Pranava yoga is a name given to the classical method of meditation

Meditation

Meditation is any form of a family of practices in which practitioners train their minds or self-induce a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit....

 outlined in the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita

Bhagavad Gita

The ' , also more simply known as Gita, is a 700-verse Hindu scripture that is part of the ancient Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata, but is frequently treated as a freestanding text, and in particular, as an Upanishad in its own right, one of the several books that constitute general Vedic tradition...

, and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. It is also called Om yoga and Om yoga meditation. It is, simply put, fixing the mind on the sound of the mantra “Aum

Aum

Om or Aum Om or Aum Om or Aum (also , written in Devanāgari as and as , in Sanskrit known as (lit. "to sound out loudly"), ', or ' (also as ') (lit. "Auṃ form/syllable"), is a sacred/mystical syllable in the Dharmic or Indian religions, i.e...

” – the sacred syllable that both symbolizes and embodies Brahman

Brahman

In Hinduism, Brahman is the one supreme, universal Spirit that is the origin and support of the phenomenal universe. Brahman is sometimes referred to as the Absolute or Godhead which is the Divine Ground of all being...

, the Absolute Reality – as the mantra

Mantra

A mantra is a sound, syllable, word, or group of words that is considered capable of "creating transformation"...

 is constantly repeated in unison with the breath. The purpose of pranava yoga is to become free from suffering and limitation.

The purpose is well stated in the Upanishads: “What world does he who meditates on Aum until the end of his life, win by That? If he meditates on the Supreme Being with the syllable Aum, he becomes one with the Light, he is led to the world of Brahman [the Absolute Being] Who is higher than the highest life, That Which is tranquil, unaging, immortal, fearless, and supreme.” – Prashna Upanishad 5:1,5,7

The mantra Aum

Aum

Aum

Om or Aum Om or Aum Om or Aum (also , written in Devanāgari as and as , in Sanskrit known as (lit. "to sound out loudly"), ', or ' (also as ') (lit. "Auṃ form/syllable"), is a sacred/mystical syllable in the Dharmic or Indian religions, i.e...

, according to Hindu philosophy, is the primordial sound from which the whole universe was created. Aum, also called the Pranava, is the original Word of Power, and is recited as a mantra. A mantra is a series of verbal sounds having inherent sound-power that can produce a particular physical or psychological effect, not just something that has an assigned intellectual meaning. The word mantra derives from the Sanskrit expression ‘mananaath thraayathe’ which loosely means “a transforming thought”; literally, “that which, when thought, carries one across [the worldly ocean of sorrow]”. The power of a mantra lies in its ability to produce an objective, perceptible change in the yogi who repeats it correctly.

In the yoga tradition, Aum is the most sacred of holy words, the supreme mantra. Aum is also called the Pranava, a Sanskrit word which means both controller of life force (prana) and life-giver (infuser of prana). “That which causes all the pranas to prostrate themselves before and get merged in the Paramatman, so as to attain identity with Him, is for that reason known as the Pranava.” – Atharvashikha Upanishad 1:10a. Aum is called the Shabda Brahman – God as Sound/Vibration. According to yoga theory, the universe has emanated from this primal movement in God. By following the thread of Aum back in meditation to more and more subtle levels of awareness, the yogi regains union with Brahman.

The Upanishads

The Upanishads (both the major and minor) are full of references to Aum and meditation on Aum. Below is a small sampling:

