So when Hiraṇyakaśipu was defeated, all the devatās, they did not make such aggression, but the wife of Hiraṇyakaśipu—Kāyadhu, I think—she was arrested by Indra and was taken. She was crying, just usual, woman. But she was being dragged by Indra. So Nārada was passing. Now, he said, "What are you doing this?" "No, there is no question of harassing this woman. But I am taking her in my custody because she is pregnant and the child is begotten by asura, Hiraṇyakaśipu. Therefore I shall wait for the birth of the child, and as soon as she gives birth, I will kill that child." Yes. So Nārada said, "No, no. That child is not asura child. He is coming, a great devotee, mahā-bhāgavata of Kṛṣṇa." Because Nārada knew that when... Not before. After all, he knew. But before also, he knew.
Pregnant (Lectures)
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
As soon as there is illicit sex, there is so many difficulties. Of course, nowadays it has all become very easy. Formerly it was very difficult, especially in India. Therefore a young girl was always protected, because if she mixes with the boys, somehow or other, as soon as there is sex, she becomes pregnant. And it will be no more possible to get her married. No. Touched by the serpent. This is... Vedic civilization is very strict. Because the whole aim was how to go back to home, back to Godhead, not sense gratification, eat, drink, be merry, enjoy. That is not the aim of human life. So everything was planned with that aim. Viṣṇur aradhyate.
Prabhupāda: What is that right? Because you are woman, you have to be pregnant. What is that? How you can avoid it?
Man (3): No, no. It's a serious question. You should answer it. It's a serious question.
Madhudviṣa: She is saying that the woman has nothing to do with the spirit soul.
Prabhupāda: Well, woman herself is a spirit soul. How she can say like that? Everyone is spirit soul, either woman... Woman and man—this is body. But everyone is spirit soul.
It goes to another body." The example is just like every one of us... In the first day of intercourse of the father-mother, the secretion mix together, emulsified, and if the living entity is allowed to enter into that, it grows. That is the beginning of our body. But if the living entity is not allowed into the, that emulsified, small pealike form, then there is no pregnancy. So attempt is made to pollute that emulsification. Therefore the living entity cannot enter into it and there is no pregnancy. Otherwise there must be pregnancy. Then that pealike body grows, and in seven months it grows the hands and legs and head and everything, and consciousness comes back.
Just like mother gives service to the child without any return. She gives from the very beginning of our life within the womb, the mother feeds the child. The process is given by nature, but mother feeds. Therefore, when pregnant, the mother should not eat any pungent things because it will give to the tender skin and heart of the child. She should eat only very simple things. But they have no conscious.
Because the soul has taken shelter in this body and the so-called medical science advising to destroy that body, that means he is becoming entangled. The person who is advising... I understand that one gentleman comes here, his wife is a medical doctor and her business is to check the pregnant wife, woman, and advise whether the child should be killed or not. This is the business.
She is my daughter." So then Arjuna said, "I have got grown-up son. I'll arrange her marriage with my son." So Uttarā was married with his son at the age of sixteen years. The boy and the girl, both were sixteen years old, and they were married. Fortunately, when the battle was going on, this boy was also called to fight, and the girl was pregnant. But the boy never returned. He died in the battlefield. So Parīkṣit Mahārāja remained in the womb of his mother.
Just like in the mother's womb when the spiritual atom takes place, then it grows, it forms the material body. Without that spiritual atom, there cannot be any growth of body. Simply sex intercourse does not give guarantee of pregnancy. Unless that spiritual atom is there, the body does not grow. That is... We get information from authoritative śāstra. So the whole material world is also grown up upon the spiritual existence. And our whole problem is that instead of having this material body, we have to get our spiritual body. That is Kṛṣṇa conscious... That is the benefit of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9).
How much carefully these things are. They wanted first-class son, not sons like cats and dogs, first-class son. So there is some saṁskāra. There is some purificatory measures, which is called garbhādhāna-saṁskāra. Garbhādhāna means pregnancy, the cultural ceremony before making the mother pregnant. And it is enjoined, you will find in the Bhāgavata, that any family, the brāhmaṇas, the kṣatriyas and vaiśyas, if they give up this garbhādhāna-saṁskāra, birth-giving ceremony, then that family turns immediately to the classification of the śūdras.
I am keeping behind Me."
So we should take advantage of Bhagavad-gītā. And even though we take advantage, we interpret in a different way. The same business is going on, how to kill Kṛṣṇa. Instead of understanding Kṛṣṇa, the endeavor is going on to kill Kṛṣṇa. Asura. Just like Kaṁsa. He was always thinking of Kṛṣṇa. His sister was pregnant, and it is foretold that "The eighth child of your sister will kill you." So he was thinking of Kṛṣṇa, that "The eighth child...," but with a purpose to kill Him. That is the business of the asuras, how to wipe out Kṛṣṇa, Kaṁsa philosophy. So we haven't got to follow Kaṁsa philosophy.
Even in sexual intercourse there is Kṛṣṇa. But how? Dharmāviruddhaḥ, not against the laws of śāstra. In the śāstra it is said that you'll have sex life after the menstrual period, sex life you have. But when your wife becomes pregnant, no more sex life. No more sex life. This is the injunction of the śāstra. You cannot have sex life for producing illegitimate son. That is described in the... That is called varṇa-saṅkara. One who produces illegitimate children, the world becomes full of varṇa-saṅkara, unwanted children, and thus the whole world becomes hell. This is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Now it is a fact, everyone knows, that so many children are... Especially in the Western country, I have seen.
