It is with the incantation of oum that the rites prescribed
in the vedas are begun. It is with oum that incantations and hymns are chanted.
Sacrifices performed to the chanting of the syllable oum attain the sun-god.
They then become rain and the rain become foodgrains. Foodgrains sustain the
breath of life. It is thus that oum is nothing but the breath of life.
There are those who know the glory of oum and there are
those who do not. Both classes of people perform action and worship and obtain
the resultant fruits. But the fruits obtained by those wonderful nature of the
syllable oum.
The gods and the demons were both offspring of prajapati.
Many years ago, the gods and the demons fought among themselves. In their fight
with the demons, the gods enlisted the support of the god of hymns.
The gods elected the power of speech as a chorister and the
demons attacked the power of speech with their sins. It is for this reason that
men utter the truth, as well as falsehood. The gods elected the power of smell
as chorister and the demons attacked the power of smell with their sins. It is
for this reason that there are both good smells and bad ones. The gods elected
the power of sight as a chorister and the demons attacked the power of sight
with their sins. It is for this reason that men see both beautiful sights and
ugly ones. The gods elected the power of hearing as a chorister and the demons
attacked power of hearing with their sins. It is for this reason that men here
both pleasant and unpleasant sounds. The gods elected the mind as a chorister
and the demons attacked the mind with their sins. It is for this reason that
both god and evil thoughts frequent the minds of men. Finally, the gods elected
the breath of life as a chorister. And the demos were decimated as soon as they
came into contact with the breath of life, just as a brick crushed by a
boulder. The breath of life is like solid stone; it crushes those who perform
evil deeds or exhibit hatred.
