The Chandogya Upanishad

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.

Madhu Kanda

 The head of the sacrificial horse is the dawn, his eyes are the sun, his breath of life is the wind-god, his face is the fire-god, the centre of his body is the year, his back is heaven, his stomach is the atmosphere, his hooves are the earth, his sides are the four directions, his bones are the other directions, his limbs are the seasons, the joints of his body are the months and the fornights, his feet are the night and the day, his marrow is the stars, his flesh is the clouds, the undigested food in his stomach is sand, his veins are the rivers, his liver is the mountains, the hair of his body is the herbs and the trees, the front of his body is the rising sun, the rear of his body is the setting sun, his belching is the lightning, the shaking of his body is the thunder, and his neighing is speech.

(A sacrificial horse was used at horse-sacrifices and, in this verse, an analogy is being drawn between the Brahman and the sacrificial horse.)

The day is the vessel that is to the front of the horse and the origin of the day is in the eastern ocean. The night is the vessel that is to the rear of the horse and the origin of the night is in the western ocean.( Two golden or silver vessels were placed to the front and the rear of a sacrificial horse as receptacles for offering.) As haya the horse bears gods, as vaji he bears gandharvas(a semi-divine species), as arva he bears demons, and as ashva he bears humans.(Haya, vaji, arva andashva are all synonyms for a horse.) The ocean is the stable and it is in the ocean that the horse originated.