Therefore when such sons are begotten, they become devotees of Kṛṣṇa. Therefore according to Hindu principles, there is garbhādhāna-saṁskāra, ten kinds of saṁskāras, reformative measures. So the sex life should be also open to the saṁskāra. It is a saṁskāra. Garbhādhāna-saṁskāra. Garbhādhāna-saṁskāra means when you are going to make your wife pregnant, there is saṁskāra, there is ceremony. And especially in the brāhmaṇa families, if there is no garbhādhāna-saṁskāra, he immediately becomes a śūdra. This is the shastric. You must follow the saṁskāra. Saṁskārād bhaved dvijaḥ janmanā jāyate śūdraḥ. One who follows the saṁskāras, then he becomes purified. This is, this is called dharmāviruddhaḥ, "not against the religious principles."
That is humanity, not like... Even the cats' and dogs' life there is some limitation. They have got a period of sex life. Similarly, for gṛhastha, there is a period for sex life. After menstrual period, five days after menstrual period, one may have sex life for begetting children. And if the woman or wife is pregnant, then there is no more sex life till the child is born and six months old. These are the regulations. And besides that, when there is sex life, there is a ceremony. It is not a secret thing.
The example is kim anyat kāma-haitukam. Just like a man and woman, by chance they become lusty and have sex, and the woman becomes pregnant, and the child is coming, just like this is a creation, accidentally, accident. The man or woman becomes lusty accidentally, and there is sex and therefore the creation of the child. This is their theory, not that "This child is a living entity, and he is coming from his last birth, and he's taking particular type of body according to his last birth," no conclusion like that. "God is the judge what kind of body he should get." Daiva-netreṇa.
That they cannot answer. If you say that "Simply by combination of matter the secretion of the man and woman emulsifies and takes another shape, and that secretion, discharge of matter, is due to lust," that is all right. But unless there is the living spark, soul, within that material combination, there is no pregnancy. The pregnancy will take place when there is actually living soul within this material creation, material combination, emulsification. That is the knowledge we get from Vedic sources. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur deha upapatti: (SB 3.31.1) "Jantuḥ, the living entity, is getting a type of body by the karma." It is not simply lusty combination.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
So he remained sixteen years within the mother. Just like Prahlāda Mahārāja. He learned all about God consciousness from the, within the womb of his mother. Nārada Muni was teaching Prahlāda Mahārāja's mother. Because she was pregnant and she was being taken away by Indra and others, Nārada Muni rescued her, and because her husband was defeated and he fled away... He underwent severe austerities, "How to defeat these demigods?" So Nārada Muni took compassion upon this lady, and he told, "My dear daughter, you come with me. You live in my hermitage until your husband comes back."
So formerly, at least those who were on the higher status of the society, namely the brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, and vaiśyas, they had to observe this garbhādhāna-saṁskāra. It is not a secret thing. Because one is going to beget child, so the child must be worth, a human being, Therefore there is saṁ... First of all, the garbhādhāna-saṁskāra. Then, when the wife is pregnant, there are other saṁskāras. Then upanayana-saṁskāra, vivāha-saṁskāra, up to the point of death. From before birth and up to the point of death, there are saṁskāras.
Enjoy like this." The real purpose is that by such enjoyment he'll come to the point of liberation. Just like you want sex. "All right. You marry." This is Vedic injunction. You marry. But don't have sex daily, like cats and dogs. When you require child, then you have sex. That is Vedic injunction. And when the wife is pregnant, no more. These are Vedic injunctions. It's allowing to sex life, but under caution. Similarly, those who are meat-eaters: "Oh, I cannot do without eating meat." "All right. Eat meat." Vedic injunction.
Find out God. Without God, without the spirit, nothing material can develop. Just like we have got experience, just like father and mother, they unite, there is secretion in the womb. But if there is the spiritual spark... (break) ...becomes pregnant. If the spiritual spark is not there, you can have sex life hundreds and thousands of, but... Therefore the theory, the fact not theory, that unless a spiritual spark enters into the matter, the matter cannot develop.
"Sex life which is not against the religious principles, that is I," Kṛṣṇa says. That means sex life should be utilized only for begetting nice children. There are certain rules and regulations. One can have sex life once in a month. As soon as the wife is pregnant, he cannot have sex life. There are rules and regulations. Not for kāmasya na indriya-prītiḥ. Not because "I want to enjoy sex life, I can use it at any time." No. That is not. Kāmasya na indriya-prītiḥ. Kāma, there is, required. But na indriya-prītiḥ. Lābho jīveta yāvatā. You can utilize kāma as much as it is required for living condition. Not for sense gratification.
So just like here, we practically see, the male semina is injected within the womb of the female, and because the living entity, very small, one ten-thousandth part of the tip of, is there, because that living entity's there, the body grows. Unless the living entity's there, there will be no pregnancy. As soon as the living entity is there, the body grows. And that is known as pregnancy. Daily grows. The mother can understand it is growing. Similarly, without the spirit soul entering into the matter, there is no possibility of creation. In the Bhagavad-gītā also it is said, viṣṭabhya aham ekāṁśena.
There was nothing like that. So that is dhīra. They were devotees, gopīs. They used to come to Kṛṣṇa. But there is no such thing written, as pregnancy and abortion. No, nothing of the sort. That is called dhīra, that in spite of presence of the cause of disturbance... The gopīs came to Kṛṣṇa because He was very beautiful young boy. Actually they were attracted by His beauty. That is stated, kāmāt. They came as a lust. But when they came to Kṛṣṇa, they became purified. That is dhīra. Kṛṣṇa was kind enough.
Therefore God is everywhere, not that because God takes birth as human being, from the womb of a human being, it does not mean that He is ordinary human being. He can come out from any source, not necessarily that He has to, but when He plays like a human being, He comes out like that. As if Devakī has become pregnant and the child is there within the womb. But that was simply a conception. Actually, when Kṛṣṇa appeared before His father and mother, He appeared as Lord Viṣṇu, four-handed. So later on, He became like ordinary child.
