Upanishads · Prāṇāgnihotra 2.3
॥
Devanāgarī
अनावित्येष बाह्यात्मा ध्यायेताग्निहोत्रं जोहोमीति । सर्वेषामेव सूनुर्भवति
Transliteration (IAST)
anāvityeṣa bāhyātmā dhyāyetāgnihotraṃ johomīti | sarveṣāmeva sūnurbhavati
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
अन्-आवृत्य एषः बाह्य-आत्माan-āvṛtya eṣaḥ bāhya-ātmāwithout turning away, this outer self
ध्यायेत अग्निहोत्रं जुहोमि इतिdhyāyeta agnihotraṃ juhomi itilet him contemplate: 'I perform the fire-sacrifice'
सर्वेषाम् एव सूनुः भवतिsarveṣām eva sūnuḥ bhavatihe becomes the son of all
Translation
This outer self, without turning away, let him contemplate: "I perform the fire-sacrifice"; and he becomes the son of all.
Version
5e663d540013 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Note the phrase sarveṣām eva sūnur bhavati, "he becomes the son of all." An unexpected phrase, deserving examination. A son, in Indian practice, is one who is obligated: he feeds his parents in life and performs libations for the ancestors after death. The word putra is interpreted as "he who delivers from the hell called put."
That is, it is said: one who performs this rite becomes a debtor to all. This can be read as a promise — he gains a son's rights in every house — but, to my mind, the first reading is truer, for it follows from the subject. A person who has turned his food into an offering has thereby acknowledged that the food was given to him; and one who acknowledges this becomes obligated to everyone by whose labor it was obtained — the plowman, the rain, the earth, the cattle.
The Vaiṣṇava side expresses this position through the list of the five debts, pañca-ṛṇa: debt to the gods, to the sages, to the ancestors, to people, and to living beings. Everyone is born a debtor, and rites are the payment. It adds also what matters most for it. To pay all five is impossible, for the debt grows faster than the payment; and so the Bhāgavatam says that one who has surrendered to the Lord is freed from all debts at once — devarṣi-bhūtāpta-nṛṇāṃ pitṝṇāṃ na kiṅkaro nāyam ṛṇī ca rājan (11.5.41).
This verse deserves knowing, for it removes the burden the list of debts imposes. Not "pay everyone," but "give yourself to the One to whom they all belong"; and the debts will be found paid, not by you.