• "He who utters Om with the intention ‘I shall attain Brahman’ does verily attain Brahman." - Taittiriya Upanishad 1.8.1
• "The Self is of the nature of the Syllable Om...Meditate on Om as the Self" - Mandukya Upanishad 1.8.12, 2.2.3)
• "The form of meditation that came to manifest as the foremost of all, for the regeneration of all seekers, was the First Word, indicative of Brahman [God]: the Syllable Om. Meditation on Om should be resorted to by seekers after liberation. This Syllable is the Supreme Brahman." – Atharvashikha Upanishad 1:1,2
• "God is the Syllable Om, out of Him proceeds the Supreme Knowledge." – Svetasvatara Upanishad 4:17
• "Om is Brahman, the Primeval Being. This is the Veda which the knowers of Brahman know; through it one knows what is to be known." – Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 5.1.1
• "One should meditate on this Syllable [Om]." – Chandogya Upanishad 1.1.1
• "The Syllable Om is the bow: one's self, indeed, is the arrow. Brahman is spoken of as the target of that. It is to be hit without making a mistake. Thus one becomes united with it [Brahman] as the arrow becomes one with the target." – Mundaka Upanishad 2.2.4

Bhagavad Gita

Speaking from the perspective of the Infinite Being, enumerating his major manifestation-embodiments, Krishna says: "I am the syllable Om."(Gita 7:8) He also says the same thing in 9:17 ("I am...the sacred monosyllable") and 10:25 ("Among words I am the monosyllable Om").

What to "do" with aum is then outlined by Krishna: "Engaged in the practice of concentration... uttering the monosyllable Om--the Brahman--remembering Me always, he...attains to the supreme goal. I am easily attainable by that ever-steadfast Yogi who constantly and daily remembers Me."– Bhagavad Gita 6:13; 8:12-14

Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, the most ancient and authoritative text on Yoga, outlines the purpose and process of yoga as follows:

"Ishwara [God] is a particular Purusha [Spirit, Person] Who is untouched by the afflictions of life, actions, and the results and impressions produced by these actions. In Him is the highest limit of omniscience. 36 Being unconditioned by time He is teacher even of the ancients. His designator [vachaka] is the Pranava [Om]. 37 Its japa

Japa

Japa is a spiritual discipline involving the meditative repetition of a mantra or name of a divine power. The mantra or name may be spoken softly, enough for the practitioner to hear it, or it may be spoken purely within the recitor's mind...

 [constant repetition] and bhavanam is the way [or: should be done]. From it result [come] the disappearance of obstacles and the turning inward of consciousness. Disease, languor, doubt, carelessness, laziness, worldly-mindedness, delusion, non-achievement of a stage, instability, these cause the distraction of the mind and they are the obstacles. [Mental] pain, despair, nervousness, and agitation are the symptoms of a distracted condition of mind. For removing these obstacles [there should be] the constant practice of the one principle [the japa and bhavanam of Om]." – Yoga Sutras of Patanjali 1:24-32

Masters of wisdom on Aum

• Sri Anandamoyi Ma
  Sri Anandamoyi Ma
  Sri Anandamayi Ma was a Hindu spiritual teacher and guru from Bengal, considered a saint by many and hailed as one of the prominent mystics of the 20th century. Anandamayi means "bliss-permeated mother", a name given by her disciples in the 1920s to describe what they saw as her habitual state of...
  
  

“[Remembrance of the Pranava] must become so automatic that you cannot breathe without remembering It.”

“Om is the root of all sounds. Every other sound is contained in That, and It is used to take one beyond all sound.”

• Sri Aurobindo
  Sri Aurobindo
  Sri Aurobindo , born Aurobindo Ghosh or Ghose , was an Indian nationalist, freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi, guru, and poet. He joined the Indian movement for freedom from British rule and for a duration became one of its most important leaders, before developing his own vision of human progress...
  
  

“OM is the mantra, the expressive sound-symbol of the Brahman Consciousness in its four domains from the Turiya to the external or material plane. The function of a mantra is to create vibrations in the inner consciousness that will prepare it for the realisation of what the mantra symbolises and is supposed indeed to carry within itself. The mantra OM should therefore lead towards the opening of the consciousness to the sight and feeling of the One Consciousness in all material things, in the inner being and in the supraphysical worlds, in the causal plane above now superconscient to us and, finally, the supreme liberated transcendence above all cosmic existence. The last is usually the main preoccupation with those who use the mantra.” Letters on Yoga, Vol. II, p. 745-46

• A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
  A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
  Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada was a Gaudiya Vaishnava teacher and the founder-acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, commonly known as the "Hare Krishna Movement"...
  
