Yoga On & Off the Mat

Om, Shanti and Namaste: Sacred Sounds of Yoga, Part I

By Brooke Hewes, 8-16-07

Om … We chant together, palms pressed in prayer position in front of our hearts. Om … The syllable extends from our lungs, vibrating and filling our bodies. The single, simple chant permeates the room. As soon as the sound fades to silence, we begin again: Om, Shanti, Shanti, Shanti … The room feels alive. The chant connects student with student, student with practice, student with teacher. Again the sound ebbs and we sit together in the vibration — in the silence that really isn’t silence at all. After a few moments we each gesture and say Namaste. 

Almost every Hatha Yoga class I attend ends with this simple yet powerful ritual. It closes the practice as it simultaneously extends its lessons and energy to the rest of my life. Mantras, or sacred chants, are an integral and essential part of yoga.

Mantra and the Power of Sound
Ann Dyer, a yoga teacher in Oakland, California, who studies Nada Yoga (the yoga of sound), says that sound influences and enhances all yoga.

“In Nada Yoga the first thing to understand is that all the things that you can accomplish in other yogas — in asana [postures], bhakti [yoga of love and devotion], jnana [yoga of knowledge] — you can touch upon through sound,” says Dyer.

Sound affects all layers of being, she says. In yoga, these layers are called koshas, or what Dyer terms the “five sheaths of experience.” From the most material to the most subtle, there are physical, pranic, emotional, intellectual and soul koshas. And because chanting can adjust and open all these layers, Dyer calls it a complete yoga practice.

Likewise, Timothy O’Brien, an ordained Buddhist and executive director of the Northwest Dharma Association in Seattle, equates mantra to meditation.

“Mantras are a mind discipline like other forms of meditation,” he says. “They don’t have meanings per se, but are used as techniques for breaking habitual chatter and negative mental states.”

Mantras, says O’Brien, are the sound equivalents of dhyanas, what his tradition calls the “meditative states of consciousness.”

It makes sense, then, that many Hatha classes begin with chanting as a way to ground and center practitioners. Chanting helps focus energy and intention on yoga (union of body, mind and breath), and encourages one to let go of thoughts and worries. At the end of a class, some teachers lead their students through chants as a way of gathering and sending the collective energy of the practice outward into the world.

Three of the most common mantras chanted in yoga classes are Om, Shanti, and Namaste, which are commonly strung together following savasnana (corpse pose) at the end of a yoga class.

Om
In the Hindu tradition, Om (also Aum, or pranavah as Patanjali says in the Yoga Sutra) is a sacred syllable that represents God, or Brahman — the omnipotent, omnipresent source of all existence. When spoken, the syllable’s intonation consists of three Sanskrit letters: aa, au and ma. When repeated, Om penetrates the body and soul, and brings us closer to God and our divine, united nature.

Om is a seed or “bija” mantra. Like the seed of a plant, the mantra contains vast amounts of wisdom and vitality. Dyer points out that Om is no ordinary bija mantra, however; it is the ultimate bija mantra from which all sounds are born. In fact, she says, according to yoga philosophy, the entire Sanskrit alphabet derives from Om.

Om is sometimes chanted with other bija mantras that represent different deities and their attributes within the energy centers (chakras) of the body. For example, “Lam” is the bija mantra one chants to connect with the base of the spine, or the root chakra. “Ram” is chanted to access and strengthen the energy around the naval at the solar plexus chakra. Om is chanted to open the seventh or crown chakra where one’s sense of divinity lies. (Some sources, like Yoga Journal’s article “The Beginner’s Guide to Common Chants,” however, associate Om with the sixth, or brow, chakra; in this context, Om resonates around the energetic point of the third eye.)

Symbolically, Om is no small thing. Still, it is one sound, one syllable, and in this simplicity makes the Absolute more tangible. In other words, it brings us closer to God and the nature of all creation.

“One of the things that I think is especially strong in Nada Yoga and the recitation of Om mediation is the ultimate understanding that the universe is sound vibration,” says Dyer. “The Vedas say that the universe is made of sound. Contemporary physics says the universe is made of sound. And because of this, we respond very quickly to sound.”

The recitation of Om is so powerful because it is innate, says Dyer. It is part of our most intimate, authentic selves, and therefore affects us instantaneous. As such, reciting the Om mantra doesn’t require a lot of cerebral activity or practice, she adds; you can feel its magnitude and effects the first time you chant it.

Richard Rosen — a nationally renowned yoga teacher, pioneer of Rosen Bodywork, and contributor to Yoga Journal since the 70s — recommends reciting Om as quietly as possible, like a long, slow whisper that rides your exhalation from lungs to lips. Do 10-15 times, he says, to feel “the sound reverberate in your skull and spread through your body.”

In other words, let the sound mimic the meaning. Let the vibration bring your body closer to those around you, and closer to the unspoken, un-manifest space between you and your neighbor. Let the sound and the silence between each repetition of Om merge into a “state of trance, where the mind and the intellect are transcended as the individual self merges with the Infinite Self in the pious moment of realization.”

Om is recited alone, throughout other mantras, or to introduce and end chants. The sacred syllable is often paired with Shanti, the Sanskrit word for peace. Or as Timothy O’Brien says, “the universal term for the peace that surpasseth understanding.”

People chant Shanti three times to connote peace of body, mind and speech. “Om, Shanti Shanti Shanti” weaves together inner peace with the peace and love of creation, of God, and of all things Om. 

Getting your Daily Om
Many Hindus begin each day with a recitation of Om. Some carry the symbol with them on a pendant or engraving. The symbol decorates Hindu and Buddhist shrines and temples. The sacred symbol is even found at the head of letters and at the beginning of examination papers.

In the past few years I have noticed many yogis sporting Om tattoos as a way to celebrate their practice and connection with the spiritual tradition of yoga. (Or who knows, perhaps they just find the decorative symbol pretty). Indeed, there are endless ways to bring Om into your life on a daily basis whether or not you chant or pontificate universal consciousness. Like, for instance, signing up for a daily dose via email at DailyOm.com. Another maybe-silly, decidedly-modern way to get your daily Om is by drinking Yogi Tea. Each bag contains an aphorism that encourages mindfulness, kindness, and in the spirit of Om, divine consciousness. (Each bag is also individually wrapped, which seems a bit wasteful, if not ironic, given the premise.)

Check back each week for Yoga On & Off the Mat with Brooke Hewes. Bookmark www.newwest.net/yoga.

Next week: read about another sacred chant: Namaste.

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