Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 181

THE MYSTERIOUS WORD AUM
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a prayer in honour of the Sun, one of whose names
Each word, and indeed
It is a great mystery.
each syllable, is full of allusions which only a very few
Brahmins understand. I have never met any one who
was able to give me an intelligible translation or explana-
tion of them.
A Brahmin would be guilty of an unpardon-
able crime and the most terrible sacrilege if he imparted
it to an unbeliever.
There are several other mantrams
which are called gayatri, but the one mentioned above is
that which is most generally used.
After the gayatri, the most powerful mantram is the
mysterious monosyllable om or aum. Though it is to the
interest of the Brahmins to keep the real meaning of this
sacred word a profound secret, and though the greater
number of them do not understand it themselves, there
does not appear to be much doubt that it is the symbolic
name of the Supreme Being, one and indivisible, like the
word aum \ This mystic word, which is always pronounced
with extreme reverence, suggests an obvious analogy to
that ineffable and mysterious Hebrew word Jehovah.
Though the Brahmins are supposed to be the sole guar-
dians of the mantrams, many others venture to recite
them. In some professions they are absolutely indispens-
able.
Doctors, for instance, even when not Brahmins,
would be considered very ignorant, and, no matter how
clever they might be in their profession, would inspire no
confidence, if they were unable to recite the special man-
tram that suited each complaint for a cure is attributed
quite as much to mantrams as to medical treatment.
One
of the principal reasons why so little confidence is placed
in European doctors by the Hindus is that, when adminis-
tering their remedies, they recite neither mantrams nor
prayers 2
It
is
is
Savitru.
;
.
The Hindu conception of the word aum is thus explained by one
authority
As long as there has been a Hindu Faith the power of
sound has been recognized in the Sacred Word. In that word lie all
potencies, for the sacred word expresses the one and latent Being, every
power of generation, of preservation, and of destruction.
Therefore
was it never to be sounded save when the mind was pure, when the
mind was tranquil, when the life was noble.' Ed.
2
Failure to feel the pulse is also regarded by the Hindus as a sure
1
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proof of medical ignorance.
Ed.
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