Prasna Upanishad
1. Then Saibya Satyakama asked him, ‘Blessed one, if
someone among human beings meditates on the OM until
he departs this life, what world does he win by it?’
2. He told him, ‘Satyakama, what the OM is is brahman,
both the higher and the lower: so the one who knows, by
its support, reaches one or other of these.
3. ‘The one who meditates on it as having one element,
given knowledge by that quickly returns to earth. The re
verses bring him to the human world. There, endowed with
asceticism, celibacy and faith, he experiences greatness.
4. ‘The one who meditates on it with two elements
reaches mind. He is led by the yaJus verses to middle-air,
the world of the moon. After experiencing power in the
world of the moon, he comes back again.
5. ‘But the one who meditates on the supreme person with
three elements, as OM, reaches light, the sun. Just as a
snake is freed from its skin, he is freed from evil. He is led
by the saman verses to the world of brahman. He sees the
person (purusa) dwelling in the citadel (puri’saya), higher
than the highest mass of life. There are two verses about
it:
6. ‘The three elements are death-bearing when used
Attached to one another yet disjoined:
When they are rightly used in activities
Outside, inside and between, the knower does not
tremble.
7. ‘By the re verses, to this world; by the yajus verses, to middle-air;
By the saman verses, to that which -the poets make known;
With the OM as support, the knower goes to the one
That is peaceful, unageing, immortal, fearless and supreme.’