Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c13.11

v2.c13.11

the fruit of the womb comes into being. But how it is with the unborn Purusha ¹—let that be told.” Bṛhaspati spoke : “ The Purusha is but in the neighbourhood, and so is taken hold of by these elements (bhūta), and when separated from these elements, it goes again to another existence. Bound up with all the elements, it partakes (of a new embodiment) as an individual soul ; then the godheads dwelling in the five primary elements see its work (karman), be it good or bad. What wouldst thou hear further ? ” Yudhishṭhira spoke : “ When the individual soul has left skin, bones, and flesh, and is freed from these primary elements (bhūta), where does it then know pleasure and pain ? ” Bṛhaspati spoke : “ Bound up with the karman, it goes swiftly into seed-state (retastva, state, or being, as seed), and then, after it has met the menstrual blood (pushpa) of women, is born at its time, O son of the Bharatas. Torment at the hands of Yama’s servants, hurt at the hands of Yama’s servants, and the painful wheel of the Saṃsāras—torment the human being goes through. And in this world here the living being from birth onwards, O lord of the earth, enjoys what good it has done by works, as a result of the fruit of merit through works ” (xiii, 111.27 ff.). “ Out of the idea arises sexual excitement ² ; it arises also from the tone ; it arises also from the taste; it arises also from the form (it arises also from the feeling with touch ; it arises also from the smell). Out of the seed mingled with the blood (of the woman) comes forth first the Prāṇa. When the seed has been altered by the Prāṇa, then the Apāna comes forth. It is formed out of the seed, and it is formed out of the menstrual fluid ; the pleasure aroused during union, that is the figure of the Udāna. Out of the yearning of love is the seed born ; out of the seed is sexual passion born. But seed and blood had been brought into being in the same fashion, through the Samāna (which digests the food), and the Vyāna (which assimilates the food fluid)” (xiv, 24.5 ff.).¹ “How man, penetrated by his karman, filled with love and hate, comes into the mother’s womb—hearken to this fully. The seed mingled with the blood (of the woman) which has come into the womb as holder, obtains thereby a field (abode, body), a good one or a bad, as his karman may bring. As a result of its tenuity and undeveloped state, and if it, as a Brahman (in the word’s true meaning) has attained to its wish (the redeeming knowledge), thereby it cleaves nowhere—the eternal Brahman (neuter). This is the source (bīja) of all beings; through this it is that creatures live. When this soul has penetrated all the limbs of the fruit of the womb, part by part, it at once gives it the gift of consciousness, taking up its place in the abodes of the breaths of life. Thereupon the fruit of the womb, endowed with consciousness, moves the limbs. . . As fire makes its way into the lump of iron, and brings it to glow all through, so do thou look on the soul’s going into the fruit of the womb” (xiv, 18.4 ff.). Yayāti spoke (to Aṣṭaka) : “He (he that takes on a body, that is, the soul) accompanies the tear-drop, the seed poured forth by the man, bound up with the fruit of the flower (with the karman); he meets her (the woman’s) menstrual blood; having become the embryo,