Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c6.122.1

v1.c6.122.1

thriving, for the good man and the capable things go badly, and so on. "To the one man, who sits still and does not stir, happiness comes, the other runs after toil, and does not reach that which is utterly beyond his grasp. Make it known unto me from man's own (empirical) nature wherein he makes his mistake. [Probably what is meant is : explain to me from his personality or nature, as determined by the karman; cp. xii, 290.13; 301.24.] The seed that came into being at one place (in the man) goes over to another (into the woman). If it has been set into the womb, then a fruit of the body comes into being, or none; we become aware that we vanish like the mango-blossom [liter., whose disappearance, that is like the mango-blossom, is perceived; the blossom is lost and leaves a fruit behind it, or does not; even so is it with the seed of man. Thus, if we read nivṛttir instead of the nirvrttir often confused with it. If this latter is kept to, then the meaning is the same : "whose growth is perceived as like unto that of the mango-blossom"]. For some persons that yearn for the continuation of the line, and strive to bring this about, no ovum comes into being, and to others who start back from pregnancy as from an angry snake a lusty boy is born. How then has he come into being, as though out of death? Poor fools that yearn for sons make sacrifices to the gods, undertake penances, and then shameful slurs for their family are born unto them, carried for ten months in the womb.