Upanishads · Mahā 3.7
॥
Devanāgarī
चिन्तानिचयचक्राणि नानन्दाय धनानि मे सम्प्रसूतकलत्राणि गृहाण्युग्रापदामिव
Transliteration (IAST)
cintānicayacakrāṇi nānandāya dhanāni me samprasūtakalatrāṇi gṛhāṇyugrāpadāmiva
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
चिन्ता-निचय-चक्राणिcintā-nicaya-cakrāṇiwheels laden with heaps of cares; windlasses full of anxieties
न आनन्दाय धनानि मेna ānandāya dhanāni memy riches are not for joy; my wealth brings me no delight
सम्प्रसूत-कलत्राणिsamprasūta-kalatrāṇihouses with families multiplied; dwellings with broods brought forth
गृहाणि उग्र-आपदाम् इवgṛhāṇi ugra-āpadām ivalike the abodes of fierce calamities; just like shelters of savage misfortunes
Translation
“My riches are no joy to me — they are windlasses laden with heaps of cares; and houses full of grown families are like the abodes of fierce calamities.”
Version
76e10560e348 · published Jul 29, 2026, 6:29:20 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The first things Nidāgha lists are those reckoned as goods: wealth and family.
Wealth is called cakra — “a wheel, a windlass”. The image is a household one: the windlass by which water is drawn from a well. It turns and turns, and its being full makes it no lighter.
Family is named more sharply. Honesty, not softening, is needed here: the verse does speak of a house with wife and children as a shelter of misfortunes.
But one must see from where he says it. Nidāgha is a youth just returned from wandering and resolving not to enter worldly life at all. This is the speech of a man on the threshold of renunciation, and in it everything that calls him back is painted dark.
The Vaiṣṇava tradition has never read such passages as a verdict on family life as such: it knows Janaka with his throne, and many householders among the saints. Not the household is evil — attachment as such is evil, and it is equally easy to breed in a house and in a desert.