Then he has to be transferred to another womb.
So, so many subtle laws are going on. But the basic principle is that small particle of soul. Then the body develops. That we can see. Not that a pregnancy, on the day of pregnancy, immediately the body develops. No. It develops gradually, gradually. First it is just like a small pea, then gradually develops. As we see, the child born, he also develops. That is also not developed. That is transmigration from one body to another. Just like in a film, in cinema film, there are so many pictures, but when they are moved very swiftly, we see the picture is moving.
When a kṣatriya king is married, then along with the queen, many girlfriends of the queen, they are also taken away. This is also nice solution of social problem. Yes. Because female population is always greater than the male population. And... Therefore, the royal order, they would accept all these girls as associates. And sometimes they would be pregnant, and there will be son. They were called dāsī-putra. They were not neglected. They were equally taken care of. But they were not heir to the throne.
This is a relationship between disciple and guru. What are the qualifications of guru? And what are the qualifications of the disciple? If both of them are qualified, then immediately the result is there. Just like husband and wife. Both of them, if they are healthy, by sex there will be pregnancy. Similarly, if the guru and the disciple, both of them are qualified, then immediately Kṛṣṇa consciousness will be there.
This has to be understood. Otherwise, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, why he should indulge in describing how Uttarā's pregnancy was saved by Kṛṣṇa, how the brahmāstra was thrown by Aśvatthāmā? So Śukadeva Gosvāmī is liberated person. Why he should indulge in these material things? No. Those who are advanced, they know that Kṛṣṇa's dancing with the gopīs, that līlā and Kṛṣṇa's playing as the leader of the battlefield of Kurukṣetra is the same. It is all transcendental.
It is all transcendental. It is not this ordinary birth. Ordinary birth means male and female union, then there is pregnancy, then the child comes out of the womb. It is not like that. It is... We can take this example. Just like the sunrise in the morning: udilo aruṇa pūraba-bhāge. Before the sunrise, the sky becomes reddish, and then the sun comes out. So if somebody says that "The eastern side is the birthplace of sun," is it a fact? No. The sun is always there in the sky, but with your limited eyes you are seeing that now sun comes, sunrise. Sun does not rise nor set.
Just like a person too much sexually inclined. He suffers in so many venereal diseases, undergoes operation, and still, he goes to prostitute, again does the same thing. This is avaidha-strī-saṅga, illegitimate. And legitimate also. After sex, the woman is pregnant, and she has to suffer for ten months. And at the time of delivery it is very dangerous sometimes. And the man also, after he gets the child, he has to take care of the child. He has to work hard to give education. This is proper, proper sex. The proper sex there are so many difficulties. And what is the..., what to speak of the improper sex? You kill the child. You take contraceptive.
So this is the Vedic information. Sa aikṣata sa asṛjata. Kṛṣṇa also says ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ (BG 10.8). Simply by Kṛṣṇa's glancing, seeing, the matter becomes agitated and becomes pregnant, and the living entities come out. The trees, the fruits and everything comes out. Simply by His glancing. How it is possible? We have no experience that "Simply by glancing over my wife, I can make her pregnant." No. That is for you, not for Kṛṣṇa. Not for Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is described in the Brahma-saṁhitā, aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti. Each and every part, limb of Kṛṣṇa, has got the capacity of other parts. We, by our eyes part of our body, we can simply see. But Kṛṣṇa, by seeing, can make others pregnant.
So he is forced to live within urine and stool and so many secretions, and there are always worms in the stool, in the urine, and they take advantage of the delicate body and they bite.
So the baby, packed up, cannot move, cannot say anything but feels pain, therefore moves. And the pregnant woman therefore feels that the child is moving at the age of seven months in the womb. So therefore the struggle begins from the womb. And when the child comes out, again struggle.
So Abhimanyu was Kṛṣṇa's (Arjuna's) son from the womb of Subhadrā. So he was married. Only sixteen years. Almost the same age. Fortunately Uttarā became pregnant. So Abhimanyu went to fight in the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra and never returned. So Parīkṣit Mahārāja was posthumous child. He took his birth after the death of his father. He did not see. Not only father, many. Because it was after the battle. He was the only survivor of the whole Kuru dynasty. So he was also attempted to be killed by Aśvatthāmā by brahmāstra. Kṛṣṇa saved. So Parīkṣit Mahārāja was born after the death of his father.
The same thing is repeated in another place: satāṁ prasaṅgān mama vīrya-saṁvido bhavanti hṛt-karṇa-rasāyanāḥ kathāḥ (SB 3.25.25). If one hears from real devotee, immediately he becomes pregnant. Vīryamāna. Just like if one boy is vīryamāna, as soon as he has sex, the girl must be pregnant. Similarly, those who are vīryamāna, really devotee, by hearing him, one becomes pregnant. Pregnant means he becomes interested in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is called satāṁ prasaṅgān mama vīrya-saṁvido bhavanti hṛt-karṇa-rasāyanāḥ kathāḥ (SB 3.25.25). Hṛt.
Yudhiṣṭhira, Bhīma, Arjuna, Nakula, Sahadeva. All male members were killed. So, only the remaining descendant was Mahārāja Parīkṣit. He was within the womb of his mother. And his father died, Arjuna's son, Abhimanyu. He was sixteen years old. Fortunately his wife was pregnant. Otherwise the Kuru dynasty was finished. So, he rebuked ,that "Still you are sitting here just for a morsel of food like dog. You have no shame, my dear brother."
So what is that? One of them made a false pregnancy with a stone on the belly wrapped with cloth, and another boy or another man, he went to a ṛṣi that "Sir, can you tell what is child in the womb of this woman?" She is not woman, she is man. So the saintly person could understand that "These people have come to joke me." So he immediately cursed—vipra—that "Yes, what is there in the womb, that will be the cause of destroying your whole family."
