The sound of it
The verse-by-verse series, recited aloud in classical Sanskrit — the texts returned to the voice they were made for.
ॐ Kaṭhopaniṣad
Kaṭhopaniṣad 1.1.7 — The Guest Is Fire
A brahmin guest enters like Vaiśvānara; Yama's household urges him to honour the boy who waited three nights.
Kaṭhopaniṣad 1.1.8 — What the Unfed Guest Destroys
Hope, good company, true speech, merit, sons, cattle — all lost from the house where a brahmin guest waits unfed.
ॐ Māṇḍūkya
Māṇḍūkya 1 — Om Is All This
The Upaniṣad opens with the praṇava — Om is the imperishable syllable, and all that was, is, and will be, and what lies beyond time, is Om alone.
मे Meghadūtam
Meghadūtam 1 — A Yakṣa Exiled to Rāmagiri
Kālidāsa opens the Cloud-Messenger — a yakṣa, heedless of his charge and cursed by his master, dwells in exile at Rāmagiri, weighed down by separation from his beloved.