॥ ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय ॥
Sunday, 23 October 2022 III.31 - Kapila explains how the Jiva develops in the womb and gets into the cycle of suffering again.
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Providence pushes the Jiva into another human birth when he is cleansed after suffering in hell and other lower life forms. The Jiva enters the mother’s womb through the seed of his father.
Kapila explains how the foetus develops, first as Kalala, then becomes disc-like after five days, called Budbuda. Then in ten days like an eggplant, called Karkura. In three months, progressively, his head, bones, limbs, hair and genitals are formed. (Modern ultrasound imaging can determine the gender with 98% accuracy after 12 weeks!)
By the sixth month, the baby can be felt by the mother kicking. He can feel hunger and thirst. Kapila says that the foetus is most uncomfortable, cramped, and in dirty surroundings. What the mother eats affects him. By divine will, the baby remembers his past lives and what Karma has brought him here. He begins to pray in a condition of utter suffering to the Lord.
जन्तुरुवाच
तस्योपसन्नमवितुं जगदिच्छयात्तनानातनोर्भुवि चलच्चरणारविन्दम् ।
सोऽहं व्रजामि शरणं ह्यकुतोभयं मे येनेदृशी गतिरदर्श्यसतोऽनुरूपा ॥
यस्त्वत्र बद्ध इव कर्मभिरावृतात्मा भूतेन्द्रियाशयमयीमवलम्ब्य मायाम् ।
आस्ते विशुद्धमविकारमखण्डबोधम् आतप्यमानहृदयेऽवसितं नमामि ॥
T: The baby cries, “I seek shelter at the feet of the Lord, who incarnates on earth divinely to redeem its inhabitants. It is His grace that I am here and now. Bound by my Karma, surrounded by His creation, I, as the Jiva, salute the Lord who is pure, immutable, indivisible, and omniscient, and dwells in every heart!”
“The Supreme Being is beyond Purusha and Prakriti. My Karma is due to His Maya. Only by His grace can I be redeemed. As a human, I have an understanding of the Lord’s creation and also my body-sense. I am most averse to being borne into the world again, although this womb is so uncomfortable! I know that the moment I am born, I shall be trapped in total ignorance. I therefore shall strive to avoid future births by remembering the Lord always!”
Come the tenth month, the baby is born. Head first he plunges into the world of ignorance. He cries aloud in distress. He cannot express himself, and those around him do to him what they think he needs. He can’t even resist what they do to him. In his cradle, he is bitten by mosquitoes and insects.
He grows up Into youth, proud of his body, going after his desires, pushing aside all opposition, totally unaware that what he gets as pleasure and pain is all the play of Karma.
All the Jiva’s actions from this point only accumulate more Karmas and prepare for hell and future births. Evil company destroys virtues like modesty, truth, kindness and self-restraint. He becomes a pet of womenfolk. Women’s enticements are Pramada, the door to the greatest fall for a man. Only Narayana in His avatara as Nara-Narayana has been able to resist the temptation of a woman.
A woman is the embodiment of Maya. Kapila makes it clear that whatever effect a woman has on a man is true the other way too. A woman falls for the man’s promise of wealth, children and a home, not knowing these are all the ruses used by Maya for her fall.
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The Jiva transmigrates in the subtle body called Linga Sharira when he leaves the material body. The Linga Sharira carries all Karmas and Samskaras. Birth and death are said to happen when the Linga Sharira gets a human body or leaves a human body.
Even when the physical eye is gone, the Jiva can see through the Linga Sharira. It just does not have a body with eyes. Therefore man need not fear physical death. He is also not in a pitiable state of victimhood, because he can always make his own destiny! Knowing what is explained here, as the Jiva, he should strive for betterment.
सम्यग्दर्शनया बुद्ध्या योगवैराग्ययुक्तया । मायाविरचिते लोके चरेन्न्यस्य कलेवरम् ॥
T: “Endowed with the right outlook, fortified by Bhakti, Yoga and Vairagya, a realistic understanding of the gloom of physical bondage, one should relegate his body to this illusory world through his reason. Thus one can live with detachment in this material world.”
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॥ ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय ॥
