Ah, every forum has its trolls, yes?
@Erikk, do yourself a favor and start with the wiki link posted by CityMonk. Then, see if you can find a senior yoga teacher at your studio of practice. They may be able to provide you with some more insight. It is good to read of your curiosity. Please do not be discouraged by the negativity we have witnessed.
AUM is not a symbol for amen or the holy ghost. The meaning of AUM is explained in the upanishads and has nothing to do with Christianity. People here have a lot of fantasy and come with uneducated explanations.
Understanding Om is as easy as understanding Brahman. 
Saying Om means ‘Amen’ or ‘Holy ghost’ makes no sense whatsoever.
The concept of the holy ghost would be more in tune with the concept of paramatma. And amen has nothing to do with Om: http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=amen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Om - Wikipedia is a good start if someone wants to understand what Om means.
Ah, yes. Thank you for your explanation. I think I understand now. I just don’t think Christianity has cornered the market on the Holy Ghost
OP: As others have told you Oak’s answer is nonsense. The symbol is AUM which is a sacred Hindu mantra and represents the sound of creation. AUM is even sometimes said to be a representation of the Hindu god.
I’ve heard many explanation to the AUM (Om, even A_O_U_N_M)…
In the Shandilya Upanishad yogi is told:
Om represent three goddesses: Gayatri, Savitri and Saraswati. Those doddess are wives and Shaktis of the shiva, Vishnu and Brahma - who together constitute one Brahma…
[QUOTE=Surya Deva;61168]OP: As others have told you Oak’s answer is nonsense. The symbol is AUM which is a sacred Hindu mantra and represents the sound of creation. AUM is even sometimes said to be a representation of the Hindu god.[/QUOTE]
What has this “Oak” done to deserve your blatant disrespect and belittling? As a newbie to this site, I immediately wonder if it is your goal to turn newcomers away. After my first day of browsing through threads, I almost deleted my account due to the many disrespectful and intolerant comments I poured through, mostly in the religious debates that take place both within and without the appropriate forums. I stayed with the hope that I would find the love, patience, flexibility, tolerance, community and Oneness I expected from a forum dedicated the art/practice/philosophy/science/religion of Yoga.
Your interpretation of the symbol Aum or Om does not concern me, nor your interpretation of the Vedas or other spiritual texts. What does concern me is the blatant disrespect and negativity I have observed. I hope that I will have the opportunity to know and respect you. I also hope that I will find the wisdom and patience that I know is within you.
In love,
Mark
Hi Mark,
it is really up to us to lead by example. The words, while well composed and to the point, cannot penetrate tightly woven belief systems. They are like a suffocating fabric.
When the mental force, one of three vocalizations in the human being, is not brought down and transformed in the heart the student becomes preoccupied with rationale, the need to be “right”, logic, and a deeply vested interest in being recognized as knowledgeable, even in the absence of both wisdom and application.
[QUOTE=cydrtha;61193]What has this “Oak” done to deserve your blatant disrespect and belittling? As a newbie to this site, I immediately wonder if it is your goal to turn newcomers away. After my first day of browsing through threads, I almost deleted my account due to the many disrespectful and intolerant comments I poured through, mostly in the religious debates that take place both within and without the appropriate forums. I stayed with the hope that I would find the love, patience, flexibility, tolerance, community and Oneness I expected from a forum dedicated the art/practice/philosophy/science/religion of Yoga.
Your interpretation of the symbol Aum or Om does not concern me, nor your interpretation of the Vedas or other spiritual texts. What does concern me is the blatant disrespect and negativity I have observed. I hope that I will have the opportunity to know and respect you. I also hope that I will find the wisdom and patience that I know is within you.
In love,
Mark[/QUOTE]
Yogis should not be so sensitive that they can’t deal with simple corrections when misinformation is being spread. The most disrespectful and dishonest thing that was done here was to spread blatant misinformation when a newbie asked for the meaning of AUM.
You are accusing Hindus here of being suffocated by their belief system, but actually Christians here cannot take an objective look at yoga without trying to weave their own doctrine into it.
Actually, I think it is the other way around. It is the Hindus on this forum who are not respected by many of the non-Hindus. They get condemned for merely pointing out something is Hindu or giving a link back to the Hindu root, even when it is obvious.
