According to Osho, music can certainly be set to OM, but any effect you feel is from the harmony and rhythmic consonance of notes—not from the syllable itself. What matters is rhythmicity’s impact on the psyche, which can create only an apparent peace. Mechanical OM-chanting dulls awareness, breeds tamas (inertia), and leads to mediocrity; real spirituality demands alertness, not hypnotic repetition.
You can make music with OM, but any calm you feel is from the tune and rhythm, and repeating OM like a machine just lulls your mind instead of waking it up.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Can music be set to OM?
Yes, yes. It can certainly be done. Music can be set to OM—music can be set to anything. But the effect on you will not be because of OM. The effect on you will be due to the harmony of the notes. Whatever the music, it is the rhythmic consonance between two notes that impacts you. Whether it says OM or anything else makes no difference; that has nothing to do with it. What matters is that the impact of the notes upon the psyche be rhythmic. That’s all—rhythmicity is music. What you sing—whether a film song or a bhajan—does not matter. It is that rhythmicity which influences your mind. This too I call only an apparent peace. It is not peace. It is not peace. But a person who sits chanting OM, OM, OM is, poor fellow, in what one would call a psychoneurotic state. He is in a…
Osho, yesterday you spoke a little about Om in reference to the seventh body. In that context, a small question is: which chakras are affected by the vibrations of A, U, and M, and how might they be used by a seeker? What is the relation of these chakric effects to the seventh chakra?
Even so, my constant view remains that Om is to be used only as a symbol, not as a practice. Other devices can be found for practice. Such a sacred word as Om should not be profaned by using it as a means. Therefore many misunderstand me. Many people come to me and say, “If we chant Om, why do you forbid it?” Perhaps it seems to them that I am an enemy of Om. But I know that they are the enemies; because such a supremely sacred word should not be used as a means. In truth, it is not a word meant to be spoken by our tongue. In truth, it is not to be uttered by our body. It begins where the tongue loses meaning and the body becomes useless; there is its resonance. And we do not make that resonance—it happens; it is known; it is…
Om is the fundamental sound of Sanskrit. In Om, all the sounds of Sanskrit are included. Om is made of A, U, and M—the joining of three sounds: A, U, M. These are the three primal vowels; the rest of language is born from them. All words are then constructed of these. Om is the root; A, U, M are its three branches; and from these three branches the whole web of sound and the birth of all words happens. The Jews would call Om the Logos; Christians would call it the Word. This sutra concerns this Om. Understand this sutra well. For those who would enter within can very easily do so with the support of this sound—because it is resonating within. Every moment this sound is echoing inside. This sound is your very life-breath. If this sound disappears within, you disappear.
If you move from Om outward into the world, A U M unfold, and from them the entire expanse of sound. If you go behind Om, all sound dissolves; eventually you too dissolve—only Om remains. This means Om is not a sound produced by man; it is the sound of existence itself. As you have heard the sound of silence—at night when there is no noise, silence has its own hum—so when all ego and thought fall silent and deep quiet descends, the inner hush carries a sound: that sound is called Om. Entering Om, Krishna says, is entering me. Among all letters, I am the one-lettered Om. Among thousands of sacrifices, I am the sacrifice of japa. Let us understand japa. Yajna means any structured method by which we build a bridge between ourselves and existence—any plan that reconnects us.
15. Intone a sound, as aum, slowly. As sound enters soundfulness, so do you.
16. IN THE BEGINNING AND GRADUAL REFINEMENT OF THE SOUND OF ANY LETTER, AWAKE. 17. WHILE LISTENING TO STRINGED INSTRUMENTS, HEAR THEIR COMPOSITE CENTRAL SOUND; THUS OMNIPRESENCE. Sankya philosophy says that mind cannot be used: just understand this and take a jump. But yoga says this is impossible. Even this understanding is to be done by mind. Even with this understanding -- that you cannot use mind, that no technique will be of help, that every technique will become a hindrance and whatsoever you do will create a new conditioning -- you will still be using mind, you will move within mind. This too has to be understood by mind. So yoga says there is no way in which mind is not used; mind will have to be used. It should not be used positively, it should be used negatively. It should not be used in such a way that…