The Symbolic Meaning of the Aum

The Hidden Secret of Creative Consciousness

Most people are probably familiar with the chant of om during meditation. There is also a deeper symbolic meaning of aum.

In Hindu mythology, AUM was the sound of creation and represents absolute infinity – Brahman. Because of its many levels of meaning Aum, is one of the hardest symbols to interpret. But let’s give it a whirl anyway.

The easiest way to comprehend the symbolic meaning of Aum is to concentrate on its purpose of creation. This is why Om is considered to be the most sacred word and symbol in ancient Hindu texts.

It is the mysterious aspects of how to create your thoughts into reality where complications with this most sacred of symbols arise. Well, that and the confusion of Brahman.

Essentially, Aum is Brahman, but what is Brahman? Attempts made by scholars and ancient writers to describe the concept of Brahman only serve to complicate its meaning to those who have not experienced it.

Brahman is described in many ways; the All, absolute reality, Truth, the Supreme Self. Essentially, Brahman is the divine wisdom that guides us through life – if only we know how to listen and receive the messages.

And this is where things become mystical and somewhat fantastical. But that is because our ability to connect with our higher self has been hidden from us, and even twisted to make us believe it is utter nonsense.

The best way to explain how we are creators is by breaking the Aum down into the power of three – the number of manifestation and a symbol that repeatedly occurs throughout every ancient culture and modern religion.

The Power of Three in the AUM

The power of three is clearly present in Aum because it has three letters.

A = creation

U = preservation

M = destruction

Anybody familiar with the Hindu Trimurti will recognise the AUM represents the combined forces of the three principle Gods; Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the preserver) and Shiva (the destroyer).

When you apply these qualities to yourself, you will know that the nature of your character has been created by your experiences, through your parents, teachers, friends and other influences.

Your attitude towards life is the result of what you think, how you act and how you feel. Although some of these attributes are influenced by those around you and the experiences you have, you are still the result of how you have created yourself.

Essentially you are Brahma.

But you are also Shiva and Vishnu.

In which case you are Aum.

Think of an attitude or weakness of character you discovered in yourself that you did not like. You probably recognised this in yourself by identifying the same trait in somebody else.

Otherwise, a good friend, parent or teacher pointed out your faults and you determined to resolve the weakness to become a better person.

When you go through this process you become conscious of your thoughts, emotions and actions. You, therefore, invoke the power of Shiva to destroy your weaknesses and transform them into strengths. Then you invoke the power of Vishnu to preserve the newfound quality of character.

This is the power of three in the Aum.

Now let’s look how you can control what you create.

We Are Consciousness

There are three states of consciousness:

1. Conscious mind – our everyday thoughts, decisions and experiences.
2. Subconsciousness – the mind behind the scenes that processes billions of data and records are conscious experiences. The subconscious mind is your auto-pilot.
3. Higher conscious mind – the mysterious force that we experience without realising or understanding what it is or where it is coming from.

It is the higher-conscious mind that we connect with the true self, the ha-ha moments, psychic abilities and other divine qualities we possess that are ridiculed as weird and nonsense.

The conscious mind is easily fooled. We think the thoughts that pop into our heads are of our own making, but they are actually coming from either the sub-conscious mind or the higher conscious.

Modern psychology describes both the subconscious mind and the higher consciousness as the unconscious but does not differentiate one from the other which is why the higher consciousness is misunderstood.

Both the higher conscious the sub-conscious contain thoughts and feelings before the conscious mind is aware of them. But the difference is, the sub-conscious mind prompts us to act in old ways which we are accustomed to.

The higher conscious mind is where we get new ideas telling us to do things differently. And we tend to ignore these ideas because we do not always realise they are what we should do.

You should be listening to the higher consciousness to avoid making the same mistakes, but we typically listen to the subconscious mind because that is where we feel most comfortable – even when we know old habits are not serving us.

But we are creatures of habit and are afraid to change. So do we have an innate fear of the unknown? Maybe, but my opinion is that fear is planted in our mind through media and society.

Creators do not fear anything. They are not afraid of failure because if they fail they try again. Creators have the strength and the faith to believe in what they want to create. And this is what drives them.

So never be afraid of trying new experiences. And when a new thought pops into your head, listen to it, write it down, act on it. Do not allow yourself to be deceived by the Devil of your subconscious.

So now do you understand the symbolic meaning of Aum?

Do you want to know how ancient symbolism can help you succeed in life?

Symbols can be used as a powerful tool to help guide you through life and make important decisions with confidence. Our self-development courses use esoteric symbolism to demonstrate how you can expand conscious awareness and improve the quality of your human experience just by observing your unconscious mind and understanding your true nature.