Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 13. KRISHNA GOES TO THE WEST
of silence begins. It forms the fron-tier, the borderline between the word and the wordless; there is
no word beyond aum.
Therefore. Krishna says if someone can think of him in his aum form – which is beyond word and
meaning – at the moment of his death, he will attain to reality, to truth. Because aum is at the
boundary line of the world and the beyond, one who can re member it at the time of his departure
from the world is destined to be carried to the beyond.
India’s genius has packed this word aum with far-reaching meanings and immense significance.
Aum became tremendously meaningful – so much so that it has no more any meaning. And its
significance is limitless, infinite.
But aum is not meant to be uttered and chanted; it has to be really heard and experienced. When
you go deep into meditation, when all words disappear, the sound of aum will begin to vibrate. You
don’t have to say it; if you say it you can have the illusion while meditating that you are hearing
it. Then you will miss the authentic aum. For this reason I have not included aum in the Dynamic
Meditation. If you chant it during meditation you can miss the real music of aum, which is very subtle.
This real aum is heard when all words disappear, all noises cease. When mind and intellect, thought
and word all come to an end and silence begins, then an extraordinarily subtle vibration remains,
which this country has interpreted as aum. It can be interpreted in other ways too, but they all will
be our interpretations. It is like you are traveling in a railway coach and you hear whatever you want
to hear in the rattling noise of the moving wheels of the train. The wheels are not making noise for
you, nor do they have any message for you, but you hear whatever you want to hear. It is all your
projection, your construction imposed on the sound of the wheels.
When the immense emptiness comes into being, it has its own sound, its own music. It is called
the sound of the cosmic silence, it is called the anahat, the unstruck, the uncaused sound. It is not
caused by anything. It is the aum. When you clap your hands, the sound of clapping is created by
striking one hand against the other. This sound is caused; so is the sound of a drum which you beat
with your hands. But meditation is a journey into silence; when all sounds disappear, when there is
no duality, when you are utterly alone, then the causeless sound comes into being. India’s sages
have called it aum.
Variants of aum are found in other lands and languages. Christians use a word ”amen” which is
a variation of aum. Mohammedans also say ”amin” which is the same. Every invocation of the
Upanishads begins with aum and ends with ”Aum shantih, shantih, shantih.” A Mohammedan ends
his prayer with the word Amin. This amin is also meaningless; it is the same sound of cosmic silence.
The English language has three words: omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent – all of which are
constituted with the word aum. Philologists may not be aware that omniscient means that one who
has known the aum, omnipresent means the one who is present in the aum, and omnipotent means
the one who has become as powerful as the aum.
The aum has been found in many forms all the world over. It is available in both the ancient sources
of religion – Hinduism and Judaism. If there is anything common between Hinduism and Jainism
it is the aum. Aum occupies the same exalted place in Buddhism as in Jainism. It is the one
Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy 255 Osho