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Oppiliappan List Archive: Message 00156 Nov 2005

 
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SRIMATHE RAMANUJAYA NAMAHA.

The prayer for male child is not without significance.Nor is it meant
to treat the female child as secondaryin importance. The significance
can be betterunderstood if we know the prime duty assigned to amale.
It is not to carry out vaidhiha karmas (which isonly one among the
other important actions for theman) but to do the pithru karmas that a
son isdesired. In Adi parvam in Mahabharatha, there comes astory of
sage Atiti (if I remember correctly) whofirst refuses to marry but
later realises that for thesake of relieving his pithrus from hell
whom he sawdangling inside an abandoned well by clinging to akind of
grass, he has to get married and begetchildren (male issues).

The question comes why only the male child and not thefemale issue.
Can't a woman conduct the rites for thepithrus? The issue carries
scriptural basis.To understand this better we must know how the
soulmakes its descent to be born in a womb.

Brahma Sutras speak about this and so also upanishads like Chandogya.
The descent happens in 5 stages which aredescribed as panchagni (5
agni). The soul whiledescending comes along with water (rain, the 1st
agni–water is an agni in having the capacity to eat upagni), enters
the earth (2nd agni) and then enters thefood (in plants) such as rice
and corn, herbs andtrees, sesame and beans". (Chan- V-X-6) (the
3rdagni). It then enters the man (the 4th agni) as thefood he eats and
rests in him for 2 months. While thedescent in the initial stages is
quick, by the timethe soul enters the plant, 'the escape is beset
withmore difficulties,' (Chan). That is, the process isnot reversible
by the time the soul comes to thislevel. That is why no birth is
accidental. It is allby design and any voluntary termination even
after afew days of conception gives rise to sishu-hastthidosham which
is comparable to Brahma hastthi dosham.The moment the soul enters the
womb, the body is born(Brahma sutras –3-1-27).

The pramana we have as"Then the soul gets connected with him (the man
at the4th stage) who performs the act of generation" (Brahmasutras –
3-1-26) and"For whoever eats food and performs the act ofgeneration
(the soul ) becomes that thing" (Chan –V-X-6)are of tremendous help in
understanding the questionwe have taken up.Consistent with scriptural
pramana, the man begets hisown son or the man is born as his son (or
daughter–the term here is common gender) whereby it is meantthat the
soul which until the previous stage was quickin its descent and not
affected by the medium throughwhich it traveled, gets 'sysnthesised' (
my own wordsfor our understanding) or readied so that the momentit
enters the ovum it gets a body depending on theresidual karma it has.
The male body is the last stage beforethe soul gains a body of its
own.


As scriptures saythat the soul leaves the same way as it hasdescended,
("having dwelt there till their work isconsumed, they return again the
same way as they cameby" (Chan –V-X-5 ) and ( Br IV-IV-6)), the male
bodyalso becomes the first stage to enter after the soulleaves the
body. It is from his body the soul isprepared for getting a body of
its own and it is onlytoo logical that it is from his body (once
again) thatthe soul (which gave him birth) gets prepared to leavefor
the other world.

Receive one from the other worldand make him born here. And relieve
one from here tohelp him reach the other world. Hence it is the
malewho is entitled to do pithru karma, to relieve them(the father and
through him his fore fathers) fromthe earthly plane, to pay them
obeisance and by sodoing he relieves his own pithru kadan, as he
hasdrawn his physical, vital and mental faculties fromthem (at three
levels of generations –vasu, rudra,adithya).

This paying back of the pithru kadan can notbe done by females who are
mere carriers of the bodywith soul. It is significant to note here
thatdiseases like colour blindnesss, haemophilia andothers do not
affect the females who only act ascarriers. It is for this reason we
take up the father's lineage.It is he who enabled us to be born and it
is he who isprotecting us by carrying out actions to please pithrus.

Though maatha is the purva rupam (Taittri)and she is thousand times
more reverential than father(Rik veda), it is pita by virtue of his
being avehicle of transporting us to this world who gives usname ,
lineage etc. Hence the importance to maleisuues. A male birth is not
actually a pleasurableone, if one strictly adheres to the dos and
dontsprescribed by shastras. It is beset with lots ofresponsibilities
and duties.

Regards,

Jayasree saranathan.


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