Therefore he should be installed," not a vagabond. No. That cannot. When Mahārāja Parīkṣit was born, he was the only child in the whole Kuru family. All others were killed in the battle. No. He was also posthumous child. He was within the womb of his mother. His mother was simply pregnant. His father, sixteen years old only, Abhimanyu, Arjuna's son, he went to fight in the battle. He was so great warrior. So seven big men required to kill him: Bhīṣma, Droṇa, Karṇa, Duryodhana, like that, all combined together.
He went to the forest for cultivating spiritual advancement. But one day he saw that a deer was drinking water in front. In the meantime there was a roaring of a lion, and the deer was pregnant. She gave birth to a calf and she fled away. So Bharata Mahārāja saw the little calf is dying. He picked up and kept and it became..., it began to growing. So he had some little affection, just like we have got affection for cubs of dog and others. So one day, that little calf did not return in the evening, and he went to search out on the hill, and accidentally he fell down, and next life he became a deer. Yes.
Just like when the child is born, it is recorded in the government book, similarly, when one is going to give birth to a child, that is also recorded. That is called garbhādhāna-saṁskāra. Not that like cats and dogs in secrecy we have sexual intercourse, and if there is pregnancy, give some contraceptive pill or kill the child. Oh, how rascal and animals have been introduced in the human society. Just see. Here the garbhādhāna-saṁskāra, a child has to be born. How it will be nice?
So Abhimanyu had to go to fight, so he went in fight in the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra on behalf of his father. But he never returned. He died there. So Uttarā was pregnant and Mahārāja Parīkṣit was within the womb. But the opposite party, they killed. Last killing was five sons of Pāṇḍavas. They were sleeping, and Aśvatthāmā, just to satisfy Duryodhana, he killed these sons while they were sleeping, most abominable, and brought the heads to Duryodhana: "Now I have finished the Kuru..." So Duryodhana could understand that "They are not the heads of the Pāṇḍavas, but their sons." So out of disappointment that "Our whole family is now finished," he died.
The weapon is so powerful that simply by mantra, you release it, and it will kill your enemy, wherever he is. So one brahmāstra was released to kill this child, baby within the womb, embryo, to kill. And at that time Uttarā felt that her pregnancy is going to be, what is called, discharged. So immediately she approached Kṛṣṇa, that "I am feeling like that, miscarrying. Please save me." So at that time Kṛṣṇa entered the womb of Uttarā and saved the child from the brahmāstra.
So this question was asked, "Which family you belong to?" So he said, "I do not know what is my classification." "Now, who is your father?" "That I do not know." "Ask your mother." Then he went to his mother, "Who is my father?" "My dear boy, I do not know." So actually his mother was maidservant. So maidservants have so many men, and by whom she was pregnant she cannot remember. She also told the truth. And this Satyakāma, he also came to Gautama Muni, he said, "Sir, my father, my mother also do not know who is my father." "Oh, that's all right. You are a brāhmaṇa, because you are truthful.
Arjuna's son, Abhimanyu, he died in the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra. Everyone joined, so he also joined. He was sixteen years old boy at that time, but he was married. Fortunately he was married. And when he was in the battlefield, fortunately his wife was pregnant, and this Parīkṣit Mahārāja was the posthumous child. He was born after the death of his father. He could not see his father. His grandfathers raised him. All the boys died, of the whole family, in the battlefield. Only these five brothers remained alive, and this child was in the womb of his mother. Otherwise, the members of the whole Kuru family died in the battle. It was such a big fight.
They have got a nest, and some eggs also. And they are also trying to, I mean to say, manufacture some nest. As soon as the lady bird is pregnant, they, immediately their attempt will be to find out some straw and make a nest. You have seen it perhaps, studied it. You see? So long the lady bird is not pregnant, there is no question of nest. This is natural. You'll find everywhere. Even the ants and the birds, beasts, everywhere.
This body is also material. Similarly, this huge material cosmic manifestation is supposed to be the mother, and the father is God, or Kṛṣṇa, who impregnates this seed of the living entities, and therefore, when there is creation, they come out as children of this material world. Just like a woman is pregnant and the child comes out, similarly, this material world is impregnated by the seed-giving father. So that is a different article from this matter. Otherwise, why a woman does not become pregnant automatically? Why? Can anyone answer?
For our sense gratification, a particular type of body is offered. By the order of Kṛṣṇa, through the agency of material nature. Just like father gives the seed, and the mother gives the body, similarly, Kṛṣṇa, the supreme father, He is the giver of the seed, living entity, and according to the living entity's desire, the material nature gives the body. Therefore material nature is mother, and Kṛṣṇa is the supreme father. Tasmin garbhaṁ dadāmy aham. Garbhaṁ dadāmy aham: "I give the seed, garbha, pregnancy."
He was also bhāgavata. He was Subhadrā's son. Arjuna... Kṛṣṇa's sister Subhadrā, who is sitting here with Jagannātha. So Subhadrā's son was Abhimanyu, but he died in the battlefield of Kurukṣetra. Sixteen years old. But fortunately, his wife Uttarā was pregnant. So Parīkṣit Mahārāja was within the womb of Uttarā, so he was saved. All others died. Pāṇḍaveyaḥ, coming in the dynasty of the Pāṇḍavas.
Or the master is foolish and student is also foolish, that will also not be ... Both of them should be ... Satāṁ prasaṅgān mama vīrya-saṁvido bhavanti hṛt-karṇa-rasāyanāḥ kathāḥ (SB 3.25.25). Vīrya, vīrya means potency. Just like if a potent husband and potent wife have sex intercourse, immediately there will be pregnancy. Therefore this word is used. Potent. Formerly, this was being used. Both the husband and the wife remained potent, not impotent and sterilized. They remained potent, voluntarily. But when they wanted to beget a child, that one sex intercourse is sufficient. There is child.
