According to Osho, Om Mani Padme Hum epitomizes the ultimate inner experience: OM is the primordial sound of silence, and mani padme, the diamond in the lotus, points to the awakened jewel within. Its significance is not in chanting but in becoming utterly silent to hear it, unveiling inner harmony, bliss, and access to existence’s deepest mysteries.
It reminds you to become very quiet inside so you can hear a gentle inner music and discover a bright treasure of peace in your own heart.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
I always thought that you were against politicians, so I was very much surprised to know that you have blessed indira gandhi. Beloved master, would you like to say something about it?
I am against the political mind. The political mind means the cunning mind, the political mind means the murderous, violent mind. The political mind means the mind that is only interested in dominating others, that is only interested in being in such a position where millions of people's lives are in his hands, this way or that. The politician's mind is the mind of the perfect egoist. I am certainly against the political mind. I would like a world which does not go round and round the political mind. I would like a world which has the religious quality, not the political quality. At least I would like the political quality of the mind to recede into the background. At the center should be the creative mind. Politics is destructive. But this cannot happen right now. For millions of years politics has been in the center, so this cannot happen…
I have been in the company of the ninth -- Krishna, Ramana, J. Krishnamurti, and there are the ancient ones also: Mahavira, Mohammed, Moses -- they all belong to the ninth. Yes, they are very saintly, very extraordinary. The grip of the extraordinary is extraordinary; to get out of it is the last thing in existence, and that is the tenth card. When you come out of nothingness, back into the world of ordinariness, it is so beautiful. The ordinary is no more ordinary. The mundane has become sacred. Om Mani Padme Hum contains both. Om is beyond it, and Hum is below the expressible. Hum is used by the laborers; Om is used by the saints. Om Mani Padme Hum joins them both; Om becomes Hum, and Hum becomes Om.... What a tremendous synthesis. The Diamond is the hardest, the most masculine -- Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin.
Osho, why was Om chosen as a symbol? What are its special features?
There are two reasons Om was chosen. First, the search was for a word that has no meaning, to which you cannot attach meaning; because if you do, it falls on this side of the fifth. A word was needed that, in one sense, is meaningless. Or say: beyond meaning. Both are the same. All our words are meaningful. We coin words precisely so they bear meaning. If there is no meaning, what need is there for a word? We make words to speak, and the purpose of speaking is that I may convey something to you; when I speak, there should be a hint of meaning for you. When people returned from the seventh—or went to the seventh—they felt: whatever word we make, if it carries meaning, it will immediately fall before the fifth body. The dictionary will write out its meaning; people will read and think they have…
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.
Question: SUKHA-ASUKHAVORBAHIRMANANAM TADVIMUKTASTU KEVALI TADARORHAPRANITESTATKSHAYAJ JIVASANKSHYA BHOOTAKANSHUKI TADAVIMUKTO BHUYAH PATISAMAH PARAH OM SHRI SHIVARPANAM SATU HAPPINESS AND SORROW ARE BUT EXTERNAL MOODS -- THIS HE KNOWS CONSTANTLY. FREED FROM THESE, HE ACHIEVES HIS ALONENESS. THE YOGI WHO IS ESTABLISHED IN HIS ALONENESS CEASES TO DESIRE, AND THUS ATTAINS FREEDOM FROM BIRTH AND DEATH. THE LIBERATED PERSON, FOR WHOM BODY AND MIND ARE NO MORE THEN CLOTHING, ATTAINS TO SHIVAHOOD. OM! THIS IS DEDICATED TO LORD SHIVA. Hence, 'Om' does not belong to any religion. It is neither Hindu nor Jaina nor Christian, nor Buddhist, nor Moslem. It is the non-sectarian mantra. You will be surprised to know that the Jainas, the Muslims, the Christians all make use of this mantra, though there are slight variations: the Muslims say amin, the Christians say amen. These are only altered forms of 'Om'.