Sitting in solitude having restrained his senses from their ‘objects, and completely controlled his mind, with pure conscience, having the knowledge of the Supreme as his object in“ view abiding in the secondless Self ‘he should meditate upon the Para-Brahman.
विश्वं यदेतत्परमात्मदर्शनं विलापयेदात्मनि सर्वकारणे । पूर्णश्चिदानन्दमयोऽवतिष्ठते न वेद बाह्यं न च किञ्चिदान्तरम् ॥ ४७॥
Having dissolved the universe, illumined : by God, in Atman the fundamental cause of all, he sits satisfied and happy and does not know the’ things outside or inside.
Before reaching this state of total absorption (samadhi), contemplate upon the entire universe of names and forms, the moving and the unmoving, as nothing but Omkara. Om is a sound symbol representing the entire world. This (duality) appears due to ignorance and not after direct Knowledge. This practice is valid only before direct knowledge; never after-wards.
अकारसंज्ञः पुरुषो हि विश्वको ह्युकारकस्तैजस ईर्यते क्रमात् । प्राज्ञो मकारः परिपठ्यतेऽखिलैः समाधिपूर्वं न तु तत्त्वतो भवेत् ॥ ४९॥
The rishis of the Vedic period declare that a-kara represents the waker, u-kara represents the dreamer, and ma-kara, the deep sleeper, and all their respective experiences. These distinctions are all valid only before samadhi, never in the absolute nature of reality.
The a-letter sound in Aum represents the visva-jiva that expresses in a thousand ways, along with its macrocosmic expression as Virat, and it may be merged into the u-letter sound, representing the taijasa-jiva, along with its macrocosmic expression as Hiranyagarbha. Now the u-letter sound, the second letter in Aum, may be merged into the m-letter sound, the last of the triple sounds that make up the Aum symbol.