AUM - The Magical Mystery Tour

Many years ago, I regarded mantras in general with a large dose of cynicism and AUM in particular, struck me as utterly ludicrous. It reminded me of those hippie surf communes where everybody sat in a circle, holding hands, praying for the Big Kahuna to send them a series of mighty waves. This of course, was before I had any personal experience of chanting anything. Amazing how so little experience can breed so much superiority.

Once I entered the spiritual life, I found myself reading about eastern spirituality and discovered the origins of this much maligned mantra. The Vedas, ancient Hindu scriptures, refer to AUM as the "seed-sound of the universe". Before anything came into existence, there was only the sound of AUM. From this sound came the universe as we know it today, in fact, it is the spiritual glue that holds everything together and at the end of all things, when the universe passes away, only the sound AUM will exist, reverberating through the nothingness.

That is the theory, now for the personal proof.

When we arrived in Rarotonga, one of the first things that struck me was the constant sound of the waves crashing on the reef that surrounds the island. This sound is so regular that it becomes like an exterior heartbeat, one that you never notice until you leave the island and feel something missing.

On the day that we met Sri Chinmoy, we were part of a group of about 25 people who had the opportunity to meditate with him. I found myself profoundly moved by the experience and sat in the car afterwards quietly for a few minutes, looking out at the waves on the reef. And then I heard it in those waves. Each time they crashed into the reef, I heard the sound AUM.

I have been to many islands and beaches since and though I've often listened for it, I've never been blessed by that experience again. On that first meeting with my teacher, Sri Chinmoy created a well of receptivity within me, like a window into the secrets of the universe and I was fortunate indeed for a few fleeting moments, to consciously experience something truly vast...