ੴ Onkar ਓਅੰਕਾਰ - In Speaking, In Listening, In Meditating

[BhagatSingh]

ੴ ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਪ੍ਰਸਾਦਿ
No time for intro, let's dive deep into it.

How You Pronounce Onkar ਓਅੰਕਾਰ
Before I get into the meat of the issue, I want to get one thing off my chest because I see a lot of people making this mistake.
Oankaar/O-a-m-kaar  have no meaning. This is a modern distortion of the word and symbol. People write ਓਅੰਕਾਰ as Oankar however, the ਅ in ਓਅੰਕਾਰ just a placeholder for the tippi. 

ਓਂਕਾਰ
ਓਅੰ means ਓਂ and is pronounced as such.
But since one never puts a bindi or tippi on ਓ, they never wrote ਓਂ. So they wrote ਓਂ as ਓਅੰ. Even today this is the case.

ਓਅੰਕਾਰ is Onkar, two syllables not three.
ਓ - ਅੰ - ਕਾਰ  - incorrect pronunciation
ਓਂ - ਕਾਰ  - correct pronunciation

So ਓਂਕਾਰ is written as ਓਅੰਕਾਰ. It means - one continuous ਓਂ sound.
ੴ <------ Try reading this as an action. something you do, something you perform, rather than something you spell out.
Like this -
ਓਂਓਂਓਂਓਂਓਂਓਂਓਂਓਂਓਂਓਂਓਂਓਂਓਂਓਂ...

ਓ isn't pronounced as O, with rounded, squished lips, rather it is pronounced as AU (AO) with mouth wide open and relaxed, as if you are gasping for air.
ਓਂ AUM is then split into its three components. ਆਕਾਰ ਉਕਾਰ ਮੰਕਾਰ meaning continuous A ਆ , continuous U ਉ, continuous M ਮੰ
A U M ਆ ਉ ਮੰ -These are the three sounds that go into making ਓਂ .

Thus ਓਂ is the most primal sound vibration. Now why is that? There are several reasons for this.
 

Onkar ਓਅੰਕਾਰ Comes from Your Mouth
When you do not use your lips or tongue there are three sounds you can make with your mouth. Try it, pull back your lips and hold your tongue in place and try to make different sounds with your mouth.

Look in a mirror to make sure no movement occurs in those areas.

You'll get something like - ਆ ਉ ਮੰ  A U M

This is the most primal sound to you because it can be made prior to any movement of lips and tongue. Thus ਆ ਉ ਮੰ are considered the most primal sounds known to man. This is the beginning of speech.

All other sounds are more complicated like B, P, K,G, J, Y, V etc. they require more complicated vocalization, movement of lips and positioning of tongue. Certain sounds are very hard as they require very precise and sharp speech like this Sanskrit letter - ष, which shows up in Gurbani as ਖ or ਸ/ਸ਼ in words like ਪੁਰਖ, ਮੋਖ and ਵਿਸੇਖ, and ਦੋਸ, because it is complex and noticeably harder to pronounce.

But back to Onkar - AUM is such a sound that is most basic and most primitive and most primal. I believe AUM can even be made by those who lack the ability to speak. As long as their vocal chords are functional, they will be able to say A, U, and make nasal sounds.

Onkar ਓਅੰਕਾਰ Resonates in Your Body

The 'O' sound resonate more in your belly. Than any other vowel. 'A' typically resonates in your chest and nasal M resonates in nasal cavity, nose. Thus AUM is meant to resonate in your entire torso and make it come to life.

Onkar is designed to cause your Chakras to activate
"Chakras" might sound like woo-woo nonsense but it basically means your "nervous system" in your belly, chest and nose. Chanting Onkar, causes these areas to vibrate as the air is forced out of the lungs through the vibration of the vocal chords.

When you open your mouth wide and make this noise it will stimulate your nervous system around your vital organs.

AUM resonates and stimulates your nerves in the torso. It stimulates the nerves in your belly, chest and nose. And through this resonation, you can stimulate the nerves in your entire body, including your vital organs, around your cardiovascular system, digestive system, etc. I believe this type of nervous stimulation is actually great for the health of your organs, as it increases the circulation of blood to these organsl.

