Step One: Recite Om Three Times

Om .... Om .... Om ....

The Significance of Om in this step is that this Om recital will tone you up and calm all agitations in the mind and quicken the downpour of Grace. Om is the origin of Creation. It is the source and sustenance and the strength. It is the Praan (breath) of every being. Just as air forced through the reeds of a harmonium produces the swaras (notes) Sa-Re-Ga-Ma-Pa-Dha-Ni (C-D-E-F-G-A-B), so Om is at the root of all the sounds in all the worlds. Know its significance and practice its recitation. People recite Om three times. In fact, the recital of Om should last twenty one times. This number is not arbitrarily fixed; it has a significance of its own. We have the five senses of action and the five senses of perception, we have also the five vital airs to sustain us. Again, we have the five sheaths, enclosing the Divine Spark (Atma or Self) that is the Reality. These total up to twenty. So, the recitation of Om twenty-one times purifies and clarifies all these twenty components and makes man the twenty first entity, ready for the final merger with the Reality.

Om is the root of all the sounds in all the worlds. Therefore the tree Om recital refers to the three worlds i.e. casual world (celestial world), subtle world (astral world) and us the physical world. It also signifies three Unchanging Universal Spirits and the Universal Energy i.e. Creator (Brahma), Preserver (Vishnu) and Destroyer (Shiva).

Therefore, the numbers 3,9,21,108 .... are all such mystic numbers which have a deep meaning. Man breaths at the rate of 900 per hour, 21,600 times per day, 10,800 times during daytime. With every breath, man is supposed to repeat Soham, (I am He), and so, the figure 216 and its half, 108 has a deep significance. It is also 9 times 12, 9 being the number indicative of Brahma, since it is always 9, however many times you may multiply it ( if you add up the digits in the result of any multiplication by 9, it will equal to 9, for example 9 x 12 = 108 i.e. 1 + 0 + 8 = 9, 9 x 9 = 81 i.e. 8 + 1 = 9) and 12 is the number of the sun because the sun moves through 12 raasis or points, each raasi representing one month.

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