Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrī Caitanya Caritāmrita Ādi 7.128

'pranava' se mahāvākya — vedera nidāna

īśvara-svarūpa pranava sarva-viśva-dhāma

SYNONYMS

pranava — the omkāra; se — that; mahā-vākya — transcendental sound vibration; vedera — of the Vedas; nidāna — basic principle; īśvara-svarūpa — direct representation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; pranava — omkāra; sarva-viśva — of all universes; dhāma — is the reservoir.

TRANSLATION

"The Vedic sound vibration omkāra, the principal word in the Vedic literatures, is the basis of all Vedic vibrations. Therefore one should accept omkāra as the sound representation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the reservoir of the cosmic manifestation.

PURPORT

In the Bhagavad-gītā (8.13) the glories of omkāra are described as follows:

om ity ekāksharam brahma vyāharan mām anusmaran

yah prayāti tyajan deham sa yāti paramām gatim

This verse indicates that omkāra, or pranava, is a direct representation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore if at the time of death one simply remembers omkāra, he remembers the Supreme Personality of Godhead and is therefore immediately transferred to the spiritual world. Omkāra is the basic principle of all Vedic mantras, for it is a representation of Lord Krishna, understanding of whom is the ultimate goal of the Vedas, as stated in the Bhagavad-gītā (vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyah [Bg. 15.15]). Māyāvādī philosophers cannot understand these simple facts explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, and yet they are very proud of being Vedāntīs. Sometimes, therefore, we refer to the Vedāntī philosophers as Vidantīs, those who have no teeth (vi means "without," and dantī means "possessing teeth"). The statements of the Śańkara philosophy, which are the teeth of the Māyāvādī philosopher, are always broken by the strong arguments of Vaishnava philosophers such as the great ācāryas, especially Rāmānujācārya. Śrīpāda Rāmānujācārya and Madhvācārya break the teeth of the Māyāvādī philosophers, who can therefore be called Vidantīs, "toothless."

As mentioned above, the transcendental vibration omkāra is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, Chapter Eight, verse thirteen:

om ity ekāksharam brahma vyāharan mām anusmaran

yah prayāti tyajan deham sa yāti paramām gatim

"After being situated in this yoga practice and vibrating the sacred syllable om, the supreme combination of letters, if one thinks of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and quits his body, he will certainly reach the spiritual planets." If one actually understands that omkāra is the sound representation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, whether he chants omkāra or the Hare Krishna mantra, the result is certainly the same.

The transcendental vibration of omkāra is further explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, Chapter Nine, verse seventeen:

pitāham asya jagato mātā dhātā pitāmahah

vedyam pavitram omkāra rik sāma yajur eva ca

"I am the father of this universe, the mother, the support and the grandsire. I am the object of knowledge, the purifier and the syllable om. I am also the Rig, the Sāma and the Yajur Vedas."

Similarly, the transcendental sound om is further explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, Chapter Seventeen, verse twenty-three:

om tat sad iti nirdeśo brahmanas tri-vidhah smritah

brāhmanās tena vedāś ca yajñāś ca vihitāh purā

"From the beginning of creation, the three syllables om tat sat have been used to indicate the Supreme Absolute Truth [Brahman]. They were uttered by brāhmanas while chanting Vedic hymns and during sacrifices for the satisfaction of the Supreme."

Throughout all the Vedic literatures the glories of omkāra are specifically mentioned. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, in his thesis Bhagavat-sandarbha, says that in the Vedic literature omkāra is considered to be the sound vibration of the holy name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Only this vibration of transcendental sound can deliver a conditioned soul from the clutches of māyā. Sometimes omkāra is also called the deliverer (tāra). Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam begins with the omkāra vibration: om namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Therefore omkāra has been described by the great commentator Śrīdhara Svāmī as tārāńkura, the seed of deliverance from the material world. Since the Supreme Godhead is absolute, His holy name and His sound vibration omkāra are as good as He Himself. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says that the holy name, or omkāra, the transcendental representation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, has all the potencies of the Personality of Godhead.

nāmnām akāri bahudhā nija-sarva-śaktis

tatrārpitā niyamitah smarane na kālah

All potencies are invested in the holy vibration of the holy name of the Lord. There is no doubt that the holy name of the Lord, or omkāra, is the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. In other words, anyone who chants omkāra and the holy name of the Lord, Hare Krishna, immediately meets the Supreme Lord directly in His sound form. In the Nārada-pañcarātra it is clearly said that the Supreme Personality of Godhead Nārāyana personally appears before the chanter who engages in chanting the ashtākshara, or eight-syllable mantra, om namo nārāyanāya. A similar statement in the Māndūkya Upanishad declares that whatever one sees in the spiritual world is all an expansion of the spiritual potency of omkāra.

