• Paṇinī, the oldest Indian grammarian who wrote his famous Asthadhyāyi few centuries before Christ, has explained a system of pratyahāra or abbreviation in which the first and the last letter actually include the entire list between them. In this light ‘ah’ ( A: ) can be understood as the pratyahara for the entire alphabet .            From the sound of ‘a’ ( A ) , the first letter to the sound of ‘m’ ( ma ) , the last letter of the mute-consonants the entire organ of speech is traced. The pronunciation travels from the glottis i.e. the guttural, along the palate to the cerebral region, from there to the dental and finally ends at the lips or the labial region. Thus, the entire mouth cavity is structured within this part of the alphabet and from here the symmetry gets reflected into the entire discursive language. Now, the mantra ‘aum’ ( ! ) can be understood as the pratyahāra for all these vowels plus all the mute-consonant sounds and hence the complete definition of the vocal apparatus starting from the glottis to the lips. This is the Universal mantra for the liberation of the senses and during meditation helps in suppressing the complete cacophony of thoughts and hence silencing the mind. This is the bīja-mantra for the Ājna-chakra located at the center of the forehead where the ceremonious tīkā is put during Indian rituals.

• The very first of the mutes or sparśa is ‘ka’ ( k ) and it is also the vedic aphorism for Prajāpati a reflection of Brahman. Śatpath Brāhmaṇa simply asks – “Who is the Unknown ?” and since kaḥ ( k: ) in Sanskrit means ‘who ?’ this then is the obvious ‘name’ for that which cannot be named.
• As per Paṇinī ‘s system of pratyāhāra the word kam ( kma\ ) would stand for the entire list of mute consonants i.e from the first guttural ‘ka’ ( k ) to the last labial ‘ma’ ( ma ). Now, we look at the Brihadāraṇyaka Upanishad I.2.1which is the first shlöka of the ‘Hymn of Creation’ [7] as follows:-

….There was nothing whatsoever here in the beginning. It was the absence of time or mrtyuh, death that hid everything. For aśnāyā or that which has not emanated, in other words is un-manifested is equivalent to death. This aśnāyā- mrtyuh or the Unnameable, Brahman had a first thought in His mind, ‘Let me be’. This generated the first movement of thought and from this worship āpo emanated.…..’Verily’, he thought, ‘since my first desire has given rise to kam (within me)’, therefore this is the essence of energy or arka of all creation – he who understands kam thus comprehends the meaning (and control) of arka….I.2.1 Both āpo and kam are hurriedly translated as ‘water’ in English versions of this shlöka. They are actually both ‘first’ emanations. Due to the desire to be, the infinite One expresses duality, right here the bifurcation of the internal mind and the external manifestation happens. āpo thus is the outward pervading matter, the plasma that is synonymous with arka or the very essence of Shakti ; kam is the expansion of thought within, turning into the seeds of the language, like Bhartṛhari’s sphöṭa. It germinates the links of words and sentences, helping to precipitate the very first desire into action.