Getting To Know The Town of 45 Verses | Part 1

Radhika Raman Das
By Radhika Raman Das 3.1k Views Add a Comment 68 Min Read

Srimad Bhagavatam 3.31.1

śrī-bhagavān uvāca
karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa
jantur dehopapattaye
striyāḥ praviṣṭa udaraṁ
puṁso retaḥ-kaṇāśrayaḥ

SYNONYMS
śrī-bhagavān uvāca—the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; karmaṇā—by the result of work; daiva-netreṇa—under the supervision of the Lord; jantuḥ—the living entity; deha—a body; upapattaye—for obtaining; striyāḥ—of a woman; praviṣṭaḥ—enters; udaram—the womb; puṁsaḥ—of a man; retaḥ—of semen; kaṇa—a particle; āśrayaḥ—dwelling in.

TRANSLATION
The Personality of Godhead said: Under the supervision of the Supreme Lord and according to the result of his work, the living entity, the soul, is made to enter into the womb of a woman through the particle of male semen to assume a particular type of body.

PURPORT
As stated in the last chapter, after suffering different kinds of hellish conditions, a man comes again to the human form of body. The same topic is continued in this chapter. In order to give a particular type of human form to a person who has already suffered hellish life, the soul is transferred to the semen of a man who is just suitable to become his father. During sexual intercourse, the soul is transferred through the semen of the father into the mother’s womb in order to produce a particular type of body. This process is applicable to all embodied living entities, but it is especially mentioned for the man who was transferred to the Andha-tāmisra hell. After suffering there, when he who has had many types of hellish bodies, like those of dogs and hogs, is to come again to the human form, he is given the chance to take his birth in the same type of body from which he degraded himself to hell.

Everything is done by the supervision of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Material nature supplies the body, but it does so under the direction of the Supersoul. It is said in Bhagavad-gītā that a living entity is wandering in this material world on a chariot made by material nature. The Supreme Lord, as Supersoul, is always present with the individual soul. He directs material nature to supply a particular type of body to the individual soul according to the result of his work, and the material nature supplies it. Here one word, retaḥ-kaṇāśrayaḥ, is very significant because it indicates that it is not the semen of the man that creates life within the womb of a woman; rather, the living entity, the soul, takes shelter in a particle of semen and is then pushed into the womb of a woman. Then the body develops. There is no possibility of creating a living entity without the presence of the soul simply by sexual intercourse. The materialistic theory that there is no soul and that a child is born simply by material combination of the sperm and ovum is not very feasible. It is unacceptable.

Brahma Samhita 5.5.4

tat-kiñjalkaṁ tad-aṁśānāṁ
tat-patrāṇi śriyām api

SYNONYMS
tat—of that (lotus); kiñjalkam—the petals; tat-aṁśānām—of His (Kṛṣṇa’s) fragmental portions; tat—of that (lotus); patrāṇi—the leaves; śriyām—of the gopīs (headed by Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī); api—also.

TRANSLATION
The whorl of that eternal realm Gokula is the hexagonal abode of Kṛṣṇa. Its petals are the abodes of gopīs who are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa to whom they are most lovingly devoted and are similar in essence. The petals shine beautifully like so many walls. The extended leaves of that lotus are the gardenlike dhāma, i.e. spiritual abode of Śrī Rādhikā, the most beloved of Kṛṣṇa.

PURPORT
The transcendental Gokula is shaped like the lotus. The eternal world is like a hexagonal figure; in that the entities Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, appearing in the form of a mantra consisting of eighteen transcendental letters, are centered. The propagating manifestations emanating from the cit potency are present there with the said entities as the center. Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa is the primary cause or the seed Himself. Gopāla-tāpanī says, “Oṁkāra” signifies the All-Powerful Gopāla and His potency; and “klīṁ” is the same as oṁkāra. Hence kāma-bīja or the primary cause of all-love, is connotative of the entities Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa.

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Raman (Radhika Raman Das) joined ISKCON in 2003 and got initiated by HH Bhakti Caitanya Swami Maharaj in 2011. As the Editor in Chief at "The Vaisnava - Online Magazine", he helps readers around the world hone in their Spiritual Curiosity, express their unique realizations as aspiring Vaisnava writers and enthusiasts, as well as to spread the digital seed of Srila Prabhupada's mission to spread Krishna Consciousness all around the globe.
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