उपनिषद् · Prāṇāgnihotra 1.4
॥
देवनागरी
याः फलिनीर्या अफला अपुष्पा याश्च पुष्पिणीः । बृहस्पतिप्रसूतास्ता नो मुञ्चत्वंहसः
लिप्यंतरण (IAST)
yāḥ phalinīryā aphalā apuṣpā yāśca puṣpiṇīḥ | bṛhaspatiprasūtāstā no muñcatvaṃhasaḥ
शब्दशः अर्थ
संस्कृतIASTअर्थ
याः फलिनीः याः अ-फलाःyāḥ phalinīḥ yāḥ a-phalāḥfruit-bearing and fruitless
अ-पुष्पाः याः च पुष्पिणीःa-puṣpāḥ yāḥ ca puṣpiṇīḥflowerless and flowering
बृहस्पति-प्रसूताः ताःbṛhaspati-prasūtāḥ tāḥborn of Bṛhaspati, they
नः मुञ्चतु अंहसःnaḥ muñcatu aṃhasaḥlet them free us from distress
अनुवाद
Fruit-bearing and fruitless, flowerless and flowering, born of Bṛhaspati — let them free us from distress.
संस्करण
224268cbe88e · प्रकाशित 12 अग॰ 2026, 5:00:00 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
A verse of the Ṛgveda (10.97.15), and in it the list deserves noting: phalinī and aphalā, apuṣpā and puṣpiṇī — "fruit-bearing and fruitless, flowerless and flowering." That is, all herbs without distinction are invoked, including those that give neither flower nor fruit. This detail is understandable in a healing hymn: the healer does not know in advance which herb will help, and so calls on all.
But there is something here worth noting beyond healing. The list is built so as to leave no one out; this device is constant in Vedic hymns: things are listed in pairs of opposites, to encompass the whole. We met the same structure in protective prayers — "from behind, from before, from above, from below" (Gaṇapati 3.2); and it was said there that behind the list of directions stands an acknowledgment of one's own exposure.
Here behind the list stands something else: the acknowledgment that help may come from where one does not expect. A fruitless herb helps no worse than a fruit-bearing one. The Vaiṣṇava side expresses this through its stories of who is accepted: the bandit, the debauchee, the dog-eater. All of them are, by outward reckoning, "fruitless"; and yet its books point to precisely these most often.
Let us add what follows from this for judging people. Fruitfulness is visible from outside, and so it is counted; but what will come of the fruitless-looking one, no one knows, not even he himself.