1. 'What is the origin of this world?' 'Ether 1, 'he replied. For all these beings take their rise from the ether, and return into the ether. Ether is older than these, ether is their rest.
2. He is indeed the udgîtha (Om = Brahman), greater than great (parovarîyas), he is without end.
He who knowing this meditates on the udgîtha, the greater than great, obtains what is greater than great, he conquers the worlds which are greater than great.
3. Atidhanvan Saunaka, having taught this udgîtha to Udara-sândilya, said: 'As long as they will know in your family this udgîtha, their life in this world will be greater than great.
4. 'And thus also will be their state in the other world.' He who thus knows the udgîtha, and meditates on it thus, his life in this world will be greater than great, and also his state in the other world, yea, in the other world.
17:1 Ether, or we might translate it by space, both being intended, however, as names or symbols of the Highest Brahman. See Vedânta-sûtra I, 1, 22.
