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2024-03-29, 4:35 AM |
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Chapter
31: Lord
Kapila's Instructions
on the Wanderings of the Living Entities
(1) The Supreme Lord said: 'Because of its karma the living entity as ordained by God through the particle of semen
of a man enters the womb of a woman in order to dwell there for
obtaining a body. (2) On the first
night the sperm and ovum mix, at the fifth night there is a bubble and
in about ten days it is thereafter like a plum, lump of flesh or an
egg. (3) Within a month a head appears and within two
months limbs like arms and feet form. The nails, [the beginnings of]
hair, bones, skin, reproductive organs and the apertures appear within
three months. (4) In about four months the seven ingredients
separate [body-fluids and other elements], in five months feelings like
hunger and thirst occur and in six months
the fetus starts to move around at the right in the amnion [males at the
right, females at the left so one says]. (5)
From the
nutrition taken from the mother the body of the fetus grows
as it stays in that impossible hollow whereabout stool and urine form a
breeding place for germs. (6) All the time aching for food, it is, being
so tender, affected by infestations ['worms'] and thus all over its
body has to suffer a great deal residing there, moment after moment
lapsing into unconsciousness. (7) The living being because of the excessive bitterness, heat,
pungency, saltiness, dryness, the sourness etc. of the food taken by
the
mother, is affected in every limb and thus feels pain. (8)
Enclosed by the amnion in
that place surrounded by the intestines it lies with a bent neck and back arched with its head in its belly. (9)
Like a bird in a cage with no freedom of movement, it [the
soul]
still
remembers - when it is lucky - what has happened in all
its hundreds of births. Remembering such a long history it may sigh
over them, for what peace of mind can it then achieve? (10) From the seventh month on it is endowed with
consciousness, but at the same time pushed down by the pressure of the
womb where it cannot stay, just like the worm stemming from the same
belly.
(11) The fearful living entity
bound to its seven constituents [nails, skin, fat, flesh, blood, bone,
marrow], then in its disgust, with folded hands and words of prayer,
appeals to the Lord who placed him in that womb. (12) The human soul says: 'May He protect me who
protects the entire universe and who with assuming His different forms walks the
earth with His lotus feet. Let me take refuge in that shelter that will
take my fears away, in Him who decided that I deserved this untrue condition. (13) I, the pure soul covered by the
grossness of matter which consists of the elements, the senses and the
mind, have because of my being bound to activities, fallen into this delusional state [mâyâ].
Let
me
offer
my
obeisances
so
that
I
may
hold
on
to
the
completely
pure
Changeless
One of unlimited knowledge who resides in the heart of
the repentant one. (14) I am,
contrary to what it should be, [as a spiritual soul] separated by the
covering
of this material body that is made of the five elements and based upon
senses,
material preferences [gunas], interests and cognitions, and so I
offer my obeisances to You, the Supreme Person transcendental to
material nature and its
living entities, whose glories are not obscured by such a material body. (15) By
the deluding quality of Your outer
appearance this body that by the modes and its karma is bound to wander
on the path of repeated birth and death, has to suffer considerably
with a
spoilt memory. May again this entity realize Your true nature. How else
would one find Your divine mercy? (16) What else but Your divinity,
that as a partial representation [the Paramâtmâ] dwells in
both the animate and the inanimate, would give us the knowledge of the
threefold of Time, of past, present
and future? In
order to be freed from the threefold misery [as caused by
oneself, nature and others] we as individual souls engaged on the path of
fruitive activities
have to surrender to that divinity. (17) Embodied
within the abdomen of another body, having fallen into a pool of
blood, stool and urine and strongly scorched by gastric fire, this
[individual soul with its] body desiring to leave that place, counts his months when
it as a miser will be released oh
Lord. (18) You granted me,
[not even] ten months old oh Lord, [the light of] Your
incomparable, supreme mercy. What
else can I do but to pray in
return with folded hands in
gratitude for that incomparable and unique grace of You who are the
refuge of the fallen ones? (19)
This
living being can, from its
bondage to the seven layers of matter [3.29:
40-45],
only understand what is agreeable and
disagreeable, but by You endowed with another body of self-control
within
myself, I am really able to recognize inside
of me You, the original person
who constitutes the inner guidance, as residing within my heart
as well
as outside of me. (20) Oh
Almighty One, even
though I who has to live with all the miseries outside of this
abdomen, rather not depart from here to land in that pitfall, I [just
as everyone] who enters this world at once will be captured by Your mâyâ and be
entangled in the false identification [of the ego] that is fundamental to the eternal cycle of
birth and
death. (21) Therefore
I will, well-disposed
to
the
soul
no
longer being agitated, deliver myself quickly again from that
darkness, by placing the feet of Lord Vishnu in my heart and thus spare
me this fate of having to enter so many wombs.'