So by mixing with devotee, by associating with devotee, our knowledge for salvation or getting out of the clutches of this māyā, repetition of birth and death, increases. Satāṁ prasaṅgān mama vīrya-saṁvidaḥ. The discussion on kṛṣṇa-kathā is vīryavān. Just like when there is sex life, if the man is vīryavān, there will be pregnancy. Similarly, if we hear from devotee, then immediate action will be there, some inclination that "Why not become Kṛṣṇa conscious?" That is vīryavān. "Why not become Kṛṣṇa conscious?"
This knowledge is automatically known. So human civilization does not mean that scientifically you have to do this, do that, eating, sleeping, mating. That is going on, scientifically. Now this science of mating is that we shall have sex intercourse, but there will be no pregnancy. Contracept. So this is not knowledge. Knowledge is different thing.
Knowledge means jñānaṁ niḥśreyasārthāya puruṣasya ātma-darśanam, that is knowledge. Atma-darśanam, self-realization. That is jñānam. Otherwise this lower jñāna or knowledge, how to eat, how to sleep, how to perform sexual life, and how to defend, this knowledge is there even in the mosquito or small ant.
And prakṛti, pradhāna, and above them, there is the Puruṣa. That Puruṣa is Bhagavān, sa bhagavān. Ceṣṭā yataḥ sa bhagavān. Wherefrom the prakṛti begins to manifest, that is with the touch of Bhagavān. How touch? Sa aikṣata: by simply glancing over, the prakṛti becomes pregnant.
Now we cannot understand how one can make his wife pregnant simply by glancing. That is possible by Bhagavān. Therefore He is called almighty. We have got experience. If we want to make pregnant my wife, then we have to use certain sense. That particular sense can make pregnancy.
This is almighty. The almighty Lord, simply by glancing over prakṛti, He makes the prakṛti pregnant, and the prakṛti produces so many varieties of life. Ceṣṭā. Ceṣṭā yataḥ sa bhagavān.
So the prakṛti cannot give birth to the varieties. That is wrong theory. That is wrong theory. The real variety begins when the prakṛti is in touch with the Puruṣa. That is our experience also. How we can say that prakṛti can give birth or woman can give birth to a child or many children without being touch with man?
As the material creation, behind everything, the Supreme Personality of Godhead is there, bhagavat-coditāt... It is not automatically taking place. Vikurvāṇād bhagavad-vīrya-coditāt. Just like the sex. When the semina is discharged by the man, then there is pregnancy, not automatically. Similarly, here also, the same thing: bhagavad-vīrya-coditāt, in the tamo-guṇa. That means the origin of this creation is tamo-guṇa, tamas. The whole creation is tamas, ignorance. Every one of us in ignorance.
One who does not know, he's in darkness, that is a different thing. But especially in the Western countries I see that poor girls are being advertised for prostitution. What is that? Topless? Yes. Topless, bottomless and so many things. You see. Purposefully, poor girls are being utilized for sense gratification. So horrible condition. And when there is pregnancy, then abortion, then further entanglement, further...
So this is the recommendation, nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute-vikarma (SB 5.5.4). They are mad after sense gratification and doing everything nonsense which is forbidden in the śāstra. You know, those who are too much after fulfilling desires, they even kill his own men. He'll kill his own child. Because the mother desiring that "I have become pregnant. It is botheration. It will check my sense gratification. Kill." Vikarma. Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma (SB 5.5.4).
Not must have, but if you cannot avoid, take one wife and remain as a gṛhastha. And there are so many rules and regulations of gṛhastha life. Gṛhastha life is not that "Whenever I like, we have sex." No, that is not. There is regulated. Once in a month. When there is menstruation, and if the wife is pregnant—then no more sex life. There are so many rules and regulations. Gṛhastha means one who follows the rules and regulation of sex life. That is gṛhastha. Not that simply united, man and woman, and live like animals. No, that is not gṛhastha. That is called gṛhamedhi.
So they gather round them. But these rascals cheat them. Somebody says, "I am incarnation of God, and I can make my secretary, woman, pregnant, and marry and get some money." This is going on. And somebody is Transcendental Meditation. What is the result of prāna...? He'll will get strong. He will get money. Your health will be right. These things are going on.
According to the work you have done to your whims, then a certain type of body will be offered to you. You will be forced to enter into the womb of a certain type of mother, and the mother will give you the body. That we have got, everyone, experience. In the mother's body, after pregnancy, the body grows. Everyone knows it. So body grows why? Because the soul has entered, and according to his karma, either good mother or bad mother... So you are growing the same body or better body or lower body, and when it is mature, then you come out. You begin again your life.
There is a very nice proverb. It is said in Bengali that a woman, when she is in pain of labor, delivering child, she thinks that "Next time I shall never be pregnant." But after that (chuckling) again she becomes pregnant. You see? She knows the trouble of giving delivery to a child, and she promises that "Next time I shall..." Of course, nowadays there are so many contraceptive methods. But this is a proverb. So a diseased man, he has gone to the physician. He's suffering from a chronic disease. He knows the cause. Doctor says that "You have done this; therefore you are suffering." But after cure he again does the same thing. Why?
In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, dharmāviruddhaḥ kāmo 'smi: "Sex life which is not against the religious principles of life, that is I am." Kṛṣṇa says. So dharmāviruddha, according to Vedic civilization, one should have sex indulgence only once in a month. That is the prescription. And when the wife is pregnant there is no sex life. That is dharmāviruddha. That is not against the religious principles. Even in your life, married life, if you indulge sex life more than once in a month, or in pregnancy, that is against religious principles. So Kṛṣṇa dharmāviruddhaḥ kāmo 'smi: "Lust, sex indulgence, which is not against the rules of religious principles, that is I am." That means only for begetting children, nice children, so that there may not be disturbance.
