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“Nachiketas asked: ‘What lies beyond right and wrong, beyond cause and effect, beyond past and future?’ Death said: ‘The  word the Vedas extol, austerities proclaim, sanctities approach – that word is Om. That word is eternal Spirit, eternal distance; who knows it attains to his desire. That word is the ultimate foundation. Who finds it is adored among the saints. The Self knows all, is not born, does not die, is not the effect of any cause; is eternal, self-existent, imperishable, ancient. How can the killing of the body kill him?’”

Katha-Upanishad

Om is the supreme mantra (mystical sound) of Hindu origin, but sacred and important to various religions of Dharmic origin (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism…). It is the sound vibration of the Absolute, which lies beneath everything manifested (physical plane, causal plane, subtle plane). It is the sound of silence, the sound of the Self, the sound of Being. The sound “A” represents Creation, like Brahma. The sound “U” represents Conservation, like Vishnu. The sound “M” represents Dissolution, like Shiva. Om is the all encompassing vibration of the Universe.

“The word Om is the Imperishable; all this its manifestation. Past, present, future – everything is Om. Whatever trascends the three divisions of time, that too is Om. There is nothing that is not Spirit. The personal self is the impersonal Spirit. It has four conditions. This Self, though beyond words, is that supreme word Om; though indivisible, it can be divided in three letters corresponding to the three conditions of the Self, the letter “A”, the letter “U”, and the letter “M”. The waking condition, called the material condition, corresponds to the letter “A”, which leads the alphabet and breathes in all the other letters. He who understands,gets all he wants; becomes a leader among men. The dreaming condition, called the mental condition, corresponds to the second letter “U”. It upholds; stands between waking and sleeping. He who understands, upholds the tradition of spiritual knowledge and looks upon everything with an impartial eye. No one ignorant of Spirit is born into his family. Undreaming sleep, called the intellectual condition, corresponds to the letter “M”. It weighs and unites. He who understands, weighs the world; rejects; unites himself with the cause. The fourth condition of the Self corresponds to Om as One, indivisible Word. He is whole; beyond bargain. The world disappears in Him. He is the good; the one without asecond. Thus Om is nothing but Self. He who understands, with the help of his personal self, merges himself into the impersonal Self; He who understands.”

Mandookya-Upanishad

Om. Om. Om.

Elisabeth Haich (1897-1994) was a hungarian born author and spiritual teacher. In 1941, with the help of Selvarajan Yusidan, she founded the first european Yoga school in Budapest. After World War II, they had to close it down and she fled to Switzerland where she founded another Yoga school there.

Her books are an insight to the themes of past lives and spirituality as a total, detailing events of her early life in Hungary, as well as details of past lives, including her initiation in the Pyramid by Ptahotep, in ancient Egypt.

The Truths that are found reading between lines are the eternal truths of Humanity. The Divine residing in all of us has to be awakened from the dormant state, and we must break the illusion of separateness to, once again, attain unity, or Yoga, with everything that there is, and will ever be.

Teachings of Hermes Trismegistus, ancient egyptian philosophy, mathematics, astrology, Buddhist, Tantra and Zen philosophies, as well as Judeo-Christian beliefs, are all imbeded in her texts, making it a complete compound of profound wisdom that might as well open our minds to our own truths.

Here are some quotes from her amazing book, Initiation by Elisabeth Haich. Enjoy!

“All the Sons of God have always brought and always will bring the same truth into different parts of the earth, but people will interpret it differently depending on the characteristics of their race and their degree of development. These different interpretations, as they get passed on to later generations, will give rise to different religions all springing from the same truths. One and the same Son of God will reincarnate himself at different times and in different places of the earth in order to proclaim the highest truth to humanity. And, from the same truth proclaimed by the same spirit, people in different parts of the earth will develop different religions. Because of such differences arising merely from human ignorance, people will make war upon each other, trying to send each other to hell ‘in the name of God’.”

“Because man has fallen out of his divine consciousness, he can only imagine God in accordance with his own personal power of understanding. How can he know what the real, living divinity is like in its perfection when his power of imagination only corresponds to the level he personally stands on, separated as he is from unity, and having fallen as he has from divinity? How can the finite understand the infinite, the mortal the immortal, the temporal the eternal? How can an imaginary being understand experience and become identical with the eternal, true being – God?”

“Eternity is the eternal present; infinity is the eternal future which can never be reached and never becomes present. Eternity never had a beginning and thus will never have an end. Eternity is timeless present which has no past nor future. Infinity, however, means a falling out of eternity into the future, without a present!”

“In happiness there is no time: our consciousness stands still; the concept of time disappears. Only when happiness is over do we suddenly realize that while our consciousness was hovering timelessly in the eternal present, time was rushing onward. Time begins with our fall from happiness, from paradise. But unhappiness too knows no time, for the more unhappy we feel, the slower time goes by; minutes seem hours, and in our moments of deepest despair, when sufferings and torture are unbearable, every moment becomes an infinity; time freezes! Oh, how right Satan is! The highest and the lowest are alike as two twins, just like reality and its reflection, appearance. Happiness is timeless eternity, and the opposite, unhappiness, is endless time – infinity!”

“Oh, you wonderful, wonderful sea! Beloved sea, always the same, understanding everything, experiencing everything and surviving everything! Oh, you dear friend, you who have listened so often to me tell you of my pains and joys and sorrows… listened so understandingly… and offered me the consolation of your infinity and eternity… your uplifting consolation surpasses everything human! You are here – you are here again – you are always here, unchanged, and I can look into your depths again, listen to your waves as they tell about eternity…”