Dennis Hawk artist

Dr. D. E. King stood in the pulpit at a revival in the inner city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin in July of 1973 and spoke these words: 

“Before there was a when or a where, a then or a there, God stepped out of nowhere onto nothin’ and spoke a WORD and worlds came forth like sparks from a blacksmiths anvil.” 

If you were to ask a Hindu what that word was that was spoken, the most likely answer would be OM. 

To quote Swami Vivekananda, “…it is out of this holiest of all holy words, the mother of all names and forms, the eternal Om, that the whole universe may be supposed to have been created.” 

He goes on to say, “…these three letters A.U.M. pronounced in combination as Om, may well be the generalised symbol of all possible sounds.” 

The sound Om begins at the root of the tongue with the A sound, traveling through the soft palate with the U sounds, ending with the M sound at the lips, but projected through the nasal cavity through the third eye.  Swami Vivekananda says, “If properly pronounced, the OM will represent the whole phenomenon of sound-production and no other word can do this.” 

My friend and fellow Kirtan artist, Madhuli Bhide said to me once,  “You Americans spend too much time on the A and U and forget about the M.”  So let’s try for giving one third of our attention to each letter. 

Let’s begin our practice with three OM’s