Upanishads · Yājñavalkya 15
॥
Devanāgarī
अलभ्यमानस्तनयः पितरौ क्लेशयेच्चिरम् । लब्धो हि गर्भपातेन प्रसवेन च बाधते
Transliteration (IAST)
alabhyamānastanayaḥ pitarau kleśayecciram | labdho hi garbhapātena prasavena ca bādhate
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
अ-लभ्यमानः तनयःa-labhyamānaḥ tanayaḥa son not obtained
पितरौ क्लेशयेत् चिरम्pitarau kleśayet ciramtorments the parents long
लब्धः हि गर्भ-पातेनlabdhaḥ hi garbha-pātenaand obtained, through miscarriage
प्रसवेन च बाधतेprasavena ca bādhateand through childbirth, he oppresses
Translation
A son not obtained torments the parents long; and obtained, he oppresses through miscarriage and through childbirth.
Version
4157558e885d · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
A second section of the same kind begins — about children; and it will take three verses. It is worth noting that it is built the same way as the previous one: misfortunes are listed, and the conclusion is drawn that it is better not to have them. Let us say a word about the method itself, for here it is seen applied to a subject easier to argue about.
Misfortunes can be listed for any undertaking. For farming: drought, hail, pests, crop failure. For a craft: injury, fraud, ruin. And every such list is true in its parts and false as a whole, for it does not count the reason the undertaking is done.
Here only hardships are listed: infertility torments, pregnancy oppresses, childbirth is hard, the infant falls ill, the boy misbehaves. And not once is what people have children for, after all, named. Let us add what is worth saying about the honesty of such a list.
In itself it does not lie: everything listed happens. What lies is the omission; and this device — to tell the truth and not tell the rest — is the most effective of all ways to deceive. The Vaiṣṇava side speaks of children differently, and draws distinctions. The Bhāgavatam calls attachment to offspring moha, "delusion," when it enslaves a person; and the same text commands maintaining a family as service, for the Gītā says: do your own work as an offering (9.27).
That is, what is condemned is not the child but the enslavement; and this book draws no such distinction here at all.