Another thing: Śivānanda was a very exalted devotee. He was taking care of all devotees who were coming to Caitanya Mahāprabhu to live during Ratha-yātrā. So his wife came and offered Caitanya Mahāprabhu obeisances, and He saw that the wife is pregnant. So He immediately asked Śivānanda, "Your wife is pregnant?" "Yes." 'All right. When she will give birth to a child you keep his name like this." Just see. One man, simply saw with lusty desire to a young woman, he was rejected. And one man has his wife pregnant, He adored him, "That's all right."
So his wife came and offered Caitanya Mahāprabhu obeisances, and he saw that the wife is pregnant. So immediately asked, "Śivānanda, your wife is pregnant." "Yes". "All right, when she gives birth to a child, you keep his name like that." Now see. One man, simply he saw with lusty desire to a young (woman) man; he was rejected. And one man has his wife pregnant; He adored him: "That's all right." So sex life is not forbidden in this movement but hypocrisy is forbidden. If you become hypocrite, then there is nowhere to... That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's teaching.
What is the happiness of this gṛhamedhī life, attached to family life? The only happiness is this sex, that's all. Otherwise there is no happiness. They are working day and night. Therefore, at the present moment the tendency is to kill the child. Because to enjoy sex life means there must be pregnancy. But when there is pregnancy, either illicit or..., legal or illegal, the child-bearing, the giving birth to the child, then taking care of it, then growing, raising, feeding him, education—so many troubles there is. But tṛpyanti neha kṛpaṇā bahu-duḥkha-bhājaḥ (SB 7.9.45).
So in that interview I gave that information that woman's freedom? I gave this reply, that "Where is the woman's freedom? The boy and the girl intermingle, and the girl becomes pregnant, and the boy goes away without any responsibility, and the burden..., the child is a burden for the woman. Either she should kill or beg from the government. Is that independence?" They are trying to be independent. This is not civilization. There is no question of independence. The woman must be given protection in childhood by the father unless she is married, and in youthhood by the husband, and in old age by grown up sons.
When the demigods conquered over this Hiraṇyakaśipu, they captured his wife Kayādhu. At that time the wife of Hiraṇyakaśipu was pregnant, and Prahlāda Mahārāja was there. So because the woman was pregnant, the demigods were taking her away. On the way, Nārada Mahāmuni met the demigods, Indra. So he inquired, "What you are doing? You are dragging a woman? Oh, this is not good." So they explained that "We have nothing to do with this woman. Because within the womb of this woman there is a son of Hiraṇyakaśipu—he is also demon—therefore, as soon as she gives birth to the child, we shall kill him.
He learned this bhāgavata-dharma from the womb of his mother. His mother was instructed... His mother, when she was pregnant, she was arrested by the enemies of her husband, and Nārada Ṛṣi saved her and he took the girl, pregnant girl, at his āśrama and kept her. And as it is the practice of saintly persons to instruct about God, so he was instructing and Prahlāda Mahārāja was hearing from the womb of mother. Yes?
Kṛṣṇa can eat even by seeing. Sa aikṣata. In the Vedic version it is said simply Kṛṣṇa put His glance over material nature, and she produced so many children. Sa aikṣata, sa jāyata. That is God. He can do everything by every linb of the body. We can simply see with eyes, but Kṛṣṇa, by seeing He can make pregnant. This is Kṛṣṇa. This is called aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛtti-manti. That is called all-powerful. Just like Brahmā, Brahmā was born from the lotus flower grown from the naval of Mahā-Viṣṇu, Garbhodakaśayī Viṣṇu, and mother Lakṣmī is engaged in giving massage to Garbhodakaśayī Viṣṇu.
He may not acquire my position," so he sent one beautiful girl, Menakā, to entice him. So she came, she began to dance before her (him), and there was tinkling sound, and at once his meditation broke. And she was very beautiful, coming from heaven, so he became attached, and the woman became pregnant. Then she got a child, Śakuntala, and then Viśvamitra came to this senses: "Oh, I left my kingdom, I came to forest for meditation.
From the very beginning of his life he was a great devotee. From the womb of his mother, he was a great devotee. It is possible. When his mother was pregnant, the demigods... There was fighting between the demigods and the demons. And while his mother was pregnant, she was being dragged, taken by Indra under custody, and on the way Indra was met by Nārada Muni. Nārada Muni objected, "What is this that you are dragging a pregnant woman?
Nectar of Devotion Lectures
She must serve her husband nicely. Utsāhān dhairyāt tat-tat-karma-pravartanāt. Just like a faithful wife. Time will come she will become pregnant and she will have child. So niścayāt means... Just like the girl must know because she's married, because she has got a husband, that there must be a child. It is a fact. It may be little later. Similarly, when you have entered into devotional service, bhakti-yoga, bhakti-mārga, your success is assured, provided you are enthusiastic and patient. Not that "Immediately I want a child," "Immediately I become fully Kṛṣṇa consciousness and perfect." No.
He was also Kṛṣṇa conscious, that... But he was thinking, "As soon as Kṛṣṇa will take birth, I shall immediately kill Him." And he was anxious, "Whether He is born, whether He's born, whether He's born?" So when his sister, Devakī, was pregnant, he was thinking of the pregnant..., Kṛṣṇa, within the womb, "When He will take birth, when He will take birth, when He will take birth?" That was... That was also Kṛṣṇa consciousness, but that kind of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is not bhakti. The indirect Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that is not bhakti. That is attachment for Kṛṣṇa. That will also give benefit. Just like Kaṁsa and other enemies of Kṛṣṇa, who were killed by Kṛṣṇa, they got immediately salvation, immediately got salvation.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures
We know how to do things very nicely. We have got intelligence. And do you think from whom we have emanated, He has no intelligence? He has no sense? He is impersonal? What is this nonsense? I am born of my father. Suppose I have not seen. Just after my birth, my father died. So, in my childhood or even when my mother was pregnant, my father died. So I did not see my father. There are so many cases. Just like Mahārāja Parīkṣit. His father died while he was in the womb of his mother. Now he has not seen his father.