(22) Kapila said: 'Thus desiring
from within the womb, the [almost] ten months old living entity extols
the
Lord at the time of being pushed downwards by the pressure of labor to
take birth. (23) Because of that pressure the child with its
head turned
downwards suddenly, with great difficulty and bereft of all memory, comes out
breathless. (24) Like
a worm falling down to earth it smeared with blood moves its limbs and
cries loudly now it has lost the wisdom in reaching the opposite
[material] position. (25) Being
maintained by its folks who do
not understand what it wants it, not being able to refuse, has
fallen into
circumstances it did not desire. (26) Laying
down
in
fouled
linen
[dirty
diapers
etc.]
the
child
is
pestered
by
germs
[suffering
rashes
on its body] it cannot scratch away from its limbs,
for
it is not able to sit, stand or move around. (27) Flies, mosquitos, bugs and other creatures
bite the baby its tender skin and being just like vermin pestered by
other vermin, it, deprived of wisdom, cries. (28) This
way undergoing infancy in distress and
even in its childhood out of its ignorance not achieving what it wants,
it gets angry and sad. (29) As
a
lusty
person
being
destructive
towards
other
lusty
people it
with the pride of its developing body,
because of that anger, then develops enmity at the cost of
the soul. (30) The
embodied soul in ignorance
holding on to non-permanent things then constantly reasons from the
physical reality made of the five elements and thus thinks foolishly in
terms of 'I' and 'mine'. (31) Engaged
in
actions
in
the
service
of
the
body
he
because
of
his bondage
to the dark motives of fruitive labor is followed by trouble [consisting of the so-called kles'as] and time and again moves in the direction of yet another
birth in the material world. (32) When
he on the materialistic path
again [only] is interested in human association for the sake of the
pleasure of his genitals and his stomach, the living entity lands in darkness as before. (33)
For associated thus he loses his sense of truth,
purity, compassion and gravity, his spiritual intelligence, prosperity,
modesty and his good name, as also his mercy, the control over
his mind and senses and
his fortune. (34) One
should not seek association with coarse and immoral fools
bereft of self-realization who like pitiable dogs dance to the tune of
the ladies. (35) Nothing
in
the
world
makes
a
man
as
infatuated
and
dependent
as
the
association
with
a man who is attached
to women or with a fellowship of men fond of women. (36)
The father of
man [Brahmâ] bewildered at the sight of his own daughter as a
stag shamelessly ran after her when he saw her in the form of a
deer
[compare 3.12: 28]. (37) Except
for
sage
Nârâyana,
among
all
the
living
entities
born
from
Brahmâ
there is not a single man whose intelligence is not
distracted by
mâyâ in the form of a woman.
(38) Behold the strength of My mâyâ in the
shape of a woman that even makes the conquerors of the world follow her
closely behind
by the mere movement of an eyebrow. (39)
One who aspires
to reach the culmination of yoga should never develop worldly
attachment
to a
[young, attractive] woman; they say that to someone who arrived at
self-realization in My service, thus associating with her is
the gateway
to hell. (40) The
woman created
by God is as an overgrown well [one falls into when one is
inattentive], she represents the slowly encroaching mâyâ, the illusory power of the material world
which
one must regard as death to the
soul. (41) She who from
being attached to women [in his previous life] became
a woman, due to illusion in regard of My mâyâ thinks
that aiming at the form of a man [her husband] will bring her wealth,
progeny and a
house. (42) She
[on her turn] should consider His mâyâ
consisting of her husband, children and house, as death
brought about by the authority of God alike the call of a hunter
[*]. (43) Because
the
person
incessantly
delights
in
working
for
the
fruit
of
his
actions,
the embodied individual
soul wanders from one world to the other. (44) Thus
he gets a suitable body composed of the material elements, the senses
and the mind. When that comes to an end it is called death but when it
manifests one speaks of birth. (45-46) When one [staring in meditation]
cannot perceive the fixed position of an object that implies the death
of one's sense perception, and when one regards the body as being
oneself that implies one's birth [in a material sense]. He who
perceives cannot at the same time regard an object as well as the
witness of the perception himself, just as the eyes are not capable
either to see at once all the different parts of a single object. (47) One
must not be horrified about death,
one must not stingily cherish poverty nor be concerned about any
material gain; when one understands the true nature of the living being
one should on this planet move about steadfast and free from attachment. (48)
When one relegates one's body to this world composed of mâyâ one should, endowed with the right vision,
move around therein in
detachment basing oneself upon
reason in being connected in the science of the [three forms of] yoga.'
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