Start with that, you can further attune your attention and focus to the point where you can see your whole body vibrate upon one chant of Onkar.

Listening to Onkar ਓਅੰਕਾਰ with Your Ears
Not only does Onkar exist in the form of primal human speech and noise-making, and not only does it stimulate your nervous system in an extra-ordinary way but it also exists as the background naad, meaning sound vibration, in your ears.

Your ear-drum's resting vibration is the Onkar.

Listen to it.

When you enter into a silent state of being. In your ears, what you are hearing can ultimately be described as Onkar.

Try to listen to this tone in your right ear because your right ear is connected to the left side of the brain. Neuroscientists know that the left side of the brain is more associated with language and recognizing distinctions in the world.

The left side of your brain causes you to sense a distinct shape of your body and separates shapes of other bodies so that you may navigate in the physical world. The left side of the brain also has language centers that process words and meanings.

So I believe that when you listen to Onkar with your right ear in silence or when you make the AUM sound and listen to that, what you are doing is sending direct signals to your left brain and telling your left brain to quiet down.

When you stimulate the left brain with sound, it has to quiet down with regards to its language, distinction-making processes and it must now focus on the sound. When you do this, you will feel very much at ease with life, and you will notice that the inner monologue that is constantly playing in your head will become quiet as it is mostly the product of your left brain.

This inner monologue can drain you so be careful, recognize when it is draining and quieten it, to achieve the best results.

Overall this will fill you up with vitality and lots of energy for the day. No need for coffee or other stimulants.

Conclusion

1. ਓਅੰਕਾਰ is pronounced as Onkar/ ਓਂਕਾਰ
2. It means - one continuous ਓਂ sound - composed of ਆਕਾਰ ਉਕਾਰ ਮੰਕਾਰ meaning continuous ਆ , continuous ਉ, continuous nasal ਮੰ, which in English is - A, U, and nasal sound M
3. Onkar is the primal form of speech, existing prior to other complex sounds like B, K, J, Y, etc.
4. Onkar resonates in the belly, chest and nose and thus stimulates the nervous system around your vital organs, which has multiple health benefits.
5. Onkar can be heard in the ear. It is the resting tone of your ear, which can be heard in silence.
6. Listening to the Onkar, with the right ear, stimulates the left side of the brain, which also has multiple health benefits.

 

[das]

Excellent post BhagatSingh......do you have any recording where someone has practiced this accurately?

Couple of years back while listening to Yogi Harbhajan Singh, he mentiond the same and also mentioned that it takes around 12 years to practice the sound of IkOngkar in a correct way....obviously, he didn't mean that it takes that long for everyone, he was making a point that the pronoucation of IkOngKar is not that simple that we normally do.

There is one CD where one of his student has tried to pronounce the IkOnKar in the way Yogi Harbhajan Singh used to teach.....http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/ahw_2271_23596086 it is the 17 in the mentioned list. I've attached the same here if anyone is interested.

Ek Ong Kar.mp3

[Sat1176]

There is a subtle pronunciation difference between AUM and ON-KAR which I never noticed before. With A-U-M  when you pronounce it with the mouth you finish with the sound of M. To pronounce the M the lips must be closed. The denotes the end of the sound followed by silence.

However with ON-KAR the mouth never has to close and forever remains open. The non closure of ONG or ONKAR represents the ever expanding creation from the one root ONG.

[amardeep]

Interesting. Thanks for sharing

[Ragmaala]

15 hours ago, BhagatSingh said:

ਓਅੰ means ਓਂ and is pronounced as such.
But since one never puts a bindi or tippi on ਓ, they never wrote ਓਂ. So they wrote ਓਂ as ਓਅੰ.

Why doesn't one put a bindi or tippi on ਓ  ?  What is the reasoning behind this ?

[Ragmaala]

I am greatly confused now.

Traditional way of pronouncing is  Oang- Kaaaaaaaar

Bhagat is saying - eliminate a and just say  Ong-Kaaaar

Ongkar is easier to say than Oangkar.