This is called omnipotency. He can do anything and everything. Now, when we conceive of begetting a child, oh, we must have a, we must have to secure a wife first of all. Then I have my sex intercourse with her, then she should be pregnant, then I... Then there is child. Otherwise there is no child. Because we are..., we are not omnipotent, we cannot produce child in that way. This is called omnipotency. And He did not require the help of the wife, neither there was necessity.
This is the experience. And in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam also... Sex life is there in Kṛṣṇa, not exactly like this, but there is a, I mean to say, unification of embracing, kissing, everything is there, but there is no pregnancy, there is no abortion. That is the perfection. So that we cannot do here. Therefore we have to avoid. Yes. We have to avoid. The perfection... Kṛṣṇa mixed with so many girls, but there was not a single case. And Bhīṣmadeva certified that "If I had been among such beautiful young girls..." Because Bhīṣma was famous as brahmacārī. "So I think I could not protect myself, but Kṛṣṇa is so nice that He, He was always..."
Festival Lectures
We are mistaking, here, karma-phala-vadya (?). But here is no inebrieties, in the spiritual world. Here it is full of inebrieties. You'll see that Kṛṣṇa is enjoying with the gopīs but there is no inebriety. There is no pregnancy, there is no abortion. That is the beauty. And the material world the love turns into lusty desires and it entails so many difficulties. Yan-maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tucchaṁ kaṇḍūyanena karayor iva duḥkha-duḥkham (SB 7.9.45). Here sex life means entailed with so many sufferings. But there is no sex life in the spiritual world but the pleasure is there. That is the difference between material and spiritual.
Arrival Addresses and Talks
That already there. Why a woman is differently dressed and a man is differently dressed? Why the structure of the body, woman, is different from the man? Why there is no equal right—I was yesterday talking—that woman also become pregnant and man also become pregnant? (chuckles) That distinction is there by nature. But if you come to the spiritual platform, then you will understand that "I am not this body. These distinction are on the bodily platform. I am spirit soul. My function is how to serve God." Then it is equality. It is clear thing. But because they do not understand that there is distinction between spirit and matter—they amalgamate or they have no brain that spirit is different from matter-therefore they think that I am making distinction. No.
Initiation Lectures
Garbhādhāna ceremony means when the father goes to beget a child, there is a ceremony like this. It is not a secret service. It is open secret that "Today he is going to have sex life with his wife for begetting a nice child." It is not sexual enjoyment. It is to beget a nice child. So there is a ceremony which is called garbhādhāna ceremony, pregnancy ceremony. So at the present moment this ceremony is not observed. Even in rigid families they have already given up. And the śāstra injunction is, as soon as one gives up this ceremony, garbhādhāna ceremony, he at once falls down to the classification of a śūdra. The whole family, no more. Because who knows by whom this child is born? Nobody knows whether he's a brāhmaṇa's son or a śūdra's son or a rascal's son or a paṇḍita's son. Because there is so much freedom.
General Lectures
That is also egglike, emulsified. And the living entity enters, and then the pea form becomes developed into a body. Similarly, without entrance of spirit, no matter can develop. Matter itself cannot develop. There must be spirit soul; then it develops. Pregnancy is formed when the spirit soul is there within the matter. Not that simply material secretion makes life. That is foolish understanding. Without spiritual spark being entered within the matter, it does not develop. Just like if a dead child is born, the form of the child may be preserved some by chemical process, but it will not develop.
If you are put again into that condition, you will immediately die. So we have forgotten what is the distress to remain in the womb of mother. And that also, sometimes a child is killed. At the present moment, advanced civilization, pregnancy is killed sometimes. So we cannot see even light. We die within the womb of a mother and again enter another womb. And it may be we die again. So just try to understand what is the miserable condition of birth. But because we forget, we think we are very happy.
Or inform me. I shall immediately kill Kṛṣṇa." When Kṛṣṇa was in the womb of His Mother Devakī, Kaṁsa was Kṛṣṇa conscious. He could understand that "Kṛṣṇa is now... Because Devakī, she is now so much glowing." So he could understand. He sometimes wanted to kill Devakī; then he restrained himself, that "If I kill Devakī in pregnancy, it will be great, I mean to say, bad reputation." So he restrained himself. But therefore he was always thinking of Kṛṣṇa, but he was thinking of Kṛṣṇa unfavorably. So similarly, those who are reading Bhagavad-gītā unfavorably means in the Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa is the principal factor, but anyone who is trying to kill Kṛṣṇa and reading Bhagavad-gītā, that is Kaṁsa's reading.
Be patient. The example is that any woman desires a child. So when she is married, it is supposed that she will get a child. But if she wants immediately child after being married, that is not possible. She must be patient, then in due course she will be pregnant and there will be child. Similarly, if we are patient, at the same time, very much energetic, utsāhād dhairyāt, and tat-tat-karma-pravartanāt. But we must take to the regulative principles by which we can make advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Tat-tat-karma-pravartanāt sato vṛtteḥ. And our occupation should be very nice, honest. Sādhu-saṅge, the sādhu-saṅge, in the association of devotees.
It is called suṣupti, or sound sleeping. Then gradually, when the consciousness comes, the child within the womb feels uncomfortable and wants to come out. Therefore at the stage of seventh month of pregnancy sometimes the child moves. That is the process of growing. And after coming out of the womb the body grows. But if the child comes out dead, the body does not grow. Therefore it is to be understood that due to the presence of the spirit soul the body grows, means changes from one form to another. It is concluded by learned scholars that this change of body is taking place every moment, but the soul is there from the beginning of the life.
