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Notes Bk. 11
279
and allow entry into. Not so the organ of vision which neither touches an object nor allows its entry (inside the eye). Hence the eye is a non-acquiring organ, whereas the other four are acquiring organs.
The minimum object the five organs of senses may take, (or are capable to hold ), is equal to innumerable fractions of a finger. As to range, the organ of hearing has a range of 12 yojanas, that of vision exceeding 1,00,000 yojanas, and those of smell, taste and touch 9 yojanas cach. Objects within the ranges as aforesaid come within the purview of different organs of senses.
22. Its speciality has been stated as follows :
paușe samārgasirşe sandhyā-rāgo'mbudaḥ sapariveşaḥ nätyartham mārgaśire sitam pauşe'tihimapåtaḥ
[In the months of Mārgasirșa and Pauş, the evening sky is red and there are curly clouds. In the former month, it is not very cold, but in Pauş, there is snow-fall.]
These are the signs of pregnancy of the water-bodies.
23. Kayabhava—The body of the embryo in the mother's womb is the kaya of that embryo. To take or renew birth in the womb is to become a kāyabhava. In other words, one becomes a kayabhava when he has stayed in the mother's womb for a full span of 12 years, and thereafter, by dint of another body created by him, (alternative reading : by the interpolation of fresh semen, getting an extended stay in the same body) he adds another 12 years, thus making a total of 24 years in the mother's womb.
24. The consideration is relevant of many developed animal forms where the female may have intercourse with a number of males, and carry the semens of all, so that the offspring she gives birth to is parented by them all.
25. The consideration is relevant of aquatics which, in consequence of one intercourse, are capable of producing
