Upanishads · Rudrākṣajābāla 2.15
॥
Devanāgarī
त्रयोदशमुखं त्वक्षं कामदं सिद्धिदं शुभम् । तस्य धारणमात्रेण कामदेवः प्रसीदति
Transliteration (IAST)
trayodaśamukhaṃ tvakṣaṃ kāmadaṃ siddhidaṃ śubham | tasya dhāraṇamātreṇa kāmadevaḥ prasīdati
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
त्रयोदश-मुखं तु अक्षंtrayodaśa-mukhaṃ tu akṣaṃbut the thirteen-faced seed
काम-दं सिद्धि-दं शुभम्kāma-daṃ siddhi-daṃ śubhamgives desire, gives accomplishment, auspicious
तस्य धारण-मात्रेणtasya dhāraṇa-mātreṇafrom the mere wearing of it
काम-देवः प्रसीदतिkāma-devaḥ prasīdatiKāmadeva becomes gracious
Translation
The thirteen-faced seed gives desire, gives accomplishment, is auspicious; from the mere wearing of it Kāmadeva becomes gracious.
Version
3b8d208d2e73 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Kāmadeva is the god of desire, the Indian Eros, who shoots arrows of flowers; and the very book that honors Śiva promises his favor. This combination is amusing and deserves explaining, for the story of the two is known to everyone. Kāma shot at Śiva while he was absorbed in concentration, to turn him toward Pārvatī — and was burned by the glance of his third eye; hence Kāma is called Ananga, "the Bodiless."
And here, in a book of Śiva, the grace of the god he burned is promised. There is, however, no contradiction here, and this is the whole point. Indian tradition does not reject desire and does not consider it evil: kāma is one of the four aims of a person — dharma, artha, kāma, mokṣa — on a par with duty, prosperity, and liberation.
The Vaiṣṇava side holds the same, but draws a distinction worth stating. Desire in itself is not sinful; what is sinful is its direction. One and the same movement of the soul, turned toward oneself, is called kāma, and turned toward God, prema; and the difference between them, in its words, is not in the strength of the feeling but in whom it serves.
Hence in Vaiṣṇava books one will not find calls to extinguish feeling. There it is called upon to be redirected, and the usual comparison is given: a river is not dried up, but diverted into another channel. This consideration, to my mind, is truer than the usual opposition of passion and dispassion. No one has ever managed to extinguish desire for long; many have managed to change its object.