Page:The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (1884).djvu/303

Rh velopeth into the embryo and next into visible life like the fruit from the flower. And entering trees, plants, and other vegetable substances, water air, earth, and space, that watery seed of life becometh of quadrupedal or bipedal form. This is the case with all creatures that you see.'

"Ashtaka said, 'O tell me, I ask thee because I have my doubts! Doth a being that hath received a human form enter the womb in its own shape or in some other? How doth it also acquire its distinct and visible shape, eyes and ears, and consciousness as well? Questioned by me, O explain it all! Thou art, O father, one acquainted with the acts and sayings of great beings!' Yayati answered, 'According to the merits of one's acts, the being that in a subtile form co-inheres in the semen that is dropped into the womb is attracted by atmospheric force for purposes of re-birth. It then developeth there in course of time, first becoming the embryo, and is next furnished with the visible physical organism. Coming out of the womb in course of time it becometh conscious of its existence as man, and by his ears becometh sensible of sound; by his eyes, of color and form; by his nose, of scent; by his tongue, of taste; by his whole body, of touch; and by his mind, of ideas. It is thus, O Ashtaka, that the gross and visible body developeth from the subtile essence.'

"Ashtaka asked, 'After death, the body is burnt, buried, or otherwise destroyed. Reduced to nothing upon such dissolution, by what principle is he again revived? Yayati said, 'O thou lion among kings, the person that is dead assumeth a subtile form and retaining consciousness of all his acts as in a dream entereth some other form with a spred quicker than of air itself. The virtuous attain to a superior, and the vicious to an inferior form of existence. The vicious become worms and insects. I have nothing more to say, O thou of great and pure soul! I have told thee how beings are born after development of embryonic forms as four-footed, two-footed, six-footed, and so. What more wilt thou ask me?'

"Ashtaka said, 'How, O father, do men attain to those superior regions whence there is no return to earthly life? Is it by asceticism or knowledge? How also may one