S.B. Canto 3 Ch 31. Lord Kapila's Instructions on the Movements of the Living Entities


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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.


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.


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.


When the body of the child is completely formed at the end of six months, the child, if he is male, begins to move on the right side, and if

female, she tries to move on the left side.


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.


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.


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.


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.

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?


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.


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.


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.


I, the pure soul, appearing now bound by my activities, am lying in the womb of my mother by the arrangement of maya. 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.


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.


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?

No one other than the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as the localized Paramatma, 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.


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?"


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.


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.


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-maya,

at once captures the newly born child, and immediately false

identification, which is the beginning of the cycle of continual

birth and death, begins.


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 Vishnu

in my mind, I shall be saved from entering into the wombs of many

mothers for repeated birth and death.


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PURPORT

The miseries of material existence begin from the very day when the spirit soul takes shelter in the ovum and sperm of the mother and

father, they continue after he is born from the womb, and then they

are further prolonged. We do not know where the suffering ends. It

does not end, however, by one's changing his body. The change of body

is taking place at every moment, but that does not mean that we are

improving from the fetal condition of life to a more comfortable

condition. The best thing is, therefore, to develop Krishna

consciousness. Here it is stated, upasadita-vishnu-padah.

This means realization of Krishna consciousness. One

who is intelligent, by the grace of the Lord, and develops Krishna

consciousness, is successful in his life because simply by keeping

himself in Krishna consciousness, he will be saved

from the repetition of birth and death.

The child prays that it is better to remain within the womb of darkness and be constantly absorbed in Krishna consciousness

than to get out and again fall a victim to the illusory energy. The

illusory energy acts within the abdomen as well as outside the

abdomen, but the trick is that one should remain Krishna

conscious, and then the effect of such a horrible condition cannot

act unfavorably upon him. In Bhagavad-gita it is said

that one's intelligence is his friend, and the same intelligence can

also be his enemy. Here also the same idea is repeated:

suhridatmanaiva, friendly intelligence. Absorption of

intelligence in the personal service of Krishna and

full consciousness of Krishna always are the path of

self-realization and liberation. Without being unnecessarily

agitated, if we take to the process of Krishna

consciousness by constantly chanting Hare Krishna,

Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna,

Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare

Hare, the cycle of birth and death can be stopped for good.

It may be questioned herein how the child can be fully Krishna conscious within the womb of the mother without any paraphernalia

with which to execute Krishna consciousness. It is

not necessary to arrange for paraphernalia to worship the Supreme

Personality of Godhead, Vishnu. The child wants to remain

within the abdomen of its mother and at the same time wants to become

free from the clutches of maya. One does not need any

material arrangement to cultivate Krishna

consciousness. One can cultivate Krishna

consciousness anywhere and everywhere, provided he can always think

of Krishna. The maha-mantra, Hare Krishna,

Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna,

Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare

Hare, can be chanted even within the abdomen of one's mother. One can

chant while sleeping, while working, while imprisoned in the womb or

while outside. This Krishna consciousness cannot be

checked in any circumstance. The conclusion of the child's prayer is:

"Let me remain in this condition; although it is very miserable,

it is better not to fall a victim to maya again by going

outside."

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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.


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.


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 maya.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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


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.


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.


At the sight of his own daughter, Brahma 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.


Amongst all kinds of living entities begotten by Brahma, namely men, demigods and animals, none but the sage Narayana is

immune to the attraction of maya in the form of woman.


Just try to understand the mighty strength of My maya 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.


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.


The woman, created by the Lord, is the representation of maya, and one who associates with such maya by accepting services

must certainly know that this is the way of death, just like a blind

well covered with grass.


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 maya in the form of a man, her husband, as the

bestower of wealth, progeny, house and other material assets.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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PURPORT

It is sometimes misunderstood that if one has to associate with persons engaged in devotional service, he will not be able to solve the

economic problem. To answer this argument, it is described here that

one has to associate with liberated persons not directly, physically,

but by understanding, through philosophy and logic, the problems of

life. It is stated here, samyag-darsanaya buddhya:

one has to see perfectly, and by intelligence and yogic practice one

has to renounce this world. That renunciation can be achieved by the

process recommended in the Second Chapter of the First Canto of

Srimad-Bhagavatam.

The devotee's intelligence is always in touch with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. His attitude towards the material existence

is one of detachment, for he knows perfectly well that this material

world is a creation of illusory energy. Realizing himself to be part

and parcel of the Supreme Soul, the devotee discharges his devotional

service and is completely aloof from material action and reaction.

Thus at the end he gives up his material body, or the material

energy, and as pure soul he enters the kingdom of God.


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