Within the great forest of life 'Kardama Muni' the great sage of antiquity had decided to take up the renounced order known as 'Sannyasa' yet before he departed from his loyal wife 'Devahuti' he gave her a child whose name was 'Kapila Muni' an expansion of the Supreme who had descended to disseminate transcendental knowledge.

 

Devahuti knew of the divine nature of her child and although her husband had now left her alone within the great forest he promised her that the child, who was an expansion of the Supreme, would not only satisfy her heart, he would enlighten her with transcendental knowledge.

 

As the child grew under the loving care of Devahuti, he instructed her in the philosophy of 'Sankhya' a system of metaphysics which culminates in the realisation of the absolute truth and within these teachings we find an amazing description of life within the womb, a description going back in time at least 5000 years when Vyasadeva compiled the ancient Puranas.

 

 

My dear mother, said the great sage Kapila, under the supervision of the Supreme and according to the results of his work, the living entity, the soul, is made to enter 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, on the fifth night the mixture ferments into a bubble and on the tenth night it develops into a form like a plum and then after that it gradually turns into a lump of flesh or an egg, as the case may be.

 

Within the course of a month a head is formed, at the end of two months the hands, feet and other limbs take shape, after 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.

 

 

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

 

Deriving its nutrition from the food and drink which is taken by the mother, the foetus grows and remains within 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 within the abdomen itself, the child suffers terrible agony because of his tenderness and thus he becomes unconscious moment after moment because of such a terrible condition.

 

 

 

Owing to the mother and her consumption of bitter and pungent foodstuffs, or foods which are too salty and 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 upon one side of the abdomen, his head turned towards his belly and his back and neck arched like a bow.

 

The child thus remains like a bird in a cage, without freedom of movement and at that time, if the child is fortunate, he can remember all the troubles of his past one hundred births and grieves wretchedly, what is the possibility of peace of mind in such a condition.

 

 

Thus endowed with the development of consciousness from the seventh month of its conception, the child is tossed downward by the airs which press the embryo during the weeks preceding delivery and like the worms born of the same filthy abdominal cavity, he cannot remain in one place.

 

The living entity within this frightful condition of life, bound by seven layers of material ingredients, prays with folded hands as he appeals to the Lord who has placed him within such a condition.

 

The ten month old living entity has these desires even while it resides within the womb, but while he thus petitions the Lord, the wind which helps parturition propels the foetus forth with his face turned downwards so that he may take birth.

 

 

 

As the foetus is pushed down 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  and thus the child falls to the ground smeared with stool and blood and plays just as a worm germinated from the stool and as he loses his superior knowledge he cries under the spell of maya.

 

The child is then placed within the hands of those who are unable to understand what he wants and he is thus nursed by such persons and as he is unable to refuse whatever is given to him, he falls into undesirable circumstances.

 

As he lays upon a foul bed infested with sweat and germs, the poor child is incapable of scratching his body to get relief from its itching sensation to say nothing of sitting up, standing or moving and in such a helpless condition, gnats, mosquitos, bugs and other germs bite the baby, whose skin is tender, just as smaller worms bite bigger worms and thus deprived of its wisdom, the child cries bitterly.

 

 

 

In this way the child passes through his childhood suffering different kinds of distress and attains boyhood where he suffers pain due to his desire to attain 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 thereby creating enmity towards similar lusty people and under such ignorance the living entity accepts this material body, composed of five elements, as himself, and thus he accepts non permanent things as his own and increases his ignorance within this 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.