Canto 3 - Chapter 31: The stages of growth of a human embryo ...

Discourse XXXI

The stages of growth of a human embryo

The Lord resumed : By force of Karma (destiny), as directed by Providence, the soul (destined to be born as a man) enters the womb of a woman through the generative fluid of a man for the formation of a body. (1)
In the course of a night it is integrated by being united with the ovum, and in five nights it is rounded into the shape of a bubble. In a period of ten days it becomes as hard as a plum and later on it develops into the shape of a ball of flesh or an egg (in the case of oviparous creatures).(2)
In the course of a month a head is formed and at the end of two months hands, feet and other limbs take shape. By the end of three months the nails (of fingers and toes), the hair on the body, bones and skin appear, as also the organ of generation and the other apertures in the body (those of eyes, nostrils, ears, mouth and anus).(3)
In as many as four months the seven essential ingredients of the body (viz., chyle, blood, flesh, fat, bone, marrow and semen) come into being; while at the end of five months hunger and thirst make themselves felt: In the course of six months the foetus is enclosed by an amnion and begins to move in the right side of the abdomen (or in the left if it is a female). (4)
Deriving its nutrition from the food and drink etc., taken by the mother, the foetus grows and remains in that abominable receptacle of faeces and urine, the breeding-place of worms.(5)
Bitten again and again all over the body by the hungry worms in the abdomen itself, the creature suffers terrible agony on account of its tenderness and swoons away moment after moment.(6)
Nay, adversely affected by the bitter, pungent, hot, salt, dry, acid and other such irritating substances consumed by its mother, the foetus experiences a painful sensation in every part of its body. (7)
Enclosed by the amnion and covered outside by the intestines, it remains lying in one side of the abdomen with its head turned towards the belly and with its back and neck arched (like a bow).(8)
Unable to move its own limbs like a bird which cannot freely move in a cage, the creature in the womb finds its memory awakened by the will of Providence and recollects its doings committed during hundreds of previous lives and feels suffocated for a long time. What peace of mind can it have under such circumstances? (9)

The foetus, though endowed with consciousness from the seventh month of its conception, is tossed by the winds that press the embryo downwards during the weeks preceding delivery, and cannot remain at one place like the worm born of faeces in the same abdominal cavity. (10)
Tied to the physical body, made up of the seven ingredients (mentioned in verse 4 above), which are like so many cords to bind it, the human soul, which regards the body as his own self, is much afraid (of the process of gestation being repeated in other such births), and with joined palms he entreats and extols Him by whom he was cast into the womb, in a tone full of agony. (11)

The human soul says : I take shelter in the lotus-feet, which once trod the earth and bring immunity from all fear, of Him who of His own sweet will assumes various forms in order to protect the universe—which has sought His protection (from time to time)—and by whom I have been thrown into such a condition as this, which is quite becoming of my wicked self. (12)
I bow to Him who, having embraced Māyā in the form of this psychophysical organism (consisting of the gross elements, the Indriyas and the mind) in this womb, appears as bound by virtuous and sinful acts, and has His reality screened by Māyā, but who flashes on my afflicted heart as absolutely pure (untainted by Māyā), immutable and possessed of wisdom which knows no break. (13)
Though bodiless (in reality), I appear as clothed in a body made up of the five elements and as consisting of the Indriyas, the Guṇas (modes of Prakṛti), the objects of senses and the ego (a reflection of the intelligent Spirit). Therefore, I adore the all-knowing Supreme Person, the Controller of both Prakṛti (Matter) and Puruṣa (Spirit), whose glory can never be obscured by such veils (the body etc.). (14)
Having forgotten his own self under the influence of the Lord's Māyā, the embodied soul traverses the path of Saṃsāra (transmigration)—strewn with numerous shackles of Karma, having their source in the three Guṇas—undergoing hardships of many kinds. By what other expedient, then, than through the grace of that Supreme Being can he expect to realize his true nature? (15)
Who else than that Lord has bestowed upon me this knowledge of the past, present and future? For it is He who dwells in all animate and inanimate beings as the Inner Controller, who is no other than a part manifestation of the Lord Himself. Therefore, for soothing our threefold agony it is Him that we adore—we who are playing the role of a Jīva as a result of our Karma (destiny). (16)

Fallen into a sink of blood, faeces and urine within the abdomen of another body (the body of the mother) and with his own body scorched by the (mother's) gastric fire, this embodied soul (my own self) is anxious to get out of it, counting his months (the period of gestation). Oh, when shall this wretched soul be released (from this confinement), O Lord? (17)
Overflowing with compassion, it is Your peerless Self, O Lord, that has imparted to this creature, who is (hardly) ten months old, such (incomparable) wisdom. May that Protector of the afflicted (Yourself) be pleased with His own (benevolent) act (the bestowal of wisdom); for who can ever repay His obligations except by joining his palms (out of gratitude)?(18)

The other type of embodied souls (viz., birds, beasts and so on) perceives (experiences) by instinct only the agreeable and disagreeable sensations in its body. I, however, endowed as I am with a (human) body capable of practising self-control (and other spiritual disciplines), behold that most ancient Person, both without and within my heart, by virtue of reason conferred on me by the selfsame Person, who is as manifest as my own self, referred to as 'I' (19)
Though living in this womb a life full of numerous troubles, O Lord, I have no desire to get out of it and descend into the pitfall of the outside world; for the Lord's (Your) Māyā overtakes the soul who goes there, and in the wake of Māyā appear the false notion of 'I' (with reference to the body) and the consequent cycle of births and deaths.(20)
Therefore, having installed (in my heart) the feet of Lord Viṣṇu and shaking off all distraction of mind, I shall quickly redeem myself from the ocean of worldly existence with the help of reason, which is my greatest friend, so that this calamity (in the shape of transmigration), entailing many rounds of gestation, may not befall me again. (21)

