of all things animate and inanimate! there is none like unto thee.”[1] In our future investigations we shall find this mystic figure OM of the greatest importance; for which reason I shall now inquire into the meaning of this celebrated, not-to-be-spoken word.
“In the Geeta, Arjun is informed by Creeshna, that ‘God is in the fire of the altar, and that the devout, with offerings, direct their worship unto God in the fire.’ ‘I am the fire, I am the victim.’ (P. 80.) The divinity is frequently characterized in that book, as in other Sanscreet compositions, by the word OM, that mystic emblem of the Deity in India.” The ancient Brahmins, as well as the Buddhists, of India, regarded this word with the same kind of veneration as the Jews did the word IEUE, which they never pronounced except on certain very solemn occasions. This is what is meant by the fourth commandment, which we render, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God” (but which ought to be Ieue thy God) in vain.” As a pious Jew will not utter the word Ieue, so a pious Hindoo will not utter the word Om. It is the duty of the Jews and Hindoos to meditate on the respective words in silence, and with the most profound veneration.
The word Om is always prefixed in pronouncing the words which represent the seven superior worlds, as if to shew that these seven worlds are manifestations of the power signified by that word. In an old Purana we find the following passage: “All the rites ordained in the Vedas, the sacrifices to the fire, and all other solemn purifications, shall pass away; but that which shall never pass away is the word Om—for it is the symbol of the Lord of all things.” M. Dubois adds, that he thinks it can only mean the true God. (P. 155.)—The sacred monosyllable is generally spelled OM: but, being triliteral, it seems better expressed by AUM or AOM or AWM, it being formed of the three Sanscrit letters that are best so represented. The first letter stands for the Creator, the second for the Preserver, and the third for the Destroyer.[2]
Sir W. Jones informs us that the names of Brahma, Veeshnu, and Seeva, coalesce and form the mystical word Om, which he says signifies neither more nor less than the solar fire.[3] Here I apprehend we have the identical word used by the ancient Egyptians and their neighbours for the Sun, Ammon.
2. The Hindoo word Om, I think, will be found in the celebrated Greek word Ομφη, which I will now examine, before I proceed with the subject of this chapter, as it will often be found to meet us in our investigations.
In the Greek, Ομφη signifies divina vox, responsum à Deo datum consulenti. Φη or φι by itself, according to Scapula, has no meaning, but is merely a paragogic syllable, as is also the word Ομ;[4] but φη is the root of φαω, to speak or pronounce, and of φημι, to say. I therefore go to the parent language, the Hebrew, and I find the word φη or φι, פה pe or פי pi, to be a noun in regimine, and to mean an opening, a mouth, a measure of capacity. Then the literal meaning will be, the mouth, or the opening, of Om. This is not far from the divina vox of the Greek. Hesychius, also Suidas in voce, interprets the word ΟΜΦ to be θεια κληδων, the sacred voice, the holy sound—and hence arose the ομφαλος, or place of Omphe. But its real meaning is still further unravelled by explaining it as OM ΦΗ, the enunciation of the mysterious OM of Hindoo theology, the sacred triliteral AUM, but often written as it is pronounced, OM. The Greeks
- ↑ Maurice, Ind. Ant.
- ↑ Moore’s Pantheon, pp. 413, 414.
- ↑ Jones, Asiat. Res.
- ↑ This assertion of Scapula only shews what he had better have confessed, that he knew nothing about it. There are not, I am of opinion, any paragogic syllables, that is, syllables without meaning, in any of the old languages.
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