124 Sri-Caitanya-caritamrta

Throughout all the Vedic literatures the glories of omkara are specifically men-
tioned. Srila Jiva Gosvami, in his thesis Bhagavat-sandarbha, says that in the Vedic
literature omkara is considered to be the sound vibration of the holy name of the
Supreme Personality of Godhead. Only this vibration of transcendental sound can
deliver a conditioned soul from the clutches of maya. Sometimes omkara is also
called the deliverer (tara). Srimad-Bhagavatam begins with the omkara vibration:
om namo bhagavate vasudevaya. Therefore omkara has been described by the great
commentator Sridhara Svami as tarankura, the seed of deliverance from the mate-
rial world. Since the Supreme Godhead is absolute, His holy name and His sound
vibration omkara are as good as He Himself. Caitanya Mahaprabhu says that the holy
name, or omkara, the transcendental representation of the Supreme Personality of
Godhead, has all the potencies of the Personality of Godhead.

namnam akari bahudha nija-sarva-saktis

tatrarpita niyamitah smarane na kalah
All potencies are invested in the holy vibration of the holy name of the Lord. There
is no doubt that the holy name of the Lord, or omkara, is the Supreme Personality
of Godhead Himself. {n other words, anyone who chants omkara and the holy
name of the Lord, Hare Krsna, immediately meets the Supreme Lord directly in His
sound form. In the Narada-paficaratra it is clearly said that the Supreme Personality
of Godhead Narayana personally appears before the chanter who engages in chant-
ing the astaksara, or eight-syllable mantra, om namo narayanaya. A similar state-
ment in the Mandukya Upanisad declares that whatever one sees in the spiritual
world is all an expansion of the spiritual potency of ormkara.

On the basis of all the Upanisads, Srila Jiva Gosvami says that omkara is the
Supreme Absolute Truth and is accepted as such by all the acaryas and authorities.
Omkara is beginningless, changeless, supreme and free from deterioration and ex-
ternal contamination. Omkara is the origin, middle and end of everything, and any
living entity who thus understands omkara attains the perfection of spiritual iden-
tity in omkara. Omkara, being situated in everyone’s heart, is iSvara, the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, as confirmed in Bhagavad-gita (isvarah sarva-bhutanarm hrd-
dese ’rjuna tisthati). Omkara’is as good as Visnu because ornkara is as all-pervasive as
Vishnu. One who knows omkara and Lord Visnu to be identical no longer has to
lament or hanker. One who chants omkara no longer remains a sudra, but imme-
diately comes to the position of a brahmana. Simply by chanting omkara one can
understand the whole creation to be one unit, or an expansion of the energy of the
Supreme Lord. /dam hi visvam bhagavan ivetaro, yato jagat-sthana-nirodha-
sambhavah: ‘‘The Supreme Lord Personality of Godhead is Himself this cosmos,
and still He is aloof from it. From Him only this cosmic manifestation has emanat-
ed, in Him it rests, and unto Him it enters after annihilation.” (Bhag. 1.5.20) Al-
though one who does not understand concludes otherwise, Srimad-Bhagavatam
states that the entire cosmic manifestation is but an expansion of the energy of the
Supreme Lord. Reaiization of this is possible simply by chanting the holy name of
the Lord, omkara.