So sometimes there was a fight between the asuras and the devas. The asuras became defeated, and Hiraṇyakaśipu left the battle. So as it sometimes appears..., happens in the war, the wife of Hiraṇyakaśipu was captured by the demigods, and she was being taken away although she was pregnant. So Nārada Muni met on the way and he asked the demigods, "Oh, what you are doing this? You are taking away one pregnant woman? What is this?" So Indra replied that "We are not going to do any harm to the woman.
You have seen in the play that when his mother was pregnant, the demigods were taking her to the prison just to keep her observation, that the child which is born of a atheist father, Hiraṇyakaśipu, may not be missed. They wanted to kill him also. But although he was born of an atheist father, demoniac father, he became a great devotee by the instruction of Nārada Muni. Nārada Muni took his poor mother. He asked the demigods, "Why you are harassing this lady? After all, she is woman.
There was fight between the demons and the demigods, so the demons—sometimes when there is fight, sometimes one party is victorious, sometimes the other party is victorious—so the demigods' party became victorious, and they were harassing the demons like anything. So Hiraṇyakaśipu's wife, she was pregnant, she was captured by Indra, the King of heaven, and she was being dragged to take her in the house of Indra. In the way, Nārada Muni met them; he chastised Indra. Nārada Muni was devarṣi, ṛṣi amongst the demigods. So he said, "Why you are giving trouble to this woman? This is not good." So the demons replied, demigods replied that "This woman is pregnant, and there is Hiraṇyakaśipu's son. So we want to kill that son also, because he is demon.
Philosophy Discussions
Prabhupāda: Simultaneously. That we see practically. That pregnancy, in the beginning of the body that is the beginning of life also. No that first of all one becomes pregnant and then the life comes. You have got a daily experience. Rather, the life is there, therefore the pregnancy is there. Is it not? But they say, modern rascals, that the, the body develops to a certain extent and then the life comes. So before the life coming, if the body is destroyed there is no killing. Is not that the theory at the present moment, they are killing child?
Hayagrīva: He sees the lover of God as being a morally free person. He writes, "As St. Augustine's maxim, 'If you but love God you may do as you incline,' is morally one of the profoundest of observations, yet it is pregnant for such persons with passports beyond the bounds of conventional morality."
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is very nice. Morality means to execute the orders of God. If God is satisfied then it is moral. Otherwise our so-called convention in this material conception of life, "This is good," "This is bad," they are described as mental concoction. We must have clear orders from God, and if we execute it for the satisfaction of God, this means, in other words, morality means the action which satisfies God, the Supreme Lord.
Prabhupāda: That is the proof. Because the soul takes shelter into the womb of the mother, the father injects the soul—that is the statement of the śāstras—in the womb of the mother, and the mother gives shelter. So the body develops from the womb of the mother. There is conception, pregnancy. That is the proof.
Śyāmasundara: Ultimately there is nothing to measure, when the body dies, to determine where that soul went.
Prabhupāda: Similarly, happiness can be by the..., to remain under this sunshine, under the illumination of Kṛṣṇa. That is Prabhupāda: happiness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And if you want to be happy in darkness... Just like in darkness at night the only happiness is sleeping and sex, that's all. There is no other happiness. And when there was dark in New York, electricity failed, and so many women became pregnant. (laughs) Yes. In the darkness this is the happiness: either you sleep or you enjoy sex. That is happiness. That is material world; therefore it is darkness.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is Vedic injunction, that don't beget children unless you can give the children relief from the cycle of birth and death. One should not become father and mother. That is responsible father and mother. And without this responsibility, if a man gives birth to a child and if a woman bears the pregnancy, that is prohibited. One should not become a father, one should not become a mother unless they are competent to give freedom to the children from the cycle of birth and death.
Prabhupāda: ...that we shall consider later. First of all come to the reasoning, that this combination of air, water and bone and muscle and urine and stool is not life. You first of all come to that, then we have to find out that what is that soul. First of all you come to this conclusion. "This is not," neti. "This is not." Then what is the positive thing, that we have to search, athāto. That is brahma-jijñāsā. What is that Brahman? It is not matter. Then we will come to the conclusion that Brahman is the origin of this matter, because the matter is developing on the soul. That is also reasoning. Simply sex does not create pregnancy unless there is soul. They have so many times sex, so not every time there is pregnancy. Of course, it is expected, but... Anyway, when the soul is injected in the womb of the woman, then the pregnancy means the matter develops, and that we can see outside the pregnancy also—when the child comes out it develops a body.
Prabhupāda: So the matter is coming out on the positive existence of the soul. This is to be learned. Without soul being present within the womb of the woman there is no pregnancy, there is no development of the matter. We can see the same thing, that the child is developing or changing the body because the soul is there. This is reasoning. Where is the difficulty? So the philosophy, first of all find out what is that external thing which is the living force. By analyzing this material body we don't find any symptom of life either from breathing or from blood or from (indistinct). Therefore something extra. Now you find out what is that extra. That extra you will find out if you come to the right platform—that it is soul, jīvātmā. And on the basis of jīvātmā, that is very minute.
Prabhupāda: So that is natural distinction between man and woman, so how it can be changed? Woman is meant for certain activities and man is meant for certain activities. So how this can be changed? Artificially if you change it, it cannot be changed. Then, just like woman becomes pregnant, man does not become pregnant. How it will be changed?
Hayagrīva: Well from this he concludes that woman, being dominated by love, is morally superior to man.
| Page Title: | Pregnant (Lectures) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, RupaManjari |
| Created: | 20 of Nov, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=92, Con=0, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 92 |