Sharanagati

(from a lecture of Swami Tirtha, 09.05.2019, Sofia)

(continues from the previous Monday)

Usually we consider the expectation, the blessed state of becoming a mother as something very unusual, very nice, a great feeling. And you start to communicate with your child. You start to listen to music in order for him to become a great musician. Or if you are very braminical, you start to chant mantras so that he becomes like a superhero, etc. But please, don’t listen to the stupid news while you are pregnant. Or don’t quarrel with your husband, because then that vibration will enter the mind of the child. And instead of a pink fairy, a red dragon will take birth. Beware – you can influence the mind of the child.
But what does the shastra say about this expecting period? Today we discuss birth as a reality of life. And I have to tell you that the Shrimad Bhagavatam gives quite a different version of this blessed expecting period. Don’t be surprised, because even an unusual opinion might help us to have a more detailed vision. So, it is said in the Third Canto, Chapter 31 Lord Kapila’s Instructions on the Movements of the Living Entities:
„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 a male semen to assume a particular type of body.”[1]
So, these are, so to say, the material instruments or ingredients of formulating a body, but the first step is the conception – and not the conception in the womb, but the conception of the concept. Because when the original soul starts to formulate false egotism, then according to this ideal he will develop a certain type of body; and then all the ingredients are coming together to make it happen. Everything is under divine control.
“On the first night, the sperm and the 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.” You see, a quite precise description of this conception.
“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 organs of generation and the other apertures in the body, namely the eyes, nostrils, ears, mouth and anus.” Beautiful! In one way, this is really a miracle! How is it that you mix two cells and something starts to happen?!
“Within four months from the date of conception, the seven essential ingredients of the body, namely the child, blood, flesh, fat, bone, marrow and semen come into existence. And at the end of five months, hunger and thirst make themselves felt, and at the end of the sixth month, the fetus, enclosed by the amnion, begins to move on the right side of the abdomen.” You see, this is the prediction of the gender of the child. If he moves on the right side, he is a male; if he starts to move on the left side, he is a female.
“Deriving its nutrition from the food and drink taken by the mother…”So far this is nice. Everything describes the situation, how it is: you don’t have a separate system, you derive whatever is provided by the body of the mother. Dear mothers, do you remember how it happened? You started to have desires. ‘I want to take this. I want to have that.’ Why? It’s not your desire, somebody else is with you. For example, you always hated strawberries. And then in December you want to eat strawberries. And your dear husbands, they go mad to satisfy your desires. Why? Because somebody else is with you; your future child has a desire. He wants, she wants to something. And then the sad story of the father starts. You say it’s your duty to cook as before, but you start to cook in a very baby-food manner. Because you yourself cannot take something spicy or this and that – immediately there is a reaction, isn’t that so? So, there is a very direct relationship between the mother and the baby.
“And the fetus grows and remains in that abominable residence of stool and urine, which is the breeding place of all kinds of worms.“ So, another version of this blessed expectation.
“Beaten 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 conditions.”[2] I told you before, it’s a different version.
I’m sure you have seen people when they are really frightened or in a panic situation, they start to embrace themselves just like a fetus. If the external conditions are very difficult, we might react in such a manner. Either to recall the memory of that protected state in the womb, or – according to this version – it gives the same feeling of this compressed suffering state.

(to be continued)

1. Shrimad Bhagavatam 3.31.1
2. Shrimad Bhagavatam 3.31.5-6