1. “Speech is better than a name. Speech makes us understand the
Rig-veda, Yag-ur-veda, Sama-veda, and as the fourth the Atharvana, as
the fifth the Itihasa-purana, the Veda of the Vedas, the Pitrya, the
Rasi, the Daiva, the Nidhi, the Vakovakya, the Ekayana, the Deva-vidya,
the Brahma-vidya, the Kshatra-vidya, the Nakshatra-vidya, the Sarpa and
Devagana-vidya; heaven, earth, air, ether, water, fire, gods, men,
cattle, birds, herbs, trees, all beasts down to worms, midges, and
ants; what is right and what is wrong; what is true and what is false;
what is good and what is bad; what is pleasing and what is not
pleasing. For if there were no speech, neither right nor wrong would be
known, neither the true nor the false, neither the good nor the bad,
neither the pleasant nor the unpleasant. Speech makes us understand all
this. Meditate on speech.”
2. “He who meditates on speech as Brahman, is, as it were, lord and
master as far as speech reaches—he who meditates on speech as Brahman.”
“Sir, is there something better than speech?”
“Yes, there is something better than speech.”
“Sir, tell it me.”