AUM
Aum
Aum
Noun
1. a terrorist organization whose goal is to take over Japan and then the world; based on a religion founded in 1987 that combines elements of Buddhism with Christianity; "in 1995 Aum members released deadly sarin gas on a Tokyo subway train"
(synonym) Aum Shinrikyo, Supreme Truth
(hypernym) terrorist organization, terrorist group, foreign terrorist organization, FTO
(classification) Japan, Nippon, Nihon
Aum
(n.)
Same as Aam.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), edited by Noah Porter.
About
Aum
Aum (Sanskrit) The ancient Indians held that Om, when considered as a single letter ({Sanskrit character}) was the symbol of the Supreme; when written with three letters -- Aum -- it stood among other things for the three Vedas, the three gunas or qualities of nature, the three divisions of the universe, and the deities of the Hindu Trimurti -- Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva -- concerned in the creation, preservation, and destruction of the universe or the beings composing it. "The mystic formula, résumé of every science, contained in the three mysterious letters, AUM which signify creation, conservation, and transformation" (IU 2:31). These three letters are supposed by some Hindus to have correspondences as follows: "The letter A is the Sattva Guna, U is the Rajas, and M is the Tamas; these three qualities are termed Nature (Prakriti). . . . A is Bhurloka, U is Bhuvarloka, and M is Svarloka; by these three letters the spirit exhibits itself" (Laheri in Lucifer 10:147). This word is said to have a morally spiritualizing effect if pronounced during meditation and when the mind is at peace and cleansed of all impurities. See also
Om
Om
Om (Sanskrit) Also Aum. In Brahmanical literature, a syllable of invocation, considered very holy: "Om is the bow, the Self is the arrow, Brahman is called its aim" (Mandukya Upanishad 2:2). It is placed at the beginning of scriptures considered of unusual sanctity. "Prolonging the uttering of this word, both of the O and the M, with the mouth closed, it reechoes in and arouses vibration in the skull, and affects, if the aspirations be pure, the different nervous centers of the body for great good" (Fund 28). The virtue or spiritual and magical properties attributed to this word, however, arise out of the purity and devotion of the one uttering it.
aum