Garbha Upanishad

 

This Upanishad Explains in detail about the conception and growth of a child in the mother’s womb (Garbha) गर्भ, while it still resides in the womb, in the form of a foetus. At each stage of development in the womb, the physical condition of the child’s body and the mental state and the condition of the jeevan जीवन (the soul) within is also explained in detail in this scripture, The soul trapped within the maternal womb, goes through a state of emotional turmoil, remembering past births and deaths॥ It is great wonder that our ancient Rishis ऋषि (the seers of truth) were able to grasp and visualize such intense secrets about the body and soul in those ancient days when there were no traces of today’s modern science and research। To go a step ahead, we can even say that parts of this Upanishad उपनिषद are yet to be physically researched and understood by the modern scientists and will remain unknown to the Science world till such time। This Upanishad उपनिषद is part of the Krishna Yajur Veda. कृष्ण यजुर्वेद

Garbha Upanishad गर्भ उपनिषद states that the foetus before birth promises God not to repeat evil deeds but during the process of birth, a force called the ‘Vaishnava Prana वैष्णव प्राण touches him, and he forgets his thoughts and prayers. This entails repeating the process of learning and seeking the ultimate truth once again in the life granted.

The body is Fivefold in nature (the five elements), existing in the five, depending on the six support (Tastes of food), connected with the six qualities, [kama काम etc.] seven Dhatus धातु (tissues), three impurities, having two yonis योनी (of excretion), and [nourished by] four kind of food.

Why is the body called as “Panchaatmakam?” पंचात्कम (Pancha -Five) Because it is constituted out of the five forces of nature. The five elements – viz., Earth, Water, Fire, Wind and Ether. In this body, whatever is hard is of Earth, liquid is water, warm is fire, whatever moves about is air and space-enclosed is ether. The function of the Earth is to support, water is to consolidate (digestion etc,). Fire is to see, wind is for moving, Ether is to give space (for vital functions).

There the earth is to support, water is to consolidate, fire is for light, Air is for movement (sound), and ether is to provide space. Separately, ear are receive words, the skin for touch, eyes are used in seeing form, tongue for taste, nose for smell, and genitalia are for pleasure and apana अपान for evacuation. One cognizes with the intellect buddhi बुद्धि, evacuations with the mind manas मानस, and speak with words vak वाक्.

How is the six-fold support ? It is said to be the six tastes (of food) sweet, acid, salty, pungent, bitter, and astringent. And sadja सद्जा, rsabha र्सभा, gandhara गंधार, panchama पंचम, madhyama मध्यम, dhaivata धैवता, nishada निशाधा, together with agreeable and disagreeable sounds and prayer, make ten categories.

It has White, Red, Black Smokey gray, Yellow, Tawny and Pale-White – these are the colours of the seven Dhatus धातु (tissues). Why ? For Devadatta देवदत्त (any person) there springs up in his mind desire for enjoyment of objects. From the proper combination of qualities, six types of taste (rasa रसा) emerge. From relish of food blood is born, from it is flesh, thence fat, bones, marrow, semen; by the combination of semen and blood the embryo/foetus (garbha गर्भा ) is born. And its growth is regulated by the heart (mother’s heartbeat as well as the embryo’s).

The seven dhatua धातु are in the heart where there’s inner fire; at the place of the fire I pitta पित्त (bile); at the-organs is movement (vayu वायु ); and at the vayu वायु -place is the heart, all growing in order according to the law (Prajapati प्रजापति)

The formation of the embryo and its stages of development

On a perfect day and on the uniting of the male and female reproductive fluids, after the lapse of one night, the embryo is in a mixed (semi-fluid) state. After seven nights from thereon, it takes the shape of a bubble formed out of water. At the end of a fortnight, it takes the shape of a solid lump. It gets solidified and hardened at the end of one month.

In two months, the head takes form. At the end of three months, the legs and foot are formed.

And by the fourth month, the wrist, stomach and the hip, waist etc are formed. During the fifth month, the spine and the adjoining bones get shaped. The Mouth, Nose, Eyes and the Ears are all formed during the sixth month.

In the seventh month, life or the jivan enters the body shaped so far. By the eighth month, it attains full shape and gets fulfilled with all other remaining parts.