On the basis of all the Upanishads, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says that omkāra is the Supreme Absolute Truth and is accepted as such by all the ācāryas and authorities. Omkāra is beginningless, changeless, supreme and free from deterioration and external contamination. Omkāra is the origin, middle and end of everything, and any living entity who thus understands omkāra attains the perfection of spiritual identity in omkāra. Omkāra, being situated in everyone's heart, is īśvara, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (18.61): īśvarah sarva-bhūtānām hrid-deśe 'rjuna tishthati. Omkāra is as good as Vishnu because omkāra is as all-pervasive as Vishnu. One who knows omkāra and Lord Vishnu to be identical no longer has to lament or hanker. One who chants omkāra no longer remains a śūdra but immediately comes to the position of a brāhmana. Simply by chanting omkāra one can understand the whole creation to be one unit, or an expansion of the energy of the Supreme Lord: idam hi viśvam bhagavān ivetaro yato jagat-sthāna-nirodha-sambhavāh. "The Supreme Lord Personality of Godhead is Himself this cosmos, and still He is aloof from it. From Him only this cosmic manifestation has emanated, in Him it rests, and unto Him it enters after annihilation." (Bhāg. 1.5.20) Although one who does not understand concludes otherwise, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam states that the entire cosmic manifestation is but an expansion of the energy of the Supreme Lord. Realization of this is possible simply by chanting the holy name of the Lord, omkāra.

One should not, however, foolishly conclude that because the Supreme Personality of Godhead is omnipotent, we have manufactured a combination of letters — a, u and m — to represent Him. Factually the transcendental sound omkāra, although a combination of the three letters a, u and m, has transcendental potency, and one who chants omkāra will very soon realize omkāra and Lord Vishnu to be nondifferent. Krishna declares, pranavah sarva-vedeshu: "I am the syllable om in the Vedic mantras." (Bg. 7.8) One should therefore conclude that among the many incarnations of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, omkāra is the sound incarnation. All the Vedas accept this thesis. One should always remember that the holy name of the Lord and the Lord Himself are always identical (abhinnatvān nāma-nāminoh). Since omkāra is the basic principle of all Vedic knowledge, it is uttered before one begins to chant any Vedic hymn. Without omkāra, no Vedic mantra is successful. The Gosvāmīs therefore declare that pranava (omkāra) is the complete representation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and they have analyzed omkāra in terms of its alphabetical constituents as follows:

a-kārenocyate krishnah sarva-lokaika-nāyakah

u-kārenocyate rādhā ma-kāro jīva-vācakah

Omkāra is a combination of the letters a, u and m. A-kārenocyate krishnah: the letter a (a-kāra) refers to Krishna, who is sarva-lokaika-nāyakah, the master of all living entities and planets, material and spiritual. Nāyaka means "leader." He is the supreme leader (nityo nityānām cetanaś cetanānām). The letter u (u-kāra) indicates Śrīmatī Rādhārānī, the pleasure potency of Krishna, and m (ma-kāra) indicates the living entities (jīvas). Thus om is the complete combination of Krishna, His potency and His eternal servitors. In other words, omkāra represents Krishna, His name, fame, pastimes, entourage, expansions, devotees, potencies and everything else pertaining to Him. As Caitanya Mahāprabhu states in the present verse of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmrita, sarva-viśva-dhāma: omkāra is the resting place of everything, just as Krishna is the resting place of everything (brahmano hi pratishthāham).

The Māyāvādī philosophers consider many Vedic mantras to be the mahā-vākya, or principal Vedic mantra, such as tat tvam asi (Chāndogya Upanishad 6.8.7), idam sarvam yad ayam ātmā and brahmedam sarvam (Brihad-āranyaka Upanishad 2.5.1), ātmaivedam sarvam (Chāndogya Upanishad 7.25.2) and neha nānāsti kiñcana (Katha Upanishad 2.1.11). That is a great mistake. Only omkāra is the mahā-vākya. All these other mantras that the Māyāvādīs accept as the mahā-vākya are only incidental. They cannot be taken as the mahā-vākya, or mahā-mantra. The mantra tat tvam asi indicates only a partial understanding of the Vedas, unlike omkāra, which represents the full understanding of the Vedas. Therefore the transcendental sound that includes all Vedic knowledge is omkāra (pranava).

Aside from omkāra, none of the words uttered by the followers of Śańkarācārya can be considered the mahā-vākya. They are merely passing remarks. Śańkarācārya, however, has never stressed chanting of the mahā-vākya omkāra; he has accepted only tat tvam asi as the mahā-vākya. Imagining the living entity to be God, he has misrepresented all the mantras of the Vedānta-sūtra with the motive of proving that there is no separate existence of the living entities and the Supreme Absolute Truth. This is similar to the politician's attempt to prove nonviolence from the Bhagavad-gītā. Krishna is violent to demons, and to attempt to prove that Krishna is not violent is ultimately to deny Krishna. As such explanations of the Bhagavad-gītā are absurd, so also is Śańkarācārya's explanation of the Vedānta-sūtra, and no sane and reasonable man will accept it. At present, however, the Vedānta-sūtra is misrepresented not only by the so-called Vedāntīs but also by other unscrupulous persons who are so degraded that they even recommend that sannyāsīs eat meat, fish and eggs. In this way, the so-called followers of Śańkara, the impersonalist Māyāvādīs, are sinking lower and lower. How can these degraded men explain the Vedānta-sūtra, which is the essence of all Vedic literature?

Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu has declared, māyāvādi-bhāshya śunile haya sarva-nāśa: "Anyone who hears commentary on the Vedānta-sūtra from the Māyāvāda school is completely doomed." As explained in the Bhagavad-gītā (15.15), vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyah: all Vedic literature aims at understanding Krishna. Māyāvāda philosophy, however, has deviated everyone from Krishna. Therefore there is a great need for the Krishna consciousness movement all over the world to save the world from degradation. Every intelligent and sane man must abandon the philosophical explanation of the Māyāvādīs and accept the explanation of Vaishnava ācāryas. One should read Bhagavad-gītā As It Is to try to understand the real purpose of the Vedas.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness