Synthesized answer
Om is described as the holy word that is the beginning and the end of all prayers of the Brahmans [1]. It roughly means "that what is perfect" or "the completion" [1]. The river, with its ten thousand voices, speaks the word Om when all its voices are heard at once [2, 3]. It represents perfection and the oneness of all things, encompassing good and evil, suffering and pleasure, all goals and yearnings, as part of the flow of events and the music of life [3].
Siddhartha speaks Om in several ways. He speaks it with a slurred voice to himself in a moment of deep realization [1]. He also learns to speak it silently into himself while inhaling and silently out of himself while exhaling, with full concentration of his soul [5]. He recites a verse about Om being the bow, the soul being the arrow, and Brahman being the target [4]. When listening to the river, he perceives the great song of the thousand voices as a single word, Om, and his smile becomes similar to that of the ferryman, shining with bliss [2, 3].
Synthesized from the book passages below. Chat with the book on Feynman for follow-up.
From the book
pped towards death. Then, out of remote areas of his soul, out of past times of his now weary life, a sound stirred up. It was a word, a syllable, which he, without thinking, with a slurred voice, spoke to himself, the old word which is the beginning and the end of all prayers of the Brahmans, the holy “Om”, which roughly means “that what is perfect” or “the completion”. And in the moment when the sound of “Om” touched Siddhartha’s ear, his dormant spirit suddenly woke up and realized the foolishness of his actions. Siddhartha was deeply shocked. So this was how things were with him,…
and made a powerful noise, then said Siddhartha: “Isn’t it so, oh friend, the river has many voices, very many voices? Hasn’t it the voice of a king, and of a warrior, and of a bull, and of a bird of the night, and of a woman giving birth, and of a sighing man, and a thousand other voices more?” “So it is,” Vasudeva nodded, “all voices of the creatures are in its voice.” “And do you know,” Siddhartha continued, “what word it speaks, when you succeed in hearing all of its ten thousand voices at once?” Happily, Vasudeva’s face was smiling, he bent over to Siddhartha and spoke…
all goals, all yearning, all suffering, all pleasure, all that was good and evil, all of this together was the world. All of it together was the flow of events, was the music of life. And when Siddhartha was listening attentively to this river, this song of a thousand voices, when he neither listened to the suffering nor the laughter, when he did not tie his soul to any particular voice and submerged his self into it, but when he heard them all, perceived the whole, the oneness, then the great song of the thousand voices consisted of a single word, which was Om: the perfection. “Do…
it seemed near, the heavenly world, but never he had reached it completely, never he had quenched the ultimate thirst. And among all the wise and wisest men, he knew and whose instructions he had received, among all of them there was no one, who had reached it completely, the heavenly world, who had quenched it completely, the eternal thirst. “Govinda,” Siddhartha spoke to his friend, “Govinda, my dear, come with me under the Banyan tree, let’s practise meditation.” They went to the Banyan tree, they sat down, Siddhartha right here, Govinda twenty paces away. While putting himself…
he wise men, practising debate with Govinda, practising with Govinda the art of reflection, the service of meditation. He already knew how to speak the Om silently, the word of words, to speak it silently into himself while inhaling, to speak it silently out of himself while exhaling, with all the concentration of his soul, the forehead surrounded by the glow of the clear-thinking spirit. He already knew to feel Atman in the depths of his being, indestructible, one with the universe. Joy leapt in his father’s heart for his son who was quick to learn, thirsty for knowledge; he saw him…