Aitareyabrahmana 7.3.p2

7.3.p2

vii. 13 (xxxiii. 1). Hariçcandra Vaidhasa Aikṣvāka was the son of a king; a hundred wives were his, but he had no son from them. In his house dwelt Parvata and Nārada; he asked Nārada: ‘Since now men desire a son, Both those that have and those that have not knowledge What doth a man gain by a son? Tell me that, O Nārada.’ He, asked in one verse, replied in ten: ‘A debt he payeth in him, And immortality he attaineth, That father who seeth the face Of a son born living. The delights in the earth, The delights in the fire, The delights in the waters of living beings, Greater than these is that of a father in a son. By means of a son have fathers ever Passed over the deep darkness; The self is born from the self