Hindu: The Sacred Syllable Om, Yoga, and Tantra

The word om is recited at the beginning and end of all Hindu and Jain prayers, as well as  used by Buddhists, and recitations of scripture. The word is understood to have three sounds, a-u-m; when the diphthong of a and u is shortened, it yields the sound of o. The sound of the word begins deep within the body and ends at the lips; it is claimed to be auspicious. The history in the Hindu tradition is ancient; the Mandukya Upanisad discusses its meaning and power. Hindu philosophers and sectarian communities all agree that om is the most sacred sound.

However, almost every Hindu community have different speculations about the meaning of om. Some say it represents the supreme reality or Brahman. Many Hindu philosophers believed that this word was at the beginning of the manifest universe and contains the true knowledge. Others say that its three sounds represent the three worlds: earth, atmosphere, and heaven. Still, others say it represents the essence of the three Vedas: Rg, Yajur, and Sama. A few Hindu philosophers derive the word from the Sanskrit verbal root av-, to mean 'that which protects'.

According to the followers of the philosopher Sankara, who are non-dualist interpreters of the Vedanta, suggest the three sounds a,u,m have the following experiential meanings.

* The sound of a stands for the world that we see when we are awake, the person who is experiencing it, and the waking experience.
* U stands for the dream world, the dreamer, and the dream experience.
* M represents the sleep world, the sleeper and the sleep experience.
* These three states we experience on this earth. The fourth, the unspoken syllable, represents the state of liberation.

On the other hand, some Vaisnava devotees say that a represents the lord Visnu, u denotes the human being, and the meaning of m is the relationship between the two. Other Vaisnavas say that they represent Visnu, Sri, and the devotee.

Accordingly, Hindus say that om is the most sacred sound but disagree regarding its meaning. Nevertheless, the sound of om among all Hindu traditions is greater than the sum of its parts, exceeding in significance the many meanings attributed to it. 

Yoga

Yoga entails physical and mental discipline by which one 'yokes' one's spirit to a god. It has been held in high regard in many Hindu texts and has had many meanings in the Hindu tradition. Some scholars point out that seals from the Harappan culture 2600 BC - 1900 BC (today is Northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and Northeast India) portray a man sitting in a yogic position.

Yoga was an important feature of religious life in India several centuries before the texts were written sometime between 100 BC and 200 AD.

According to Patanjali who codified and presented an accurate version which had already been known suggests, Yoga involves moral, mental, physical discipline and meditation concentrating on a physical or mental object as a 'single point' of focus. This form of yoga is described as having eight 'limbs' or disciplines, of which the first two are yama, consisting of restraints, and niyama,consisting of positive practices.

Yama is the avoidance of violence, falsehood, stealing, sexual activity, and great desire.Interestingly, these prohibitions are included in the 'right conduct' taught by the Jain tradition ( a religion of India founded in the 6th century B.C., it emphasizes asceticism, nonviolence, and reverence for all living things).

Niyama includes cleanliness, equanimity, asceticism, the theoretical study of yoga, and the effort to make God the focus of one's activities. Cleanliness includes internal and external purity; in some forms of yoga, this aspect receives considerable attention.  

Although the theoretical aspects of Patanjali's yoga have had considerable importance in particular times and traditions, its place in the religious life of Hindus in the past 1,000 to 2,000 years has not enjoyed mass popularity over the years, nor has it been mentioned as a path to liberation by many of the religious teachers. 

In the 20th century there was a resurgence of interest in its physical techniques, that only sometimes extends to the underlying psychological and theoretical assumptions of yoga.

In the past century a distinction between two avenues of discipline has been drawn in the use of the terms raja yoga and hatha yoga. Raja yoga deals with mental discipline;occasionally this term is used interchangeably with Patanjali's yoga. Hatha yoga is concerned largely with bodily posture and control over the body. The term hatha is said to be derived from the words for sun (ha) and moon (that), referring to particular patterns of breath control. The human body is said to have 'suns' and 'moons' within it; final liberation can be attained only after different centres in the body are brought into harmony with the cosmos. This form of yoga is what has become popular in western countries.

Tantra

The tantric tradition advocated its own form of yoga, known as kundalini yoga. Kundalini (literally, 'the one with earrings') refers to the sakti or power of the Goddess, which is said to lie coiled like a serpent at the base of one's spine. When awakened, this power rises through the channel passing though six cakras or 'wheels' to reach the final centre located under the skull. This centre is known as a thousand-petalled lotus.  

The ultimate aim of this form of yoga is to awaken the power of the kundalini and make it unite with Purusa, the male supreme being, who is the thousand-petalled lotus. With this union, the practitioner is granted several visions and given psychic powers. The union leads eventually to final emancipation. 

There are many ways of looking at tantric materials. The best-known division is between the vamacara (left-handed practice) and the right-handed or more conservative school. As the left hand is associated with the inauspicious in the Hindu tradition, 'left-handed' was applied to sectarian movements that did not meet with the approval of the other larger or more established schools. The practices of the left-handed schools' involved ritual performance of activities forbidden in everyday life, such as drinking liquor, eating fish and meat, and having sexual intercourse with a partner not one's spouse. These activities were disapproved of in many other Hindu circles, so that to a large extent left-handed tantrism remained esoteric. 

One may also see divisions in tantra along the sectarian lines of Saiva, Sakia, and Vaisnava, each with its own canon of texts called tantras. 

The texts may also be classified into those intended for temple worship and those that are about individual rites at home.