Upanishads · Garbha 11
॥
Devanāgarī
अथ योनिद्वारं सम्प्राप्तो यन्त्रेणापीड्यमानो महता दुःखेन जातमात्रस् तु वैष्णवेन वायुना संस्पृष्टस् तदा न स्मरति जन्म मरणानि न च कर्म शुभाशुभं विन्दति
Transliteration (IAST)
atha yonidvāraṃ samprāpto yantreṇāpīḍyamāno mahatā duḥkhena jātamātras tu vaiṣṇavena vāyunā saṃspṛṣṭas tadā na smarati janma maraṇāni na ca karma śubhāśubhaṃ vindati
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
अथ योनिद्वारम् सम्प्राप्तःatha yonidvāram samprāptaḥthen, having reached the gate of the womb; and so, arriving at the mouth of the womb
यन्त्रेण आपीड्यमानःyantreṇa āpīḍyamānaḥsqueezed as by an engine; pressed in the strait
महता दुःखेन जातमात्रःmahatā duḥkhena jātamātraḥwith great suffering barely born; with utmost anguish just delivered
तु वैष्णवेन वायुना संस्पृष्टःtu vaiṣṇavena vāyunā saṃspṛṣṭaḥbut touched by the wind of Viṣṇu; yet brushed by the vaiṣṇava wind
तदा न स्मरति जन्म मरणानिtadā na smarati janma maraṇānithen he remembers not births and deaths; then he forgets the births and the deaths
न च कर्म शुभाशुभम् विन्दतिna ca karma śubhāśubham vindatiand finds not his deeds good and evil; and discovers no more his good and evil acts
Translation
Then, having reached the gate of the womb, squeezed as in a press, with great suffering barely born, he is touched by the wind of Viṣṇu — and then he no longer remembers births and deaths, and no longer finds his good and evil deeds.
Version
ce81654f1bb9 · published Jul 29, 2026, 2:57:05 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The bitterest section of the book, and it is written in two lines.
First, birth as it is: “squeezed as in a press, with great suffering”. The word yantra means “engine, vice, press”; the book does not choose soft words.
Then — vaiṣṇavena vāyunā saṃspṛṣṭaḥ, “touched by the wind of Viṣṇu”.
What wind is this? The breath entering the newborn at the first inhalation; and it is called Viṣṇu's because it belongs to Him who upholds the worlds.
And this is its effect: na smarati — “he does not remember”.
All that was remembered in the ninth month — the thousands of wombs, the deeds for which he burned alone, the four vows — is wiped out by a single breath.
Let us understand how to read this. It is easy to count the forgetting a misfortune; but the book makes it an act of Viṣṇu, not an accident.
And if one thinks it through, life could not be lived otherwise. One who remembered his thousands of deaths would not rise from where he sat.
Forgetting, then, is a mercy — and it is also the calamity. Both at once; and that is why the whole book will end not with a lament but with an inquiry into what this body may be good for.