Bhagat says ਅ is just a placeholder for tippi, ਅ should not be pronounced. He says go with the meaning , ਓਂ.  He does seem to have a good point, not going to deny it.

But what I have learnt so far is that you pronounce each and every lag matra in Gurbani. Plus there are  old traditions.

So it basically comes down to Elders/Traditions vs Bhagats Understanding vs My own Understanding/Interpretation ?

How do rest of you guys pronounce ਓਅੰਕਾਰ?   ਓ--ਅੰ-------ਕਾਰ     or   ਓੰ   ----ਕਾਰ     ??  @Lucky@Sat1176@N30 S!NGH@chatanga1@dalsingh101@paapiman

[Ragmaala]

I might have had the answer to my own questions. A thought just arose in my mind, I was saying Ong Ong & Oang Oang... then I thought of Sohang Sohang.

ਓਅੰ   goes well or rhymes with ਸੋਹੰ   . So answer might be hidden in that one. But still not sure.

 

 

[Ragmaala]

Another question that I need to think about is, would Guru ji put aida  in  ਓਅੰਕਾਰ ,  and not one Sikhs to Ucharan the ਅ    in it ?

 

[Ragmaala]

I did some 1 minutes chanting, trying to ignore the ਅ in ਓਅੰਕਾਰ ... irrespective of if you want to say ਅ or not , a subtle aspect of ਅ comes in it, in order to pronounce the tippi.

I guess I answered my own question.

[Sat1176]

41 minutes ago, Gunahgar said:

How do rest of you guys pronounce ਓਅੰਕਾਰ?   ਓ--ਅੰ-------ਕਾਰ     or   ਓੰ   ----ਕਾਰ     ??  @Lucky@Sat1176@N30 S!NGH@chatanga1@dalsingh101@paapiman

LOLs what you want, a recording?

I started saying it like this because it felt really good. Ik Oooooaaangkar. By the time i reach ang, it is like the sound is heading for the root of the nose between the eyes.

[Ragmaala]

12 minutes ago, Sat1176 said:

LOLs what you want, a recording?

I started saying it like this because it felt really good. Ik Oooooaaangkar. By the time i reach ang, it is like the sound is heading for the root of the nose between the eyes.

Ok good. That's the way i like it too.

[amardeep]

A Sikh yogi friend of mine does jaap on onggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

[BhagatSingh]

4 hours ago, Gunahgar said:

Why doesn't one put a bindi or tippi on ਓ  ?  What is the reasoning behind this ?

I can't be the only one who learned this in Punjabi class.

Rule #1
Never put a bindi or tippi on ਓ

This is just how it is.
Have you ever wondered why ੴ doesn't have a bindi or tippi in it? Knowing that the bindi/tippi is crucial, why didn't Guru Sahibs add it?

Answer - This is because of Rule #1.

 

Rule #2
Whenever ਅ is at the end of a word, it is not pronounced.

• Unless it has a vowel attached.
• Where there is no vowel, then each case is a special case.

In case of word ਓਅੰ , the ਅ is omitted altogether. (ਓਅੰਕਾਰ just means elongated ਓਅੰ )

You don't pronounce the ਅ.

It's kind of similar to the word ਜੀਅ, you don't pronounce the ਅ.

"But I do pronounce the ਅ in ਜੀਅ."

Well you are not supposed too. The ਅ here is important but not for the reasons people think. You are not supposed to say jee - uh, that's two syllables. ਜੀਅ is not two syllables, it's 1 syllable.
However the ਅ in ਜੀਅ and other words that end in ਅ, like ਭਇਅੰ and ਪ੍ਰਿਅੰ are a different than ਓਅੰ. In these words - ਜੀਅ and ਭਇਅੰ ਪ੍ਰਿਅੰ - the ਅ is not simply placeholder for a tippi but rather something else.
For now just know that it's not an ਅ and should not be pronounced as an ਅ.

 

4 hours ago, Gunahgar said:

I might have had the answer to my own questions. A thought just arose in my mind, I was saying Ong Ong & Oang Oang... then I thought of Sohang Sohang.