  

“If you are a serious student of Vedic mantras, you will chant Om because Vedic mantras begin with Om. Om, or the Omkara, is Krishna. Many people are fond of chanting Omkara. That is also nice, because Omkara is Krishna. If we simply remember, ‘This Omkara is Krishna,’ then we become perfect, because the goal is to become Krishna conscious. So you can become Krishna conscious while chanting Om.”

• Swami Dayananda Saraswati
  Swami Dayananda Saraswati
  Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati was an important Hindu religious scholar, reformer, and founder of the Arya Samaj, a Hindu reform movement. He was the first to give the call for Swarajya – "India for Indians" – in 1876, later taken up by Lokmanya Tilak...
  
  

“Om is the highest Name of God, and comprises many other Names of God. It should be borne in mind that Om is the Name of God exclusively–and of no other object material or spiritual–while the others are but descriptive titles and not exactly proper names.”

• Kabir
  Kabir
  Kabīr was a mystic poet and saint of India, whose writings have greatly influenced the Bhakti movement...
  
  

“This is the Ultimate Word: but can any express its marvellous savor? He who has savored it once, he knows what joy it can give. Kabir says: Knowing it, the ignorant man becomes wise, and the wise man becomes speechless and silent.”

• Lahiri Mahasaya
  Lahiri Mahasaya
  Shyama Charan Lahiri , , best known as Lahiri Mahasaya, was an Indian yogi and a disciple of Mahavatar Babaji. He was also popularly known as Yogiraj and Kashi Baba. He revived the yogic science of Kriya Yoga when he learned it from Mahavatar Babaji in 1861...
  
  

“Constant japa of the Pranava, Omkar, Which is self-revealing, and constant focus on It as the form of Ishvara, and dedicating all actions to It as if you are not the doer yourself; is Kriya Yoga.”

• Avadhuta Nityananda Paramhansa

“Following the path of discrimination, let the pure mind be firmly fixed in Om.”

• Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa
  Ramakrishna
  Ramakrishna , born Gadadhar Chattopadhyay , was a famous mystic of 19th-century India. His religious school of thought led to the formation of the Ramakrishna Mission by his chief disciple Swami Vivekananda – both were influential figures in the Bengali Renaissance as well as the Hindu...
  
  

“‘What will you gain’, some sages ask, ‘by merely hearing this sound?’ You hear the roar of the ocean from a distance. By following the roar you can reach the ocean. As long as there is the roar, there must also be the ocean. By following the trail of Om you attain Brahman, of which the Word is the symbol. That Brahman has been described by the Vedas as the ultimate goal.”

• Ramana Maharshi
  Ramana Maharshi
  Sri Ramana Maharshi , born Venkataraman Iyer, was a Hindu spiritual master . He was born to a Tamil-speaking Brahmin family in Tiruchuzhi, Tamil Nadu. After experiencing at age 16 what he later described as liberation , he left home for Arunachala, a mountain considered sacred by Hindus...
  
  

“The purport of prescribing meditation on the Pranava is this. The Pranava is Omkara…the advaita-mantra which is the essence of all mantras…. In order to get at this true significance, one should meditate on the Pranava. …The fruition of this process is samadhi which yields release [moksha], which is the state of unsurpassable bliss.”

• Amit Ray

In the book Om Chanting and Meditation:

External links

• Om Yoga: Its Theory and Practice Fifth chapter entitled Om Yoga Meditation details the actual practice.
• Meditation Society of America Article on Aum meditation.
• Effects of Chanting Aum Vivekananda Kendra Yoga Research Foundation, Bangalore, India.