Nada Brahma: The Ancient Indian Idea That Sound Was the First Principle Before Everything

The hum that preceded the nameYou have heard it at the start of every puja, every classical concert, every meditation session you have ever sat through. AUM. One syllable, three sounds folded into each other, and then the fourth thing, the silence after, which the Mandukya Upanishad calls turiya, the state that holds the other three. Most people treat it as an opening ritual, a throat-clearing before the real thing begins. The Mandukya Upanishad, one of the shortest and most concentrated of the 108 Upanishads, says it is not an opening. It is the whole statement. AUM is not a symbol for Brahman. AUM is Brahman. The sound is the thing itself.