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Canto 3: The Status QuoChapter 31: Lord Kapila's Instructions on the

Movements of the Living Entities

 

Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Œr•mad Bh•gavatam

SB 3.31.1: The Personality of Godhead said: Under the supervision of the

Supreme Lord and according to the result of his work, the living entity, the

soul,

is made to enter into the womb of a woman through the particle of male semen

to assume a particular type of body.

SB 3.31.2: On the first night, the sperm and ovum mix, and on the fifth night

the mixture ferments into a bubble. On the tenth night it develops into a

form like a plum, and after that, it gradually turns into a lump of flesh or an

 

egg, as the case may be.

SB 3.31.3: In the course of a month, a head is formed, and at the end of two

months the hands, feet and other limbs take shape. By the end of three months,

the nails, fingers, toes, body hair, bones and skin appear, as do the organ

of generation and the other apertures in the body, namely the eyes, nostrils,

ears, mouth and anus.

SB 3.31.4: Within four months from the date of conception, the seven

essential ingredients of the body, namely chyle, blood, flesh, fat, bone,

marrow and

semen, come into existence. At the end of five months, hunger and thirst make

themselves felt, and at the end of six months, the fetus, enclosed by the

amnion, begins to move on the right side of the abdomen.

SB 3.31.5: Deriving its nutrition from the food and drink taken by the

mother, the fetus grows and remains in that abominable residence of stools and

urine, which is the breeding place of all kinds of worms.

SB 3.31.6: Bitten again and again all over the body by the hungry worms in

the abdomen itself, the child suffers terrible agony because of his tenderness.

 

He thus becomes unconscious moment after moment because of the terrible

condition.

SB 3.31.7: Owing to the mother's eating bitter, pungent foodstuffs, or food

which is too salty or too sour, the body of the child incessantly suffers pains

 

which are almost intolerable.

SB 3.31.8: Placed within the amnion and covered outside by the intestines,

the child remains lying on one side of the abdomen, his head turned towards his

 

belly and his back and neck arched like a bow.

SB 3.31.9: The child thus remains just like a bird in a cage, without freedom

of movement. At that time, if the child is fortunate, he can remember all the

troubles of his past one hundred births, and he grieves wretchedly. What is

the possibility of peace of mind in that condition?

SB 3.31.10: Thus endowed with the development of consciousness from the

seventh month after his conception, the child is tossed downward by the airs

that

press the embryo during the weeks preceding delivery. Like the worms born of

the same filthy abdominal cavity, he cannot remain in one place.

SB 3.31.11: The living entity in this frightful condition of life, bound by

seven layers of material ingredients, prays with folded hands, appealing to the

 

Lord, who has put him in that condition.

SB 3.31.12: The human soul says: I take shelter of the lotus feet of the

Supreme Personality of Godhead, who appears in His various eternal forms and

walks

on the surface of the world. I take shelter of Him only, because He can give

me relief from all fear and from Him I have received this condition of life,

which is just befitting my impious activities.

SB 3.31.13: I, the pure soul, appearing now bound by my activities, am lying

in the womb of my mother by the arrangement of m•y•. I offer my respectful

obeisances unto Him who is also here with me but who is unaffected and

changeless. He is unlimited, but He is perceived in the repentant heart. To Him

I offer

my respectful obeisances.

SB 3.31.14: I am separated from the Supreme Lord because of my being in this

material body, which is made of five elements, and therefore my qualities and

senses are being misused, although I am essentially spiritual. Because the

Supreme Personality of Godhead is transcendental to material nature and the

living entities, because He is devoid of such a material body, and because He

is

always glorious in His spiritual qualities, I offer my obeisances unto Him.

SB 3.31.15: The human soul further prays: The living entity is put under the

influence of material nature and continues a hard struggle for existence on

the path of repeated birth and death. This conditional life is due to his

forgetfulness of his relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Therefore, without the Lord's mercy, how can he again engage in the

transcendental

loving service of the Lord?

SB 3.31.16: No one other than the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as the

localized Param•tm•, the partial representation of the Lord, is directing all

inanimate and animate objects. He is present in the three phases of time —

past,

present and future. Therefore, the conditioned soul is engaged in different

activities by His direction, and in order to get free from the threefold

miseries of this conditional life, we have to surrender unto Him only.

SB 3.31.17: Fallen into a pool of blood, stool and urine within the abdomen

of his mother, his own body scorched by the mother's gastric fire, the embodied

 

soul, anxious to get out, counts his months and prays, "O my Lord, when shall

I, a wretched soul, be released from this confinement?"

SB 3.31.18: My dear Lord, by Your causeless mercy I am awakened to

consciousness, although I am only ten months old. For this causeless mercy of

the

Supreme Personality of Godhead, the friend of all fallen souls, there is no way

to

express my gratitude but to pray with folded hands.

SB 3.31.19: The living entity in another type of body sees only by instinct;

he knows only the agreeable and disagreeable sense perceptions of that

particular body. But I have a body in which I can control my senses and can

understand my destination; therefore, I offer my respectful obeisances to the

Supreme

Personality of Godhead, by whom I have been blessed with this body and by whose

 

grace I can see Him within and without.

SB 3.31.20: Therefore, my Lord, although I am living in a terrible condition,

I do not wish to depart from my mother's abdomen to fall again into the blind

well of materialistic life. Your external energy, called deva-m•y•, at once

captures the newly born child, and immediately false identification, which is

the beginning of the cycle of continual birth and death, begins.

SB 3.31.21: Therefore, without being agitated any more, I shall deliver

myself from the darkness of nescience with the help of my friend, clear

consciousness. Simply by keeping the lotus feet of Lord Vis•n•u in my mind, I

shall be

saved from entering into the wombs of many mothers for repeated birth and

death.

