Key idea of the Yoga Sūtras
praṇava · Om
The sacred syllable Om, the word that names Īśvara.
Praṇava, the resounding syllable, is Om. Patañjali says it is the word that names Īśvara (1.27), and gives the practice in two parts: repeat it, and dwell on its meaning (1.28). Both halves count. Repetition alone is sound; the meaning is Īśvara, the never-bound self of 1.24. Vyāsa holds that the bond between this word and what it names is fixed, not a human convention, and that usage only makes it known (on 1.27). The fruit is twofold: realisation of the inward self, and the falling away of the obstacles (1.29). Vyāsa explains the first by likeness: as Īśvara is a pure self, untouched by affliction, so the practitioner comes to see that he too is a self (on 1.29). Om also stands behind 'study' in kriyā yoga, which Vyāsa glosses as reciting purifying words such as Om, or studying the texts on liberation (on 2.1).
Vyāsa
“But the usage [as determined] by the Īśvara declares this its fixed meaning. Thus the [actual] relation of father and son is permanent, but the verbal statement that that man is this man's father is suggested [to the mind] by usage.”
Vyāsa's Yoga-bhāṣya in J. H. Woods' translation (1914), p. 60.
How it has been read
In the Hindu tradition Om is the most sacred syllable, and the Upaniṣads already treat it as a support for meditation. Vyāsa's own concern is narrower: the fixed bond between the word and Īśvara, which makes repeating it a form of devotion.
A common misreading
Om is often chanted simply as a calming sound. The sūtra asks for repetition with attention to its meaning, Īśvara (1.27–1.28), so it is devotion as well as technique.
Where the text defines it
- 1.27 The word that names Īśvara is the praṇava, Om.
- 1.28 Repeat it, and dwell on its meaning.
- 1.29 From that also comes realisation of the inward self, and the obstacles fall away.
- 2.1 Discipline, study and devotion to Īśvara are the yoga of action.