ལས་བརྒྱ་ཐམ་པ་པ 6.10

6.10

While it is often said that praying to the deities can cause a boy or a girl to be born, this is not true. If children could be made just by praying, every family would have them a thousand times over, like a universal monarch. In fact, there are three circumstances that allow for the birth of a child: a child is born when (1) lust arises in the parents and they have intercourse, (2) the mother still has her menstrual cycle and is approached by a gandharva, and (3) the gandharva’s mind is either attached or angry.

Nevertheless, he remained intent on his prayers, and a great being took birth in his wife’s womb who was well renowned and had gained his final birth, had the good fortune to soon be liberated due to gathering the accumulations, had his sights set on nirvāṇa and had turned away from saṃsāra, had no desire for the states of rebirth in cyclic existence, and who had now assumed his final body.

A woman wise in nature possesses five extraordinary qualities. She knows (1) whether a man is attracted to her, (2) the time of her menstrual cycle, (3) that she has conceived, (4) from whom she has conceived, and (5) whether the child is a boy or a girl, for if it is a baby boy it will stay on the right side of the womb, and if it is a girl it will stay on the left side of the womb.

When the householder’s wife conceived a child she was overjoyed and told her husband, “My Lord, I have conceived a boy. He is staying on the right side of my womb, so rejoice, for it is sure to be a boy!”

At this the householder too was very happy. He puffed out his chest, put his right hand in the air, and expressed his joy, saying, “I shall see the face of the son for whom I have prayed for so long! May everything be right with my son, may nothing go wrong with him, and may he carry on my work! As I care for him, may he care for me in return! May he enjoy my inheritance! May my lineage endure for a long time! And after our passing, when we die, may he give gifts,