Question5

1. Then Saivya Satyakâma asked him:--'Sir, if some one among men should meditate here until death on the syllable Om, what would he obtain by it?'

2. He replied: 'O Satyakâma, the syllable Om (AUM) is the highest and also the other Brahman;

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therefore he who knows it arrives by the same means 1 at one of the two.

3. If he meditate on one Mâtrâ (the A) 2, then, being enlightened by that only, he arrives quickly at the earth 3. The Rik-verses lead him to the world of men, and being endowed there with penance, abstinence, and faith, he enjoys greatness.

4. If he meditate with 4 two Mâtrâs (A + U) he arrives at the Manas 5, and is led up by the Yagus-verses to the sky, to the Soma-world. Having enjoyed greatness in the Soma-world, he returns again.

5. Again, he who meditates with this syllable AUM of three Mâtrâs, on the Highest Person, he comes to light and to the sun. And as a snake is freed from its skin, so is he freed from evil. He is led up by the Sâman-verses to the Brahma-world 6; and from him, full of life (Hiranyagarbha, the lord of the Satya-loka 7), he learns 8 to see the all-pervading, the Highest Person. And there are these two Slokas:

6. The three Mâtrâs (A + U + M), if employed separate, and only joined one to another, are mortal 9;

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but in acts, external, internal, or intermediate, if well performed, the sage trembles not 1.

7. Through the Rik-verses he arrives at this world, through the Yagus-verses at the sky, through the Sâman-verses at that which the poets teach,--he arrives at this by means of the Oṅkâra; the wise arrives at that which is at rest, free from decay, from death, from fear,--the Highest.'