सौभाग्यलक्ष्म्युपनिषदं नित्यमधीते योऽग्निपूतो भवति । स वायुपूतो भवति । स सकलधनधान्यसत्पुत्रकलत्रहयभूगजपशुमहिषीदासीदासयोगज्ञानवान्भवति । न स पुनरावर्तते न स पुनरावर्तत इत्युपनिषत्
saubhāgyalakṣmyupaniṣadaṃ nityamadhīte yo'gnipūto bhavati | sa vāyupūto bhavati | sa sakaladhanadhānyasatputrakalatrahayabhūgajapaśumahiṣīdāsīdāsayogajñānavānbhavati | na sa punarāvartate na sa punarāvartata ityupaniṣat
"Whoever daily reads the Saubhāgyalakṣmī-upaniṣad becomes purified by fire, becomes purified by wind; he attains all wealth and grain, a good son and wife, horses, land, elephants, cattle, she-buffaloes, slave girls and slaves, yoga and knowledge. He does not return again, he does not return again. Such is the upaniṣad."
4620b59a1992 · publicado 12 ago 2026, 5:00:00 UTC
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The book ends with a list of fruits, and this list must be examined plainly, for in it there is both good and something about which our own view must be stated. Listed are: wealth, grain, a good son, a wife, horses, land, elephants, cattle, she-buffaloes, slave girls and slaves, and only then yoga and knowledge. Let us speak first of the last and chief matter.
Dāsī-dāsa, "slave girls and slaves," are named among the goods on a level with horses and she-buffaloes. This is the inventory of an ancient householder's property; and in it people stand in the same row as cattle. We will not smooth this over: the owning of people is an evil, and its promise as a reward for reading a sacred book is something we do not accept.
It should be added that this very literature has something to set against this, and directly so. The Bhāgavatam (7.11.35) says that a brahmin is defined by qualities, not by birth; the Gītā (5.18) commands one to look equally on a brahmin and a dog; the Śāṭyāyani (4) commands bowing to the ground even before the outcast, for īśvaro jīva-kalayā praviṣṭaḥ. And both the Yājñavalkya and the Bhāgavatam are full of tales in which one who by custom was not let across the threshold is received into the house.
That is, this list belongs to the household economy of its time, not to the teaching; and the teaching does not agree with it. Let us add what is good in the list and worth noting. It says sat-putra-kalatra, "a good son and wife"; and it is worth noting that the wife is named among the goods not as property, but beside the son.
Let us look back over the whole book. It is composite, and in it are three unlike parts: the rite of Śrī (first chapter), yoga (second), and the nine circles (third). The finest things in it, to my mind, are four passages: Lakṣmī dwelling on the chest of the Lotus-navelled (1.8); "only for the desireless does it succeed" (1.12); the "Vaiṣṇava sound" at the top of the ladder (2.10); and the heart lotus facing downward and the lotus of space facing upward (3.4 and 3.9) — ascent as the unfolding of a flower.
And the chief thing worth remembering about it: a book about the goddess of abundance itself says that abundance is not given to those who came for it.