OṂ, a contraction of the sounds /a/, /u/, and /m/, is considered in the Hindu tradition to be the most sacred of Sanskrit syllables. In a religious setting that reveres the intrinsic power of sound as a direct manifestation of the divine, a...

The Prānava AUM, usually spelt OM (q.v.) is an invocation of multiple symbolic meaning and ritual uses. Each constituent letter has its own meaning of profound power. It precedes, pronounced as only an initiate knows how, the Tibetan formula Om...

The name for the syllable AUM or Om (q.v.). Often pronounced...

Aum, the most sacred syllable in Hinduism AUM, an abbreviation for Aum Shinrikyo August Underground's Mordum, a horror movie AUM, an abbreviation for Auburn University Montgomery AUM, the abbreviation for Assets under management AUM, the ICAO code for...

Daniel A. Metraux. Aum Shinrikyo and Japanese Youth. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1999. 144 pp. $24.50. THIS SHORT TREATMENT of Aura Shinrikyo, the Japanese new religious movement responsible for releasing satin gas on the Tokyo subway in 1995 and...

FROM RICHARD LLOYD PARRY in Tokyo Despite the denials of their leader, Shoko Asahara, members of the religious cult Aum Shinri Kyo have confessed to manufacturing sarin nerve gas used in two separate attacks, and to the abduction and murder of...