The OP asked what the symbol was and Oak gave them wrong information. He said it was something to do with the holy ghost, amen and the cosmic energy which sustains the universe. It is easy to see from the links given to the OP this is completely false: It is a Hindu sacred symbol, meaning AUM, which is the sound of creation in Hindism.
I think it is becoming ridiculous how much the non-Hindus on this forum are trying to separate everything within Yoga from Hinduism, and even going to as far as to replace Yoga’s history with Christianity. If you hate the source relgion so much, then why do you even practice Yoga? If you really are so objective and detached then why do you hestitate from mentioning blatant facts like Aum is a sacred Hindu symbol? And why do you react so violently when we correct you?
I don’t really feel like another “Is Yoga Hinduism debate” It is getting ridiculous now.
Edit: If somebody posted, “What is the holy trinity” and a Hindu responded, the holy trinity is Brahman, Vishnu and Shiva. A Christian would have reacted in the same way - by stating it is nonsense and then giving the correct information.
Oak has a history by the way of making anti-Hindu posts.
Rather than condemning this, you should make an attempt to understand it. Why are these debates taking place. Just as a yogi would try to make sense of his inner-debates.
I stayed with the hope that I would find the love, patience, flexibility, tolerance, community and Oneness I expected from a forum dedicated the art/practice/philosophy/science/religion of Yoga.
I think your expectations are unrealistic then. The Yoga forum is not heaven with angelic beings, it is a human internet discussion forum with humans posting on it. We come together to discuss Yoga both its philosophy and practice. Many come with contrasting opinions, and then there is conflict. This same conflict is reflected within you. If you can deal with the conflict on the external level, you will be able to deal with it on the internal level.
Your interpretation of the symbol Aum or Om does not concern me, nor your interpretation of the Vedas or other spiritual texts.
A Hindus interpretation of Hindu symbols and Hindu scriptures does not concern you?
I also hope that I will find the wisdom and patience that I know is within you.
In love,
Mark
Please do not say such patronizing things. It is a subtle form of violence. I am not saying to you am I, “One day you will be as wise as me” If you looked deep down in yourself you will find the same impatience and intolerance you accuse me off.
I live my life by the principle of satya in Yoga. That is to speak truth all the time and remain as objective and as factual as I can, irrespective of profit/loss, censure/praise. I get both praised and censured on this forum. It does not affect me. You will find if you review my post history my views are very consistent.
A Hindus interpretation of Hindu symbols and Hindu scriptures does not concern you?
It is like saying “a physicists interpretation of quantum mechanics doesn’t interest me, I’d rather learn about some quantum quackery.” :roll:
If this was a physics forum and someone talked about quantum mechanics from “The Secret,” the physicists would say something about it. This is a yoga forum, so I expect people to do the same when an imaginairy definitions are given to yogic symbols.
Where some seek to inform and enlighten, others seek to force and belittle.
I respect your religion and the spiritual roots of yoga deeply. The debates, as such, are of no concern to me. When your heart opens, however, I am sure you will find that Brahman, the Holy Ghost, Om, the Trinity, you and I are all one and the same. This is not a fundamental religious debate. This is about universal experience and consciousness.
Through this Oneness, I think we can all find peace - and at the very least, a bit of respect for one another.
[QUOTE=cydrtha;61218]Where some seek to inform and enlighten, others seek to force and belittle.
I respect your religion and the spiritual roots of yoga deeply. The debates, as such, are of no concern to me. When your heart opens, however, I am sure you will find that Brahman, the Holy Ghost, Om, the Trinity, you and I are all one and the same. This is not a fundamental religious debate. This is about universal experience and consciousness.
Through this Oneness, I think we can all find peace - and at the very least, a bit of respect for one another.[/QUOTE]
Uncritically applying Oneness onto everything is becoming another dogma and also an excuse not to delve deeper into religious and philosophical ideas to understand nuances.
Thank you, Gordon. This, I understand now.
Namaste,
This symbol is a widespread symbol in Hinduism for OM. It has a religious and cultural connotation and any misuse of this symbol can be offensive for many Hindus. Mandukya Upanishad deals extensively about OM. You can find free versions online, it is very short to read. In Yoga Sutra, pranava which is a synonym for OM is mentioned, it has a specific sense related with Ishwara, cf. first chapter. One can find multiple meanings related with gods, states of consciousness, Sanskrit syllables, knowledge aso…
Here is a nice article about OM from Georg Feuerstein who is both a brilliant scholar in Yoga and a long-time practioner of dharmic yogic disciplines :
http://www.traditionalyogastudies.com/The%20Sacred%20Syllable%20OM.pdf
Philippe
All we said was a fact. That AUM is a Hindu symbol and is considered a sacred mantra/sound, the sound of creation.
