Why do we say Om?
Yesterday I wrote about a conversation I had with my long-time friend Chris Dorje Walker.
Chris spent 5 years as a Buddhist monk and is one of my first go-to people when I want to talk about mantra (find him on Instagram).
One of the things he said yesterday about the word “Ommmm…”, which we all chant without thinking too much about it, is that Ommm is a way to open up to the energies as we sit to chant or meditate.
He said: “This may be helpful about Om. Om signifies the essence of the ultimate reality, consciousness or Ātman. Om is a part of many mantras in Tibetan Buddhism and is a symbolism for ‘wholeness, perfection and the infinite’.
Om at the start calls the Divine energy to us…
“Om is the primal vibration out of which all things manifest and absorb back into again. Om is the essence of the universal consciousness.
“As we call Om at the start of a mantra, we invoke wholeness or oneness and remember that divine essence, Ātman.”
From Wikipedia: Ātman is a Sanskrit word that means inner self, spirit, or soul. In Hindu philosophy, especially in the Vedanta school of Hinduism, Ātman is the first principle: the true self of an individual beyond identification with phenomena, the essence of an individual.
“So,” says Chris. “You could say sounding Om at the start calls the Divine energy to us, to our body whilst remembering that we are actually one with the Divine. So in a way we remember we are Divine and connecting our consciousness with that ultimate truth.”
But not all mantas begin and end with Om. Often, after Om comes something else – at it’s simplest you might add a single seed mantra such as Shreem, which is the seed mantra for the Goddess Mahalakshmi.
It’s a vibration not a word…
Before we go further, remember, a mantra is not a word, it’s a vibration. A seed manta is a vibration used to connect with the Divine, in the case of Om Shreem, it’s to connect with the Goddess Mahalakshmi.
And a mantra will often end with a simple “Namaha…” which, Chris summed up as being a way of saying “I receive…”
He used the example that often in chanting we will used the mantra “Swaha…” which essentially means “I give…” or “I offer up…” or “Offering…”
This is often chanted during a fire puja, for example, at the moment that the ghee is poured onto the fire as an offering to the Devi (angels).
Nahama, on the other hand, is a way of saying “I receive the energy of the Deity or Goddess that I have opened up to” or called in.
So to put it together a simple chant to the Goddess Lakshmi – the Goddess of love and abundance – would be:
Om (I open up to…)
Shreem (the energy of Lakshmi)
Namaha (I receive this energy)
In terms of when to chant this, any day is a good day but Fridays are extra good because that’s Venus’ day and Venus and Lakshmi go hand in hand. As well when the Moon is in Taurus or Libra would be perfect. If you work with planetary hours, then Venus’ hour would be ideal.
Om Shreem Namaha
If you’d like to connect with Chris, who is jam-packed with this kind of wisdom, you can find him on Instagram here.