SB 3.31.22: Lord Kapila continued: The ten-month-old living entity has these

desires even while in the womb. But while he thus extols the Lord, the wind

that helps parturition propels him forth with his face turned downward so that

he may be born.

SB 3.31.23: Pushed downward all of a sudden by the wind, the child comes out

with great trouble, head downward, breathless and deprived of memory due to

severe agony.

SB 3.31.24: The child thus falls on the ground, smeared with stool and blood,

and plays just like a worm germinated from the stool. He loses his superior

knowledge and cries under the spell of m•y•.

SB 3.31.25: After coming out of the abdomen, the child is given to the care

of persons who are unable to understand what he wants, and thus he is nursed by

 

such persons. Unable to refuse whatever is given to him, he falls into

undesirable circumstances.

SB 3.31.26: Laid down on a foul bed infested with sweat and germs, the poor

child is incapable of scratching his body to get relief from his itching

sensation to say nothing of sitting up, standing or even moving.

SB 3.31.27: In his helpless condition, gnats, mosquitoes, bugs and other

germs bite the baby, whose skin is tender, just as smaller worms bite a big

worm.

The child, deprived of his wisdom, cries bitterly.

SB 3.31.28: In this way, the child passes through his childhood, suffering

different kinds of distress, and attains boyhood. In boyhood also he suffers

pain over desires to get things he can never achieve. And thus, due to

ignorance,

he becomes angry and sorry.

SB 3.31.29: With the growth of the body, the living entity, in order to

vanquish his soul, increases his false prestige and anger and thereby creates

enmity towards similarly lusty people.

SB 3.31.30: By such ignorance the living entity accepts the material body,

which is made of five elements, as himself. With this misunderstanding, he

accepts nonpermanent things as his own and increases his ignorance in the

darkest

region.

SB 3.31.31: For the sake of the body, which is a source of constant trouble

to him and which follows him because he is bound by ties of ignorance and

fruitive activities, he performs various actions which cause him to be

subjected to

repeated birth and death.

SB 3.31.32: If, therefore, the living entity again associates with the path

of unrighteousness, influenced by sensually minded people engaged in the

pursuit of sexual enjoyment and the gratification of the palate, he again goes

to

hell as before.

SB 3.31.33: He becomes devoid of truthfulness, cleanliness, mercy, gravity,

spiritual intelligence, shyness, austerity, fame, forgiveness, control of the

mind, control of the senses, fortune and all such opportunities.

SB 3.31.34: One should not associate with a coarse fool who is bereft of the

knowledge of self-realization and who is no more than a dancing dog in the

hands of a woman.

SB 3.31.35: The infatuation and bondage which accrue to a man from attachment

to any other object is not as complete as that resulting from attachment to a

woman or to the fellowship of men who are fond of women.

SB 3.31.36: At the sight of his own daughter, Brahm• was bewildered by her

charms and shamelessly ran up to her in the form of a stag when she took the

form of a hind.

SB 3.31.37: Amongst all kinds of living entities begotten by Brahm•, namely

men, demigods and animals, none but the sage N•r•yan•a is immune to the

attraction of m•y• in the form of woman.

SB 3.31.38: Just try to understand the mighty strength of My m•y• in the

shape of woman, who by the mere movement of her eyebrows can keep even the

greatest conquerors of the world under her grip.

SB 3.31.39: One who aspires to reach the culmination of yoga and has realized

his self by rendering service unto Me should never associate with an

attractive woman, for such a woman is declared in the scripture to be the

gateway to

hell for the advancing devotee.

SB 3.31.40: The woman, created by the Lord, is the representation of m•y•,

and one who associates with such m•y• by accepting services must certainly

know that this is the way of death, just like a blind well covered with grass.

SB 3.31.41: A living entity who, as a result of attachment to a woman in his

previous life, has been endowed with the form of a woman, foolishly looks upon

m•y• in the form of a man, her husband, as the bestower of wealth, progeny,

house and other material assets.

SB 3.31.42: A woman, therefore, should consider her husband, her house and

her children to be the arrangement of the external energy of the Lord for her

death, just as the sweet singing of the hunter is death for the deer.

SB 3.31.43: Due to his particular type of body, the materialistic living

entity wanders from one planet to another, following fruitive activities. In

this

way, he involves himself in fruitive activities and enjoys the result

incessantly.

SB 3.31.44: In this way the living entity gets a suitable body with a

material mind and senses, according to his fruitive activities. When the

reaction of

his particular activity comes to an end, that end is called death, and when a

particular type of reaction begins, that beginning is called birth.

SB 3.31.45-46: When the eyes lose their power to see color or form due to

morbid affliction of the optic nerve, the sense of sight becomes deadened. The

living entity, who is the seer of both the eyes and the sight, loses his power

of vision. In the same way, when the physical body, the place where perception

of objects occurs, is rendered incapable of perceiving, that is known as

death. When one begins to view the physical body as one's very self, that is

called

birth.

SB 3.31.47: Therefore, one should not view death with horror, nor have

recourse to defining the body as soul, nor give way to exaggeration in enjoying

the

bodily necessities of life. Realizing the true nature of the living entity,

one should move about in the world free from attachment and steadfast in

purpose.

SB 3.31.48: Endowed with right vision and strengthened by devotional service

and a pessimistic attitude towards material identity, one should relegate his

body to this illusory world through his reason. Thus one can be unconcerned

with this material world.

The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International, Inc.

His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhup•da, Founder •c•rya of the

International Society for Krishna Consciousness