Sarve vedá yatpadamámananti
Tapáḿsi sarváńi ca yad vadanti
Yadicchanto brahmacaryaiṋcaranti
Tattepadaḿ saḿgraheńa braviimyomityetat.

Here something has been said regarding the glory of Prańava. “Pra” – “ńa” – “va”. That is, the entity that helps you in moving towards your goal, in moving towards the Nucleus of the Cosmos, is called “Prańava”. “Prańava” means “movement”.

“Sarve Veda” means “all the Vedas”. What is the meaning of “sarve”? “Sarvah” – “sarvao” – “sarve”. “Sarva” means “everything”.

In “sarva”, there are three letters, “sa”, “ra” and “va”. “Sa” represents the sentient principle. Why is the letter “sa” the first letter in this word? When the first flow of creation emanates from Consciousness, from Cognition, the starting-point is certainly the sentient factor. That is why “sa” is the first letter.

Then “ra”. Whatever has been created, or whatever is in the process of creation, must have movement in it. There must be speed, and not only speed, there must be velocity also. And this speed comes from energy. Without energy there cannot be any speed. “Ra” is the acoustic root of energy. That is why “ra” is the second letter.

And “va” is the third and last letter. The letter “va” is the acoustic root of characteristics, properties. Each and every entity, each and every created being in this world, has subtle characteristics of its own. These are the properties, these are the svabhava. There is no entity in the world that has no svabhava. For properties, for characteristics, the acoustic root is “va”.

Now, everything that exists in the world comes from the sentient principle of the Cosmic Cognitive Faculty. Hence, the starting point is “sa”. Everything moves with the help of energy. So there is “ra”. And everything has some property, so there is “va”. “Sa”, “ra” and “va” – these three letters are present in each and every expression, and that is why “sarva” means “everything”. Nothing can remain outside the periphery of sa-ra-va.

The “rk” of the Rk Veda means “to know”. “Veda” also means knowledge. “Sarve Veda” means “all knowledge”. “Knowledge” here means spiritual knowledge. “Knowledge” means supra-psychic knowledge. Psychic and physical knowledges are not true knowledges in the proper sense of the term, because they vary according to variation in time, space and person. They are not absolute entities.

“Berlin was the capital of Germany”. “No, no, no, Bonn is the capital of Germany”. Both are equally correct, only there has been a temporal gap, a gap of time.

“Tapah” means undergoing pains, troubles, predicaments, tortures for the purpose of attaining the goal. It is called “tapasyá”. Those munis, those rśis, those spiritual aspirants who undergo tapah, who expose themselves to tapah to attain their Supreme Desideratum, undergo such troubles, for what reason? To attain that very Entity.

“Icchantum” means “desiring the spiritual”. People who want to establish themselves in supra-psychic strata are icchantu. They are spiritual aspirants – those who want Him, those who have accepted Him as their only subjective counterpart in the physical stratum.

I told you the other day that He is the Supreme Subjectivity and others are the objects. He cannot be your object. This is philosophically and psychologically correct. But during your meditation, what do you do? What should you do? He cannot be your object; He is the subject, He is everything. He sees you, because He is the subject, you are the object. But if you are thinking of Him, then He becomes Your object. How can He become Your Object? It is an impossibility. To resolve this, I told you that as you do meditation, with the help of Your incantation, you should think that He is seeing You. That is the secret.

“Brahmacaryaiṋcaranti” – What is “brahmacaryam”? In Saḿskrta, there are many root verbs for “movement”. One word is “calati”. “Calati” is a general term that means moving, walking, going. Another word is “carati”. “Carati” means “moving while eating”. You are moving, at the same time you are eating – like a cow, “carati”, because she is also eating. And when you move along the road while eating peanuts, you are also “carati”, because you are moving and eating peanuts (you know, groundnuts, “chiniyá bádám” in Bihar, “mugphalii” in Hindi). If you eat while moving, then at that time you are just like a cow.

Then “at́ati”. “At́ati” is also movement, but while moving or touring, one is also learning something. So “at́ati” means “moving while learning”. Not ordinary moving like “carat́i”.

Then there is “vrajati” – moving while enjoying something Moving while enjoying pleasure, while enjoying bliss, is vrajati. Moving towards Him is vrajati – The person is getting pleasure while moving. See, there are so many verbs.

“Brahmacaryam” – that is “moving in Brahma while eating”. What sort of eating? The person is getting all sorts of physical, psychic and supra-psychic pabula from the Cosmic Body of Brahma. Thus he who is moving in Brahma with the help of his second lesson, guru mantra, is brahmacárii. He always remembers the fact that all his movements are within the Cosmic Body of Brahma.

Acquire that rank, come in close proximity to that rank, I say. “Aum” is the controlling word. There are three sounds in it. You know, in the Indo-Aryan alphabetical chart there are fifty letters: sixteen vowels and thirty-four consonants. Each and every sound of this alphabetical order, of this Indo-Aryan alphabetical order, is an acoustic root of a cosmic manifestation. So there are fifty controlling acoustic roots, and by the process of permutation and combination, a large number of acoustic roots of complex and complicated character may be created. (You all know permutation and combination and you know mathematics.) And this controlling letter, as I said, is called “prańava”.

The rśi says the three controlling letters are “a”, “u” and “ma”. “A” is the acoustic root of creation. Hence “a” is the first letter of the Indo-Aryan alphabetical order.

Each and every vibration of the universe has a colour. That colour may or may not be visible. And there is certainly some sound. That sound may or may not be audible, but the sound is there. It may or may not come within the scope of our particular nerves. We may or may not hear it, but the sound is there. So action and expression must have some sound, and the sound of creation is “a”.

Why is “a” the first letter and why not “á”? Because “a” is the acoustic root of creation. In the Roman script, “a”. The pronunciation is “a” – “alpha”, “aleph”, same letter. And it is the acoustic root of creation.

And after creating something, you are to maintain it. You are to nourish it, you are to serve it, you are to feed it, you are to supply it with all necessary pabula. And this process of maintenance is represented by the acoustic root “u”.

When you create something in your mind, you are retaining it for a short while, then you are withdrawing it within your mind; you take it back within your mind. Similarly, He creates something and after some time He withdraws it. This process of withdrawal is represented by the acoustic root “ma”. For a mortal, this withdrawal is death, but for Him it is a simple process of withdrawal and nothing else. This process of withdrawal by Him is represented by the acoustic root “ma”, and that is why that day I told you, “ma” is the last letter, last consonant.

That is why it is “a” + “u” + “ma” = “aum”. That day I told you that “a” is the acoustic root of the generating faculty, “u” is the acoustic root of the retaining faculty, and “ma” is the acoustic root of the destroying faculty. Therefore He has three functions. He becomes G-O-D, that is, “Generator’s” first letter G; “Operator’s” first letter O; and “Destroyer’s” first letter D: “God”.