Shloka 1
The Lord’s Supervision of Embodiment: Fetal Development, Womb-Suffering, and the Jīva’s Prayer (Garbha-stuti) — and the Trap of Māyā
श्रीभगवानुवाच कर्मणा दैवनेत्रेण जन्तुर्देहोपपत्तये । स्त्रिया: प्रविष्ट उदरं पुंसो रेत:कणाश्रय: ॥ १ ॥
śrī-bhagavān uvāca karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur dehopapattaye striyāḥ praviṣṭa udaraṁ puṁso retaḥ-kaṇāśrayaḥ
The Supreme Lord said: Under the Lord’s supervision and according to the results of one’s karma, the living soul enters a woman’s womb by taking shelter of a particle of the man’s semen, to assume a particular kind of body.
As stated in the last chapter, after suffering different kinds of hellish conditions, a man comes again to the human form of body. The same topic is continued in this chapter. In order to give a particular type of human form to a person who has already suffered hellish life, the soul is transferred to the semen of a man who is just suitable to become his father. During sexual intercourse, the soul is transferred through the semen of the father into the mother’s womb in order to produce a particular type of body. This process is applicable to all embodied living entities, but it is especially mentioned for the man who was transferred to the Andha-tāmisra hell. After suffering there, when he who has had many types of hellish bodies, like those of dogs and hogs, is to come again to the human form, he is given the chance to take his birth in the same type of body from which he degraded himself to hell.
FAQs
This verse explains that the living entity takes a new body according to his karma, under divine supervision, entering the mother’s womb by taking shelter in the father’s semen.
The speaker is the Supreme Lord (Śrī Bhagavān). In this chapter, the Lord’s teaching is presented within the narration of Canto 3 describing the soul’s embodiment and experiences in the womb.
It encourages personal responsibility for one’s actions while recognizing a higher moral order—motivating ethical living, devotion, and conscious choices to shape one’s future.