Oak gave misinformation that AUM is the holy ghost, amen. Sure we could have nicely have said, “Dear Oak, I believe you maybe misinformed, the actual meaning is this…” However, he deserved also to be reprimanded for giving blatant misinformation. This is why we said he was saying nonsense. Just as Sarva points out, a physicist would tell a new-ager misrepresenting quantum physics they are speaking nonsense.
Note, we said what he said was nonsense, we did not say, “You’re an idiot” We said it was nonsense because it was nonsense.
I respect your religion and the spiritual roots of yoga deeply. The debates, as such, are of no concern to me. When your heart opens, however, I am sure you will find that Brahman, the Holy Ghost, Om, the Trinity, you and I are all one and the same. This is not a fundamental religious debate. This is about universal experience and consciousness.
As I said to Amir in another thread, can you accept your mouth and your anus is the same? The argument of oneness sounds nice, but it is wrong. Your mouth and anus are not obviously not the same things. The holy ghost is not the same as Aum. The holy ghost is a member of the holy trinity, and AUM is the sound of creation or primordial vibration that emanates from Brahman.
I don’t know why people like you complicate things so much and are so obsessed in trying to prove you have a parallel concept in Christianity to a Hindu concept. You don’t. You have opposite concepts:
We have Karma, you have original sin
We have Reincarnation, you have judgement day
We have god as absolute reality, you have god as father in heaven.
We believe everything emanates from god, you believe everything is created by god
We have Yoga, you have prayer and mass
We have the Vedas, you have the bible
We have philosophy, you have faith
We have yugas, you have the world was made 6000 years ago
We have sages, you have prophets
We have planes of being, you have heaven and hell
We have ahimsa, you have chosen ones
They are completely opposite religions and it is futile looking for any kind of reconciliation. They could not be anymore opposite. We cannot bring them together anymore we can fit a square peg in a circle hole. These are pure facts and like all facts they need to be accepted.
The fact is our religions are always going to be in conflict simply because we have opposite doctrines.
[QUOTE=Sarvamaṅgalamaṅgalā;61204]…You are accusing Hindus here of being suffocated by their belief system, but actually Christians here cannot take an objective look at yoga without trying to weave their own doctrine into it.[/QUOTE]
No, actually I was not. I was and am making a generally factual statement about the human condition as it is currently manifest, period. If it fits me, then it fits me. If it fits you then it fits you. If it fits Mark then it fits Mark.
It seems a bit careless to toss around the phrase “accuse” without having some additional clarity around the offering. But that is for you to hammer out, not me.
And as a famous member of this very forum once said “yogis should not be so sensitive…” Though I vehemently disagree. Those on the path of yoga should actually become more sensitive (often called awareness) BUT not take things personally WHEN they are offered with love and kindness for the benefit of the student’s growth. To do otherwise is to merely become a doormat.
Dear, Surya. You are speaking of religion when I speak of living. This need not be another debate. You do not know me. You do not know that I am Christian or Hindu or Scientologist.
My heart and science both tell me that my mouth and my anus are both made of the same stuff - carbon, water, and a host of other wonderful phenomena that have been in existence for eons. These phenomena cannot be created nor destroyed.
My mouth and my anus are both part of my same body and both touch parts of the same food matter. They both open and close and both feel pleasure and pain. In truth, both even smell sometimes. My mouth and my anus, and yours, too, are also the stuff of God and Brahman and the Holy Ghost and Aum. Since we humans created language, we have used terms to describe experience. We are simply getting caught up in the terms. It is the same experience.
Thank you for this. I have felt a strong need to reply to your comments despite my resolve to allow for the conversation to pass. This has been good practice. I have watched the urge and have even fed into it. I will watch again and see if I will allow it to pass next time. Thank you, dear teacher.
Before this gets kicked over to the religious forum;
?Yoga is in religion, but religion is not in Yoga.? ~http://www.swamij.com/yoga-institutional-religion.htm
Quoted since they wrote it before I did.