RELIGIOUS TEACHING ON CHILD- BEARING
BHAGAVAD GITA
ATHARVA VEDA
SRIMAD-BHAGAVATAM
BHAGAVAD GITA
(SPOKEN BY KRISHNA TO ARJUNA ON THE BATTLEFIELD OF KURUKSHETRA)
Chapter 14 Verse 3
My womb is the great Nature (Prakriti or Maya). In that the germ (embryo of life). Thence is the birth of all beings.
Chapter 14 Verse 4
Whatever forms are born, O Arjuna, in any womb whatsoever, the great Brahma (Nature) is their womb and I am the seed giving-father.
Chapter 3 Verse 38
As fire is covered by smoke, as a mirror is covered by dust, or as the embryo is covered by the womb, the living entity is similarly covered by different degrees of this lust.
Chapter 10 Verse 6
While Svayambhuva Manu and his wife Satarupa were manifestations of the two halves of the golden egg from whence sprang creation in one age as willed by the Supreme Lord. The 13 subsequent Manus were born from a mothers womb.
ATHARVA VEDA
VI,17- CHARM TO PREVENT MISCARRIAGE
As this great earth conceives the germs of the beings, thus shalt thy embryo be-held fast, to produce a child after preganancy!
VI,81 - A BRACELET AS AN AMULET TO ENSURE CONCEPTION
O bracelet, open up the womb, that the embryo be put (into it)! Do thou, O limit (setting bracelet), furnish a son.
1,11 - CHARM FOR EASY PARTURITION
The gods created the embryo. May they open her, that she shall bring forth! May Sūshan open: her womb do we cause to gape. Do thou, O Sūshan, loosen the womb, do thou, O Bishkalį, let go (the embryo)! I split open thy vagina, thy womb, thy canals; I separte the mother and he son, the child, along with the placenta. May the placenta fall down.
SRIMAD-BHAGAVATAM
CHAPTER 31
Lord Kapilas instructions on the movements of the living entities, how the living entity is conceived within the womb of the mother, how its body develops, and what its situation is.
VERSE 1
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.
VERSE 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.
VERSE 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.
VERSE 4
Within four months from the date of
conception, the seven essential ingredients of the body, namely bile,
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.
VERSE 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.
VERSE 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.
VERSE 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.
VERSE 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.
VERSE 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?
VERSE 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.
VERSE 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.
VERSE 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.
