The Meaning of “Om” in Yoga
Naming the unnameable, a sound for what can’t be said
You’ve probably seen this symbol before
It’s in the emoji library 🕉️, so that ought to be a clue of it’s cultural importance 😆
These days it’s the symbol for Hinduism as a whole. Which is pretty much like representing a grocery store with just 🍎.
The origin of “Om” stretches back to the Vedas (the scriptural bedrock of Hinduism), where it first appeared as part of the ritualistic chants in the Sama Veda. However it wasn’t until the Upanishads (written a few hundred years later) where Om took on the more spiritually symbolic sense that it’s taken on today.
In sutra 27, Patanjali mentions “Om” as the word that represents Isvara. Here it is with the two sutras before it:
25 त्रत्र निरतिशयं सर्वज्ञबीजम् tatra niratishayam sarvajña-bījam In Him is the highest manifestation of the seed of omniscience.
26 स एषः पूर्वेषाम् अपि गुरुः कालेनानवच्छेदात् sa eṣaḥ pūrveṣām api guruḥ kālenānavacchedāt Unconditioned by time, He is the teacher of even the most ancient teachers.
27 तस्य वाचकः प्रणवः tasya vācakaḥ praṇavaḥ The word representative of him is Om.
As I explored in my last post, “Isvara” is introduced in the Yoga Sutras as a personally relatable form The Supreme Purusha (ultimate consciousness). Patanjali continues to expound on this idea, finally stating that the word representative of it is “Om”.
Now, any religion or philosophy that posits a supreme being or an origin story for the material world must at some point grapple with the challenge of naming the ‘source of all things’. But something which is supposed to be fundamentally limitless cannot easily be contained by a few syllables.
Here are a few of the various names set down across world religions:
YHWH (יהוה) — Judaism
“yahweh” meaning: “He is” / “He causes to be”
Allah (الله) — Islam
Arabic word for ‘God’; unique, indivisible, eternal.
Brahman (ब्रह्मन्) — Hinduism
“The Absolute” / “Ultimate Reality”
Big Bang (💥) — Modern Science
Physics equivalent of a shrug ending the infinite regression to the origin of the cosmos 😉
But Om is not exactly a name
It’s better understood as just a sound, really. Names are made up of sounds, but do those sounds have much meaning beyond being understood as the name they make up?
If you ask me who I am and I say Jyuh-ahh-ckh…what does that tell you about me? Only what others call me. If you never met me and you were asked to guess my height based on my name — it’s a total shot in the dark.
So a name is only useful as a label to call a person’s attention to the raw information they already have about a given thing.
That’s what’s cool about Om. It’s both a label and raw information.
What the sound symbolizes is arguably more useful in directing a person’s understanding to what it represents than any name, because both the making of the sound and the sound itself allude to aspects of the “thing” it represents.
There are many ways to expound on this, some more magically-oriented than others. The simplest in my estimation is to think about how the sound is made by the mouth. To say “Om” you essentially pronounce the elemental syllables “A U M”.
The mouth opens wide letting sound out in the most basic “ah” sound. Then to make the “ooo” sound it begins to close, refining the resonance to a different tune, and finally closing all the way with “mmm”. Traditionally, when chanting Om you’d aim to balance all three parts equally.
But there is also necessarily a fourth part — the silence after.
A Symbol of Totality
Viewed this way, Om is considered as representative of the three common states of human consciousness, and implicitly that fourth one:
A – waking
U – dreaming
M – deep sleep
The silence after Om = Turiya (pure awareness)
Om encapsulates more than just the idea of the supreme Hindu God. Beyond being a name / symbol, it serves as a map of reality.
Not only is it symbolic in that regard, but it’s also tactile. When you “say” it, you generate (in your own body) the vibrations that compose it.
Imagine if someone saying “chocolate” could not only make you salivate (given that you know what chocolate is when you hear the word) but also make you taste it in your mouth. That’s the idea behind using Om as a mantra. ****
It is at once a representation of the universal vibration that animates all things, and also the vibration itself.
A Historical Inflection Point
The Vedas (where Om was originally written down) emphasized externalized rituals (with A LOT of chanting).