ਓਅੰ   goes well or rhymes with ਸੋਹੰ   . So answer might be hidden in that one. But still not sure.

ਸੋਹੰ is different. It's has a ਹ and it's two syllables.

Which leads us to rule #3.

Rule #3
ਓਅੰ is one syllable.
(which should actually be Rule #1 hehe)

I'll repeat.

ਓਅੰ is 1 syllable

Have you wondered why ੴ does not have a ਅ in it?
Because it is One Syllable. Not two.
It is because the ਅ is only used to spell it out. If the ਅ was important it would be in the symbol.
ਓ <--------can't put a tippi on this, cannot write ਓਂ
ਅ <--------add in a silent placeholder and add tippi to that
ਓਅੰ

Have you ever wondered why there is an ੧ in front of ਓ?
It means it is one syllable.
The extended wave on ਓ means it is a continuous syllable.

One Continuous Syllable, that is what ਓਂ is.

The way people mispronounce is as ਓ - ਅੰ, that is not 1 syllable.
ਓਅੰ should be 1 continous syllable. This is important for recognizing its meaning.
But more on that later.

Let me know if you have any questions so far.

[BhagatSingh]

3 hours ago, Gunahgar said:

I did some 1 minutes chanting, trying to ignore the ਅ in ਓਅੰਕਾਰ ... irrespective of if you want to say ਅ or not , a subtle aspect of ਅ comes in it, in order to pronounce the tippi.

I guess I answered my own question.

Lol you did.
But not in the way you think.

The ਅ you noticed was subtle and silent, more than any other letter. This is why it is used as a placeholder.

BUT

You are pronouncing it incorrectly. It seems like you are starting from ਓ then adding a ੰ , rather than simply chanting ਓਂ right from the beginning. Keep your mouth open and relaxed, and go straight into a vibratory nasal ਓ. Your whole torso should vibrate altogether.

Have fun with it. Play with the vibration.

[BhagatSingh]

11 hours ago, Sat1176 said:

There is a subtle pronunciation difference between AUM and ON-KAR which I never noticed before. With A-U-M  when you pronounce it with the mouth you finish with the sound of M. To pronounce the M the lips must be closed. The denotes the end of the sound followed by silence.

However with ON-KAR the mouth never has to close and forever remains open. The non closure of ONG or ONKAR represents the ever expanding creation from the one root ONG.

Good observation!
What you found was the reason why they use the english letter 'M' to denote nasal Bindi sounds like in the words Chakram ਚਕ੍ਰੰ and Samsara ਸੰਸਾਰ .

Similarly, in OM/AUM the letter M is not pronounced. M is not part of the primal sounds I described in the OP, M is a complex sound that requires the use of lips. In OM/AUM it simply denotes the nasal sound that is represented by the bindi. Aum is same as Onkar. This type of mispronunciation with the M sound happens quite a bit in readings of Scriptures. However we do the opposite. We start adding G instead of M or in the case of Onkar we start adding A.

 

[BhagatSingh]

1 hour ago, amardeep said:

A Sikh yogi friend of mine does jaap on onggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

You should try it as well. It's fun!

[amardeep]

I do. On Oaaangggggggggggggggggggggg though.

[Ragmaala]

1 hour ago, BhagatSingh said:

The ਅ you noticed was subtle and silent, more than any other letter. This is why it is used as a placeholder.

But its there right.  Thats what I am talking about, its subtle but there. You cannot skip A.

I will also play with other version, and see how that works for me.

[Lucky]

Quote

back to Onkar - AUM is such a sound that is most basic and most primitive and most primal. I believe AUM can even be made by those who lack the ability to speak. As long as their vocal chords are functional, they will be able to say A, U, and make nasal sounds.

Yes, a dumb/guunga/mute makes this sound from the back of the mouth.

Quote

Onkar is designed to cause your Chakras to activate

Most definitely helps with vibrating energy in  all inner organs, that will help promote overall well-being.

 

We practice it in this very manner in yoga class.

