The Compendium of Kāśyapa 3.4.p28
Kāśyapasaṃhitā (Vṛddhajīvakīyatantra) 3.4.p28
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- Sanskrit
3.4.p28
pañcendriyāṇi tānyeva buddhīndriyāṇi hastau pādau jihvā guda upastha iti
[…] “Therefore, there are indeed only five seasons; because of its impossibility, there is no sixfold division.” In reply to this, it is said: “Their sixfold division was stated in the section on the measures of tastes (rasavimāna) for the purpose of the tastes.” […] Who divided time, which is an aggregate of minute fractions, into two types: auspicious and inauspicious? Both are of equal extent, distinguished into past, present, and future. There, the auspicious is the ascending cycle (utsarpiṇī), and the inauspicious is the descending cycle (avasarpiṇī). These two are again threefold according to the division of ages: the primordial age (ādiyuga), the age of the gods (devayuga), and the Kṛta age constitute the ascending cycle; the Tretā, Dvāpara, and Kali ages constitute the descending cycle. Because of their infinity, their measure is not stated. There, in the primordial age and the age of gods, beings originate with inconceivable dimensions; their actions, food, drink, movements, strength, and lifespan are indescribable. In the Kṛta age, however, the bodily build (saṃhanana) of embodied beings that arises is called Nārāyaṇa. Therefore, they say of it: its head is solid and without cranial bones; its bones are seats of pure strength (sattva), and its bodily shapes are firmer than a diamond; in its heart there are only ten great vessels; its skin and head are impenetrable and cannot be cut; its semen permeates everywhere; its height is one yojana; its residence in the womb lasts seven nights; as soon as it is born, it is capable of performing all tasks; hunger, thirst, fatigue, depression, sorrow, fear, envy, unrighteousness, anxiety, mental affliction, disease, and old age do not torment it; it has no dependence on breast milk; and its adherence to righteousness, asceticism, knowledge, special wisdom, steadfastness, and proper conduct is extraordinary. They say that half a palitopama is its maximum lifespan. Now, in the Tretā age, the bodily build of embodied beings that arises is called ardhanārāyaṇa. Its body consists mostly of a single bone, devoid of contraction and extension; its residence in the womb is eight months; it is sustained by breast milk; there are two cranial bones; there is a single joint on each flank; in the chest there are three bones, [and so too in] the back; the vessels of the trunk are twenty; and its semen […]; its maximum lifespan is a quarter of a palitopama, and its decline is half the qualities of the preceding. Now, in the Dvāpara age, the bodily build that arises is called kaiśika; its bones have minute pores of the size of a hair, its joints are widely spaced, it possesses the strength of a great elephant, its limbs are wrapped with vessels, its semen is present in the joints of its limbs, its maximum lifespan is an eighth of a palitopama, and its decline is half the qualities of the preceding. Now, in the Kali age, the bodily build that arises is called prajñaptipiśita. Its bones are three hundred and sixty, extremely porous, filled with marrow, and prone to breaking like reeds; it has four hundred muscle bellies; seven hundred vessels rooted in the heart; nine hundred ligaments rooted in the brain; two hundred channels (dhamanī) rooted in the palate; one hundred and seven vital points (marman); three great vital points; ten seats of life-breath (prāṇāyatana); five hearts; three hundred and eighty-one joints; fourteen large tendons (kaṇḍarā); forty-two brush-like networks (kūrca); six layers of skin; seven bodily tissues; microchannels of two types; for a born child, teeth erupt separately; residence in the womb lasts ten months; after one year, it stands upright and emits speech; its maximum lifespan is one hundred years; its entire body is attended by pleasure, pain, mental distress, disease, old age, and death; it is predominantly subject to hunger, thirst, heaviness, exhaustion, slackness, mental agitation, envy, anger, untruth, greed, intense suffering, delusion, and separation; it moves within the sphere of cyclic existence (saṃsāra) and is full of afflictions. Know that each pair of ages corresponds to sattva, rajas, and tamas. Thus the cause of creation of the person has been stated. Now we will declare the cause of aggregate manifestation: from the unmanifest arises the great principle (mahat); from mahat, the ego (ahaṅkāra); from ahaṅkāra, space and the other elements; these are the eight source-natures of beings (bhūtaprakṛti). The eye, ear, nose, tongue, and skin are the five sense organs; these very ones are the cognitive organs. The hands, feet, tongue, anus, and genitals are the five motor organs. Sound, touch, taste, form, and smell are the five sense objects. The mind, however, is beyond the senses. These are the sixteen modifications. They declare everything from mahat onward to be the field (kṣetra), and the eternal, inconceivable Self (ātman) to be the knower of the field (kṣetrajña). Its indications are consciousness, ego, inward breath, outward breath, opening and closing of the eyes, pleasure, pain, desire, aversion, memory, resolve, and intellect; in their absence, there is the designation 'dead'. Some declare the aggregate of body, sense organs, Self, and mind (sattva) to be the person; others declare it to be the Self alone. The absence and presence of cognition is the defining characteristic of the mind; its two qualities are oneness and atomic minuteness; it is single and separate because effort and cognition are not simultaneous. A sense organ coupled with the mind becomes capable of apprehending its object. The five great elements—space, wind, fire, water, and earth—are said to be the cause of the body; sound and the others are their qualities. The great elements are arranged by increase of qualities. Direction, Self, mind, and time are substances; qualities reside in substances. Space's characteristic mark is non-obstruction; wind's is movement; fire's is heat; water's is liquidity; earth's is stability. Of the sense organs with the mind as the sixth, three each operate at a distance and in close contact: mind, eye, and ear operate at a distance; smell, taste, and skin operate in close contact. All of that they describe as characterised by touch. To illustrate: just as a man who has ascended a palace with windows on all sides observes various objects through the windows, so this Self situated in the body, through unimpaired sense organs, [and through] the mind […]
Chapter on the human body with regard to different gotras.
The breath of life indeed divides the seed-element according to the number of bones;
for the seed, as soon as it enters, is enveloped by blood.
From semen comes bone, from bone comes muscle, and from both are ligaments declared to arise.
All the sense faculties of the embryo, as well as all its limbs and appendages,
arise simultaneously in the third month in proper order.
It moves, it becomes sentient, and it perceives sensations;
in the third month its organs are subtle yet manifested, and its mind is heightened.
In the fourth month the embryo attains stability in the belly, free from affliction;
a heightened heaviness of limbs then arises in the pregnant woman.
In the fifth month occurs the increase of muscle and blood, O Jīvaka;
therefore in the fifth month the pregnant woman is beset with emaciation.
In the sixth month occurs the increase of strength, complexion, and vital essence; greater is the fatigue of the mother.
Complete with all bodily tissues and limbs, endowed with vāta, pitta, and kapha
in the seventh month, the pregnant woman is therefore constantly fatigued at this time.
In the eighth month, the pregnant woman and the embryo exchange between each other;
owing to its connection with the nutrient-carrying channels, it also shifts because of fullness;
therefore at that time the pregnant woman is faint one moment and gladdened the next;
and she meets with danger, so the eighth month is not counted [favourably].
In the ninth and following months, its birth occurs in due order.
The actions done in its previous body, and the joy and sorrow of dwelling in the womb,
the newborn remembers only as long as it does not enter upon its means of sustenance.
Thus spoke the blessed Kaśyapa.
Thus ends the chapter entitled 'The Non-Consanguineous' in the Section on the Body.
The Chapter on Embryonic Descent in the Section on the Body.
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- English (machine translation) — English, machine translation