Years later, the Upanishads began emphasizing internal reflection and knowledge. Think: you can worship 24/7 if you want, but is that really “enough” if you don’t actually know anything about what you’re worshipping, or yourself for that matter?
In fact, the development of the Upanishads (where/when Om took on its conceptual & spiritual meaning) is seen as a major inflection point in the development of Hindu thought, and in many ways, the philosophical cascade proceeding from it resulted in classical yoga practice.
There’s a cool way to understand the role that yoga plays in the process by looking at this progression.
Vedas → Ritual-Based Religion, 1500–800 BCE
Focus: External rituals (yajña), offerings to gods, performed with precision by priests.
Deities: Agni (fire), Indra (storm), Varuṇa (cosmic law), etc.
Goal: Material prosperity, social order, access to svarga (heaven).
Core Texts: Samhitas (hymns), Brahmanas (ritual manuals).
Worship: Highly formal, communal, and hierarchical (Brahmin-centered).
Upanishads → Inner Contemplation and Nondual Wisdom, 800–300 BCE
Focus: Self-inquiry, meditation, realization of Ātman = Brahman.
Deities: Often symbolic or internalized; focus shifts from gods to universal spirit.
Goal: Moksha (liberation from samsara), not just heavenly reward.
Core Texts: Upanishads (Vedānta), esp. Brihadaranyaka, Chandogya, Katha, Mandukya.
Worship: Turns inward; ritual becomes psychological/metaphysical.
Samkhya → Rational, Metaphysical System, 600–200 BCE
Focus: Analytical dualism between Purusha (consciousness) and Prakriti (matter).
Deities: Atheistic or non-theistic; no central role for God.
Goal: Discrimination (viveka) between self and nature → liberation.
Core Texts: Samkhya Karika by Ishvarakrishna; older oral roots possibly pre-Upanishadic.
Worship: Not emphasized; focus on knowledge and detachment.
Yoga (Patanjali) → Practical Spiritual Growth, 200 BCE – 200 CE
Focus: Systematic discipline: ethics, posture, breath, concentration, meditation, samadhi.
Deities: Introduces Ishvara (personal God, supreme consciousness) as a helpful and optional focus.
Goal: Liberation via stilling the mind and realizing the true self (Purusha).
Core Text: Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Worship: Can include devotion (Ishvara-pranidhana), but primarily emphasizes practice (abhyāsa).
This sequence isn’t just historical, it reflects a deepening of spiritual development.
From doing (ritual) →
to knowing (wisdom) →
to discerning (analysis) →
to being (embodied practice).
Do you see the pendulum swing there? It moves back from an extreme of blind externalization to balanced internalization, then continues past that point to another extreme of somewhat excessive intellectual analysis, finally swinging back to balance in embodied practice.
In my humble estimation, this is a typical progression for a human being aiming to touch the divine.
You start off simply moving towards it, taking whatever directions are given you along the way. Eventually you start to develop more understanding of what exactly it is you are pursuing, and yourself as well. Then maybe you start to wonder if its even possible to get there, as analysis only takes you so far.
Ultimately you are left with the task of embodying the ideas into the reality of yourself.
It’s a lot like a good mushroom trip.
You start with the somewhat ritualistic process of eating a specific plant. Suddenly the whole world is incredibly interesting (externalization — ahh). Then perhaps you shift into the mental experience, observing your thought patterns play out (internalization — ooo). Finally, you settle back into the usual state of consciousness, but you have new perspectives to examine and reflect on (discernment — mmm).
What’s the missing piece?
Integration.
You might enjoy going back around for a spin on that wheel a few or many times. But sustaining actual growth depends on the degree to which you can commit to integrating those new perspectives and experiences into yourself.
Following the progression above, Yoga is the integrative end point.
Isn’t that intriguing? We are reintroducing ritual — but with one key difference…we know why we are doing it. Not just doing it.
Conscious attention becomes conscious thought becomes conscious action.
And it is in conscious action we can truly devote ourselves to whatever experiences, tasks, and growth is presented to us.