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II, 9, 16.
THE PROCREATION OF SONS.
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Prasna II, ADHYÂYA 9, KANDIKÂ 16. 1. (Now follows some) advice for him who is desirous of offspring.
2. The two Asvins have declared, that fame is gained by the procreation (of sons);
3. 'Performing acts which tend to prolong life and austerities, intent on the performance of the private recitation, and of sacrifices, and keeping his organs in subjection, let him carefully beget offspring in his own caste.'
4. From his birth a Brâhmana is loaded with three debts; these let him pay. A prudent man is free from doubts regarding the sacred law.'
5. 'If he worships the sages through the study of the Veda, Indra with Soma sacrifices, and the manes of his ancestors through (the procreation of) children, he will rejoice in heaven, free from debt.'
6. Through a son he conquers the worlds, through: a grandson he obtains immortality, but through his son's grandson he ascends to the (highest) heaven.' | (All that) has been declared in the Veda.
7. The Veda shows the existence of the three debts in the following (passage): ‘A Brâhmana is born loaded with three debts; (he owes) the studentship to the sages, sacrifices to the gods, and a son to the manes;'
readings are clearly corrupt, and so is the var. lect. of the Grihyasangraha, quoted in the Petersburg Dictionary, pindatarkukâh. Pindatakshakâh, 'the cutters or parers of the cakes,' is appropriate, because the remoter ancestors, who, as Govinda too declares, are meant by the term, obtain the fragments of the funeral cakes.
6. Vasishtha XVII, 5. 7. Vasishtha XI, 48. After this Satra the MSS. of the text
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