What is heavy for the capable? What is distant for the businessperson? What is foreign for the knowledgeable? Who is a stranger for the delightful speaker?

A single good tree with flowers fragrant, perfumes the forest entirely; a good son to his family does likewise.

A single dry tree burning with fire, burns the forest entirely; a bad son to his family does likewise.

A single good son, knowledgeable and well-behaved, delights the family entirely; like the moon delights the night.

Of what use are many sons who only cause sorrow and exasperation? Better to have a single son in whom the family finds restful peace.

Pamper a son upto five years; ten years thereafter use punishment; upon his attaining the sixteenth year, treat him like a friend.

From uprisings, from someone else’s doings, from famine, from a fearful surrounding, and from the contact of wicked persons, one who runs away, remains alive.

The person who refrains from Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha, takes birth after birth only to die; since for him the fruit of being born, is death only.

Where fools are not worshipped, where grain is amply stored, where there is no quarrel between husband and wife, there, Śrī, the goddess of wealth, herself comes on her own.