root sound of all sounds.
Though apparently simple, AUM needs volumes to convey its hid?den meanings and properties. It takes a long Yoga practice before the inner guru trains how to properly pro?nounce AUM, because it creates incredible vibrations. Through Yoga practices the body needs to be ready to sustain these vibrations. The chanting of AUM has been sometimes distorted in the hands of inexperienced practitioners. AUM is an extremely powerful sound, and its enormous signifi?cance de?serves earnest attention.
In Vedic texts, the scale of sound vibrations is mentioned. In its true state, AUM creates para-nād, with vibrations unsustainable in this existence. That vibration, when reduced to a quarter, is paśyanti-nād, which the causal state can sustain. A quarter of paśyanti is madhyamā-nād, which the astral state can sustain, and a quarter of madhyamā is vaikharī-nad, which we ordinarily sustain in the physical state. That should explain how powerful ?AUM? is and why only Īśvara can guide in its proper recital.
Sounding AUM through your mouth is an important but really a small step. As you become aware of the spiritual Self, the three gross to subtle bodies start vibrating instantly in harmony. Then it becomes less significant to say AUM overtly, and you start learning how to listen to AUM in silence instead. That is when samadhī becomes a real state of silence or stillness.
Any gross object, is an ensemble of atoms each vibrating at its own rate. AUM is the primordial sound of that vibration born within an atom from the time the atom manifests out of the omnipresent ākāśa. Ultimately, one needs to learn this AUM and how to listen and to co-vibrate with it in the total stillness of mind and with an absolute focus on it. These are much more subtle, finer, and powerful vi?brations of AUM than chanting it verbally. Hence, a lot of care is needed and the bodies require preparation to endure that task.
Suhas,
Always love your passion and ability to articulate so much, so beautifully.
I would only add to this the concept/property of “resonance:” that when one articulates A-U-MMMM, aurally as well as mentally, one produces the entirety of vibration, the “absolute” sound, which the human body/mind, as well as all bodies, are capable of resonating. That “harmonic resonance” of OM is the Spirit: it is your life. When you say/think Om, you are producing the highest potential for your own resonance as well as that of everything around you, giving life to this Spirit (which is one).
peace and love,
siva
Listen to the bodies sound. Hear the roar of thunder.