________________
THE MEMOIRS OF A CAT
all will be well. Again, we are back to words. To get out of this vicious circle, Hinduism teaches that, in the beginning, there was the word. (Christianity also says the same thing). The mystic symbol and sound Om is believed to be the foundation of language, and therefore to contain the csscncc of truth. It is highly intcresting to note that it can hardly be classified as a part of articulated speech. It is a sound which can be made by other animals than man. My mighty nephew, for instance, makes it to the terror of man. But the modern rationaliser (not rationalist) is there to protest against this profanity. He says that “Om” is a composite sound : A plus U plus M. Granted this is so, it is difficult to understand how the situation is improved. What the theory proves, if it proves anything, is that this sound originated with such primitive human beings as spokc a language only with two vowels and one consonant. Men who are so backward in the pro cess of developing articulate speech are scarcely differentiated from lower animals. Here we find not even a word, but a partially articulated sound, dominating the entire spiritual life of a people.
Why should one be spiritually elevated simply by repeating this half-articulated sound? Why “Mew Mew" should not serve the same purpose for me ? How can a meaningless syllable be the mystic emblem of the impersonal God ? How can one have religious feeling through the pre
