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302
Speculations in the Medical Schools
CH.
The Foetus and the Subtle Body. A human body is regarded by Caraka as a modification of the five elements, ether, air, fire, water and earth, and it is also the seat of consciousness (cetanā)". The semen itself is made of the four elements, air, fire, water and earth; ether is not a constituent of it, but becomes connected with it as soon as it issues forth, since ākāśa or antariksa (ether) is all-pervading. The semen that is ejected and passes into the ovary is constituted of equal parts of air, fire, water and earth; the ether becomes mixed with it in the ovary; for ākāśa itself is omnipresent and has no movement of its own”; the semen is the product of six kinds of fluids (rasa). But the foetus cannot be produced simply by the union of the semen of the father and the blood (soņita) of the mother. Such a union can produce the foetus only when the ātman with its subtle body, constituted of air, fire, water and earth, and manas (mind-the organ involved in all perception and thought), becomes connected with it by means of its karma. The four elements constituting the subtle body of the ātman, being the general causes of all productions, do not contribute to the essential bodily features of the child. The elements that contribute to the general features are, (1) the mother's part—the blood, (2) the father's part—the semen, (3) the karma of each individual; the part played by the assimilated food-juice of the mother need not be counted separately, as it is determined by the karma of the individual. The mental traits are determined by the state of mind of the individual in its previous birth. Thus, if the previous state of life was that of a god, the mind of the child
1 garbhas tu khalu antariksa vāyu-agni-toya-bhūmi-vikāraś cetanādhişthānabhūtah. Caraka, iv. 4. 6.
2 vāyu-agni-bhūmy-ab-guna-pădavat tat şadbhyo rasebhyah prabhāvas ca tasya. Caraka, iv. 2.4. ākāśam tu yady-api sukre pañca-bhautike 'sti tathāpi na puruşaśariran nirgatya garbhāśayam gacchati, kintu bhūta-catuştayam eva kriyāvad yāti ākāśam tu vyāpakam eva tatrāgatena śukreņa sambaddham bhavati. Cakrapāņi's Ayur-veda-dipikā, iv.2.4. Susruta however considers sukra (semen) as possessing the qualities of soma, and ārtava (blood) as possessing the qualities of fire. He says, however, that particles of the other bhūtas (earth, air and ether, as Dalhaņa enumerates them) are separately associated with them (saumyam sukram ārtavam āgneyam itareşām apy atra bhūtānām sānnidhyam asty anunā višeșena parasparopakārāt parānugrahāt parasparānupraveśāc ca-Suśruta, III. 3. I), and they mutually co-operate together for the production of the foetus.
yāni tv ātmani sükşmāņi bhūtāni ätivähika-rūpāņi tāni sarva-sādhāraṇatuena aviseşa-sādrsya-kāraṇāniti neha boddhavyāni. Cakrapāņi's Ayur-veda-dipikā, IV. 2. 23-27.