Lord Kapila went on : When the ten-month-old Jiva, who has thus resolved even while in the womb, extols the Lord as aforesaid, the wind that helps parturition propels him forthwith, with his face turned downward, in order that the child may be born. (22)
Pushed downwards all of a sudden by the wind, the child issues out (of the womb) with great trouble, head downward, breathless and deprived of memory out of agony. (23)
Fallen on earth in a pool of blood and urine (discharged by the mother), the new-born babe tosses like a worm sprung from ordure, and having lost its wisdom (acquired in the womb) and reduced to a state (of self-identification with the body) which is just the reverse of wisdom, cries loudly.(24)

Being nourished by people who do not know the mind of another, it is given something which was not intended; and (the pity of it is that) the child is unable to refuse it.(25)
Laid on a foul bed infested by sweat-born creatures the (poor) creature is incapable even of scratching its limbs (to relieve itching), much less of sitting up, standing or moving itself.(26)
Just as smaller worms bite a big worm, even so gnats, mosquitoes, bugs and other creatures sting or bite the babe, who is most tender of skin and deprived of its wisdom (acquired in the womb), cries (bitterly). (27)

Having similarly gone through the painful experiences of infancy and boyhood too, the man (on attaining his youth) flares up due to ignorance when he fails to attain his desired object and is overcome by grief.(28)
His pride and anger growing with age, that seeker of sensuous enjoyment enters into hostility with (other) pleasure-seeking men for his own destruction. (29)
Clinging to the unreal, the foolish Jiva of misguided intellect constantly regards the body, made up of the five elements, as his own self or something belonging to him.(30)
For the sake of this body—which is a source of constant trouble to him and ever follows him, bound by ties of ignorance and destiny—he performs actions (of various kinds), tied to which he goes through repeated births and deaths.(31)
If under the influence of sensually-minded people engaged in the pursuit of sexual enjoyment and the gratification of the palate he delights in their ways again, he goes to hell as before. (32)
One should never cultivate the fellowship of those wicked fools, the toys of women, who are ever fidgety, have identified themselves with the body and therefore deserve to be pitied, nay, by whose company truthfulness, purity, compassion, control over the tongue, wisdom, prosperity, modesty, fair name, forbearance, control of mind and the senses and good fortune are blotted out of existence.(33-34)
The infatuation and bondage which accrue to a man form attachment to any other object are not so complete as those resulting from attachment to women and from the fellowship of men fond of women. (35)
At the sight of his own daughter (Saraswati) Brahmā (the lord of created beings) was bewitched by her charms and shamelessly ran after her in the form of a stag when she took the form of a hind. (36)
Among the creatures (gods, human beings and so on) begotten by Kaśyapa and others, (who had sprung from the loins of Marīci and the other sages, the mind-born sons of Brahmā), then, what male is there, save the (divine) sage Nārāyaṇa, whose mind is not distracted by the Lord's Māyā in the form of woman? (37)
Behold the might of My Māyā in the shape of woman, who by the mere play of her eyebrows treads under foot even the conquerors of the four quarters.(38)

He who aspires to reach the culmination of Yoga (in the shape of God-Realization) or who has realized his true nature by adoring Me should never cultivate the fellowship of young women, whom the scriptures declare as a gate to hell for him.(39)
Woman is a personification of Māyā (illusion) created by the Lord and slowly entraps man (under the pretext of service etc.). One should, therefore, regard her as death to oneself, even as a well whose mouth is covered with grass (is to an unwary traveller). (40)

Similarly the Jīva who has been endowed with the form of a women as a result of attachment to a woman (in his previous life) foolishly looks upon My Māyā, figuring as a man, as her husband, the bestower of wealth, progeny, house and so on.(41)
A woman should, therefore, know that Māyā as veritable death to her--in the form of a husband, progeny and house etc.--preordained by Fate, even as the song of a hunter (is to the deer).(42)
Moving from one sphere (the earth) to another (heaven or hell) with the subtle body, which is (falsely) recognized as the very self of a Jīva, the human soul goes on reaping the fruit of his actions (performed in previous existences) and unceasingly at the same time performing fresh actions (thus paving the way for future births).(43)
The subtle body (which is an adjunct of the Jīva) and that which accompanies it (viz., the physical body)--both these go to make the psycho-physical organism, which is constituted of the gross and subtle elements, the ten Indriyas and the mind. When this organism ceases to function as a whole, it is known as the death of a Jīva; while its beginning to function as a whole is spoken of as his birth.(44)
Just as when the eyes lose their capacity to see colour etc. (due to a morbid affection of the optic nerve or other such diseases), the sense of sight also gets deadened that very moment and the Jīva too, the seer of both (the eyes as well as the sense of sight), loses its power of sight, similarly when the physical body(the place where the perception of objects takes place) is rendered incapable of perceiving them, that is known as death (because when the physical body ceases to function, the subtle body too is no longer there to function); and when one begins to view the physical body as one's very self, that is called birth. (45-46)
Therefore, a man should neither view death with horror nor have recourse to stinginess in life nor give way to infatuation. Realizing the true nature of the Jīva, he should move about in this world free from attachment and steadfast of purpose. (47)
Nay, he should relegate his body to this illusory world through his reason endowed with right vision and strengthened by Yoga (concentration of mind) and dispassion, and move about (unconcerned).(48)

Thus ends the thirty-first discourse entitled "The Fate of the Jīva", forming part of the "Story of Lord Kapila", in Book Three of the great and glorious Bhāgavata-Purāṇa, otherwise known as the Paramahārīsa-Sarhhitā.