ystic properties which are ascribed to it in the religious
works. Monier Williams gives the following account of the mystic
syllable Om: "When by means of repeating the syllable Om, which
originally seems to have meant 'that' or 'yes,' they had arrived at a
certain degree of mental tranquillity, the question arose what was meant
by this Om, and to this various answers were given according as the mind
was to be led up to higher and higher objects. Thus, in one passage, we
are told at first that Om is the beginning of the Veda, or as we have to
deal with an Upanishad of the Shama Veda, the beginning of the Shama
Veda; so that he who meditates on Om may be supposed to be meditating
on the whole of the Shama Veda.

"Om is the essence of the Shama Veda which, being almost entirely taken
from the Rig Veda, may itself be called the essence of the Rig Veda. The
Rig Veda stands for all speech, the Shama Veda for all breath or life;
so that Om may be conceived again as the symbol of all speech and all
life. Om thus becomes the name not only of all our mental and physical
powers, but is especially that of the living principle of the pran or
spirit. This is explained by the parable in the second chapter, while
in the third chapter that spirit within us is identified with the spirit
in the sun.

"He, therefore, who meditates on Om, meditates on the spirit in man as
identical with the spirit in Nature or in the sun, and thus the lesson
that is meant to be taught in the beginning of the Khandogya Upanishad
is really this that none of the Vedas, with their sacrifices and
ceremonies, could ever secure the salvation of the worshipers. That is,
the sacred works performed, according to the rules of the Vedas, are of
no avail in the end, but meditation on Om, or that knowledge of what is
meant by Om, alone can procure true salvation or true immortality.

"Thus the pupil is led on step by step to what is the highest object of
the Upanishads--namely, the recognition of the self in man as identical
of the highest soul.

"The lessons which are to lead up to that highest conception of the
universe, both subjective and objective, are, no doubt, mixed up with
much that is superstitious and absurd. Still the main object is never
lost sight of. Thus, when we come to the eighth chapter, the
discussion, though it begins with Om ends with the question of the
origin of the world, and the final answer--namely, that Om means Akasa,
ether, and