The yogi bhajhan info posted by das explains it well. We actually call it "tuning in" when the whole class does the ong and we chant Ong namo, guru dev namo,  In kundalini yoga they call it the Adi mantra/primal mantra. ....and like Bhagat said above, it is the primal sound,... the begning , the Aad.

Just to add, I can say that when the whole class does it together, you really feel the vibration and it's power. The energy from the resonance is so strong that after I'm tuned in, I can elongate my breath for so long holding a single not like an opera singer!  ... and seriously, I'm no real singer at all and neither can I hold notes with raags for too long.   This physical vocal affect ONLY happens in class, because when I try it by myself at home, it's nowhere near the same.

I do reckon that in terms of the science of the ong vibration, it has a direct stimulation going vertically upwards to your pineal gland and into the center of our mind's universe, ..the cave of brahma,,,..seat of the soul.

 

 

 

Interesting what you mention about the right side ear because this side and also the right eye is associated with Solar enrgy and the sun. A number of gurbani references are made to this. However, there is also another yogic moon and sun association and that is shown in diagram as behind the bindu and with the lunar on the anterior. Moon-Sun energy is also labelled as Yin-Yang, Shiv-Shakti, cooling-warming, ...etc.

[dalsingh101]

19 hours ago, Gunahgar said:

 

How do rest of you guys pronounce ਓਅੰਕਾਰ?   ਓ--ਅੰ-------ਕਾਰ     or   ਓੰ   ----ਕਾਰ     ??  @Lucky@Sat1176@N30 S!NGH@chatanga1@dalsingh101@paapiman

I go some thing  like: 

 

Oooooooooooo annnnnnnnnn kaaaaaaaaarrrrr

The 'a' is pretty short and quickly goes into the nasalised 'n' sound.

 

Used to have a 'g' sound in it when I was a kid, but stopped that now that I can sort of half read Gurmukhi.  

[BhagatSingh]

On 2016-03-08 at 4:44 PM, amardeep said:

I do. On Oaaangggggggggggggggggggggg though.

And what are you observations upon doing this?

23 hours ago, Gunahgar said:

But its there right.  Thats what I am talking about, its subtle but there. You cannot skip A.

I will also play with other version, and see how that works for me.

Yea if you separate the sounds individually then what you are saying is right.

Did you try going straight into the full wide-mouthed nasal tone?

Like open our mouth as if you are about to eat something, or like you are about to yawn and make a nasal sound from belly.

What we hear in our ears is very similar to this, except that it is non-stop.

 

9 hours ago, dalsingh101 said:

Oooooooooooo annnnnnnnnn kaaaaaaaaarrrrr

The 'a' is pretty short and quickly goes into the nasalised 'n' sound.

Remove the kaar part.

Do straight ਓਂ.
- Wide-mouthed nasal tone
- Do not separate the sounds to individual components like it is normally written or described.
- Remember it is one syllable.
- If you vibrate on the entire syllable all at once, it will vibrate your entire torso and head all at once and for the duration of the chant.
 

[BhagatSingh]

On 2016-03-08 at 2:01 AM, das said:

Excellent post BhagatSingh......do you have any recording where someone has practiced this accurately?

Couple of years back while listening to Yogi Harbhajan Singh, he mentiond the same and also mentioned that it takes around 12 years to practice the sound of IkOngkar in a correct way....obviously, he didn't mean that it takes that long for everyone, he was making a point that the pronoucation of IkOngKar is not that simple that we normally do.

There is one CD where one of his student has tried to pronounce the IkOnKar in the way Yogi Harbhajan Singh used to teach.....http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/ahw_2271_23596086 it is the 17 in the mentioned list. I've attached the same here if anyone is interested.

Ek Ong Kar.mp3

He does O... nnnnng.... and separates the sounds. So it's not ideal.

I am looking for a good video on youtube. If I don't find any, I'll just make one myself.

[BhagatSingh]

To Enchant is to become present.

The whole talk is interesting and there are lots of things to learn... However the way she chants at 12:30 is mindblowing! This woman can chant!

[Ragmaala]

How long should you chant for ?

[GurpreetKaur]

Damn she's good. She reminded me of throat singing.