The self is known in four states,
- the waking
- the dreaming
- the deep-sleep and
- Turiya (Absolute)
All these states are represented in the three characters A U M and the silence that follows and surrounds the syllable.
A represents the waking state
B represents the dream state
C represents the deep-sleep state
The waking state is the first of the three states of conciousness. The dream state occurs between the waking and the deep-sleep state and comes second among the three. ‘M’ is the closing sound of the syllable and thus the comparison between the deep-sleep state or the final stage of the mind. Between the two Oms a silence is inevitable and that is the fourth state ’Turiya’
of perfect bliss when the individual recognizes its identity with the supreme.
There must be a single common factor which was a witness to all the happenings in all the three planes. There must be some Entity within ourselves who is present in the waking world,who moves and illumines the dream,who is a distant observer in the deep-sleep world and yet who is not conditioned by any of these three realms. This Entity conceived as the fourth state (Turiya) is the real ,the changeless, the intelligent principle. Life is certainly influenced by our experiences in all these three planes of consciousness and they a positive influence in moulding our character and personality.
The individual identifying with his physical body comes to live his waking state of outer gross objects as the ‘waker’.The same entity totally in oblivion of his body and the outer world, when he exclusively gets identified with his mind and intellect, he comes to revel in an inner world of dream and experience subtle objects of imagination as a ‘dreamer’.
The same entity becomes forgetful of it’s body and it’s outer world, the mind and intellect and their feelings and thoughts. He comes to experience a world of nothingness, conscious of nothingness he becomes the ‘deep-sleeper’. The law of memory enunciates that the rememberer and the experiencer must be one and the same individual or else, memory is impossible.
The ‘waker’, ‘dreamer’ and the ‘deep-sleeper’ are strangers among themselves and each live in his own world and do not travel beyond their own frontiers. Since we can remember all our experiences in all three different planes,there must necessarily be a single common factor which was a witness of all the happenings. There must be some Entity within ourselves who is present in the waking world, who moves to illumine the ‘dreams’, who is a distant observer in the deep-sleep world and yet not conditioned by any of these three realms.
This fourth Entity is the Real, changeless, the intelligent principle. Om represents a symbol for the three states and our entire life is the sum total of different experiences, ‘Om’ the symbol represents all that.
A,U,and M created the disturbance that lead to the Creation, Preservation, and Dissolution. Mythologically through the Conch of Vishnu, the Damaru of Shiva and the Tongue of Brahma.
The primary manifestation of activity in the cosmos was through the principle of sound.
