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156 1
[Lord Mahavira's Twenty Seventh Birth
sleep in swoon. After that, he took out the embryo from the womb both of Devananda and of Trishala, interchanged them with each other and replaced them into their wombs, on the night of the thirteenth of the dark-half of Ashvina. Our readers will be greatly surprised to read this statement. They would not belive it, but try to criticise it instead. Some would go as far as to declare it as fallacious. But we ask them when the modern science and the modern scientists have succeeded in such experiments so tlioroughly, what difficulty, and what wonder, there was if a god, possessing supernatural power took out and replaced the embryos into the wombs after having interchanged their places. Today we can name hundreds of skilful medical practitioners who are carrying on many such experiments very successfully with chloroform. We often read in the newspapers as to how a surgical operation was made to the womb of pregnant diseased mother, and how her embryo was displaced, taken out or replaced for time; and the wonder is that although the patient is alive she does not feel the pain at the time of operation. This she begins to feel afterwards when she comes back to her senses. These surgical operations are performed very skilfully and very swiflty. Likewise the god, too, interchanged the embryos very skilfully and in no time, without causing any pain to the pregnant mother. However Lord Mahavira, had known this occurence. He had a knowledge of the time preceding and following his removal from the womb.*
* There is a description of stealing away an embryo and replacing it into the womb, which occurs in the fourth chapter of the 5th Satana of Bhagavati sutra. We give it below. There are four ways of stealing away and replacing an embryo.
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