The Compendium of Bheḷa 4.5

Here indeed, vigor and brilliance exist constantly in the body. Their seats are twelve. They are as follows: skin, blood, flesh, fat, bone, marrow, semen, sweat, bile, phlegm, urine, and feces. When these are unimpaired, it is called health. But when they are impaired, wind, bile, and phlegm, becoming vitiated, produce disorders in the chyle and other [dhatus].

Now there are four wombs [of origin]. They are as follows: viviparous, oviparous, sprouting, and sweat-born. Among them, the viviparous are born endowed with a chorion, such as cattle, wild animals, humans, and others. Birds, fish, tortoises, snakes, and others are oviparous. Lice, bugs, moths, venomous insects, flies, and others are sweat-born. But grasses, creepers, trees, and vanaspatis are sprouting.

Among them, trees possess flowers and fruits. Vanaspatis possess fruits without flowers. Vīrudhs possess flowers and fruits, or are without flowers and without fruits. Creepers and annual plants mature with their fruit. Among them, those with white milk are cooling; those with red milk are […].

Here indeed, in thirty nights a man is united with chyle. Moreover, in these four wombs, when the chyles attain proper acquisition at the fertile period, then the fetus remains free from defect; in the opposite case, the opposite occurs.

One should indeed avoid the old blood for three days. And what is that old [blood]? That which flows from the beginning for three days at the fertile period, that is old. During those three days, when conception is attempted, the fetus does not stay; or if it stays, it is not capable of long life. But when the old blood has exited after three days and has ceased, for a woman who has bathed clean, the fetus entering on the fourth, sixth, eighth, tenth, and twelfth days becomes male. On the fifth, seventh, ninth, and eleventh [days], it develops toward femaleness. This intercourse of all [sorts] is said [to be suitable] up to seven nights; beyond this, intercourse [is forbidden] due to impairment or deficiency.

Indeed, blood dries up the body of women; therefore they do not see the menses [during pregnancy]. But when their bodies have full tissue-elements, then month after month they discharge the separate fluid-blood. And that menstrual blood, its entrance having receded, returns in a month.

When, however, that blood takes a vitiated course, then menorrhagia occurs in women. Drying up the body, one should treat it with remedies for lohitapitta.

For a pregnant woman, chyle develops in three ways in the body: for the state of the fetus, for the state of breast milk, and for the state of chyle.

Here indeed, sir, the abdomen is elongated from the firm fetus residing inside in the middle when a female child is within. When a male child is within, [the abdomen] is situated with a broad base, rounded, and without hollows. The abdomen is like a trough when both are within. When a female child is in the mother's abdomen, the left side is elongated; when a male child, the right; when a hermaphrodite, the middle. The left eye grows small when a female is within; in the case of a male, the right; both, in the case of a hermaphrodite. She steps forward with the left foot first, reacts first with the left eye and eyebrow, moves and mostly lies down on the left side, and mostly develops pregnancy cravings for female concepts when a female is within. In the reverse case, one should know that she carries a male.

Now indeed, the body of the fetus develops from six sources. They are as follows: from the body of water, from the body of wind, from the body of fire, from the body of earth, from the body of space, and from the body of chyle.

This person consists of just six constituents. The constituents, moreover, are the five elements and the unmanifest Brahman.

Among them, that which is rough and hard—namely, teeth, head-hair, body-hair, nails, feces, ligaments, bone, smell, the sense of smell, solidity, and heaviness—is [from earth]. That which is liquid, unctuous, or soft is watery.

So when, between the two who have united, the man experiences pleasure in the first part [of intercourse] and the woman at the end, then here a male is born resembling [the father] in major and minor limbs. Where, however, the woman accomplishes the purpose first and the man at the end, there a female is born resembling [the mother] in major and minor limbs.

Now if a man and a woman consume unctuous-free, wind-increasing foods at the fertile period and suppress their natural urges, the fetus of the two, emerging from blood and [semen] vitiated by wind, acquires stammering, deafness, speaking through the nose, or any other of the disorders of wind and pitta. Just so, when the parents consume pitta- and kapha-increasing [foods] at the fertile period, a fetus vitiated by pitta and kapha is produced.

Now indeed, fourteen sense-bodies enter the body of the fetus: seven divine and seven human, held fast and imperceptible.

Among them, the divine ones are the bodies of Brahman, the gods, Varuṇa, gandharvas, piśācas, asuras, and great kings. We shall explain them. Among them, one who is endowed with truth, uprightness, harmlessness, forbearance, self-control, and meditation, and who perceives the truth of the self—one should know him as having the body of Brahman.

One who has such character, acceptance, […], and is cheerful—one should know him as having the body of the gods.

One who delights in sacrifices, has a loving gaze, is fond of water, bathes for a long time, has tawny eyes, and possesses brown hair—one should know him as having the body of Varuṇa.

One who loves dancing, singing, and instrumental music, is constant in dallying with women, and takes delight in clean garments, fragrances, garlands, and unguents—one should know him as having the body of a gandharva.

One who loves liquor, meat, and fish, eats excessively of beef, is disgusting, frightens children, and sleeps excessively—one should know him as having the body of a piśāca.

One who honors his own elders [at first] but later hates them, is fierce, wrathful, and creates division among kinsmen—one should know him as having the body of an asura.

One who is steadfast, heroic, enjoys great pleasures, possesses great energy, and possesses great majesty—one should know him as having the body of a great king.

The human [bodies], through attachment, stand entirely as individual seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, smelling, pleasure, and pain, combined with the respective consciousness and in isolation. Endowed with these, a living being perceives signs, blinks, contracts, expands, and experiences what is to be experienced.

When it undergoes dissolution, then this in the end: water goes to the body of water itself, wind to the body of wind, fire to the body of fire, earth to the body of earth, and space to the body of space. According to the body, it resorts to the sense-body.

And here it is said: / While the body exists, constituent indeed regulates constituent; / and the mind and intellect of all reside in Brahman. / Thus said the venerable Ātreya. Thus ends the fifth chapter in the Section on the Body in the [Compendium] of Bheḷa. / Chapter Six. / Now we shall explain the minor treatise on the descent of the embryo into the womb in the Section on the Body; thus said the venerable Ātreya.