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Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00017 Oct 2004

 
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SRIMATHE RAMANUJAYA NAMAHA.

The first 27 sutras of the 3rd chapter of Brahma
sutras which talk about the ascent and descent of the
soul, shed some  light on cloning too. In his bhashya
to the 1st sutra, (3-1-1), Ramanuja speaks about
PanchAgni Vidhya which explains 5 oblations, in the
forms of shraddha, soma, rain, food and seed. They 
are offered in 5 fires (i.e., objects imagined to be
fires for the sake of upasana) ?namely heavens,
parjanya, earth, man and woman. The 5th oblation comes
to be designated as man. 

Explanation for this is found in subsequent verses
whereby it is said that the soul which descends to be
born comes through water (rain), earth, plant food ,
man and finally woman. In the first 4 stages the
descent is quick and the soul is only connected to the
?oblations? / fire and does not undergo or experience
any karma. The process is irreversible and once the
soul has entered the chain, it is headed to be entered
into the womb. There is no question of not getting
discarded mid way.

Verse 26 clearly states that till the soul remains
with in the man?s body, it just stays only ?connected?
to him and is not actually born. Only when it enters
the womb of the woman, the soul is born. There is no
mincing of words about this according to Brahma
sutras.

In the case of cloning arising from human endeavour,
thanks to advancement in science, the 5th oblation
(mating) is missing. Verses 18 & 19 of the Brahma
sutra do speak about this probability. Verse 19 tells
about the cases of Drona, Drupadi and Dhrishtadhyumna
as without 5th oblation. They have been recorded in
Smritis.

There is another type also who are not born through
the 5th oblation.
Of the three types of souls, the lowest ones, namely,
the evil-doers (the former two are the ones who go to
the abode of gods and the abode of fathers) ?do not
ascend or descend from the world of moon?. (That is
why the heavens never get filled up) ? It follows
therefore that the 3rd place or evil-doers do not
depend on the 5th oblation for the origination of a
body. They are born irrespective of this oblation.?
(verse 18)

Verse 20 tells about other 3 types which are born
without 5th oblation. They are the ones born of eggs,
from living beings and those that germinate.

But one qualitative difference between these types and
the cloning of today is that they have been part of
the scheme of Creation of the Lord. No where in
scriptures, are there references to empowering men (by
artificial tools) to skip the 5th oblation. Even in
the birth of Kauravas, the division of the embryo into
100 containers happen after the 5th oblation is
completed. (Growth of embryo outside the womb is
something mankind might someday achieve, if we go by
this precedence but the same can not be said of
deliberate skipping of the 5th oblation).

This (cloning) is also akin to man taking up creation
in his hand, which is a prohibited act as in the case
of Vishwamithra. There are 2 sides to this issue. One
is that since the soul descends through 5 oblations,
human cloning without 5th oblation is impossible. If
at all man succeeds in getting it done, it would be
that of the birth of evil-doers whose evil karma would
doom them to bad conditions of living. In other words
the creator-man would face further problems in keeping
up his ?creation? than would achieve any positive
results. 

Another side of it is the very undesirability or
unsustainability of cloning. The sudden death of the
first animal clone (Dolly, the sheep) showing signs of
sudden  aging reminds one of similar trends noticed in
the created world of Vishwamithra.
It is by hearsay (from elders) that whatever was
created by Vishwamithra fell short in some aspect from
the original world created by the Creator. For
instance there is a variety of curry leaves
(karivEppilai) known as ?Vishwamithra karivEpilai,
which would grow yellow with aging. Whereas the
original karivEppilai does not grow yellow. It just
whithers. This might just be a figment of imagination
(I don?t know for sure whether such a variety of
karivEppilai ever existed. Can any one clarify?) But
the point that must be noted is that our system of
knowledge does not foresee the creation and
sustainability of anything that is not  part of the
scheme of Creation by Brahman. Human cloning is one
such thing.

Regards,
Jayasree saranathan.



                
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