Shloka 20
The Lord’s Supervision of Embodiment: Fetal Development, Womb-Suffering, and the Jīva’s Prayer (Garbha-stuti) — and the Trap of Māyā
सोऽहं वसन्नपि विभो बहुदु:खवासं गर्भान्न निर्जिगमिषे बहिरन्धकूपे । यत्रोपयातमुपसर्पति देवमाया मिथ्या मतिर्यदनु संसृतिचक्रमेतत् ॥ २० ॥
so ’haṁ vasann api vibho bahu-duḥkha-vāsaṁ garbhān na nirjigamiṣe bahir andha-kūpe yatropayātam upasarpati deva-māyā mithyā matir yad-anu saṁsṛti-cakram etat
Therefore, O Lord, though I dwell in the womb amid terrible suffering, I do not wish to depart and fall again into the blind well of material life. For as soon as a child is born, Your external energy, deva-māyā, seizes him, and at once false identification arises—the beginning of the wheel of repeated birth and death.
As long as the child is within the womb of his mother, he is in a very precarious and horrible condition of life, but the benefit is that he revives pure consciousness of his relationship with the Supreme Lord and prays for deliverance. But once he is outside the abdomen, when a child is born, māyā, or the illusory energy, is so strong that he is immediately overpowered into considering his body to be his self. Māyā means “illusion,” or that which is actually not. In the material world, everyone is identifying with his body. This false egoistic consciousness of “I am this body” at once develops after the child comes out of the womb. The mother and other relatives are awaiting the child, and as soon as he is born, the mother feeds him and everyone takes care of him. The living entity soon forgets his position and becomes entangled in bodily relationships. The entire material existence is entanglement in this bodily conception of life. Real knowledge means to develop the consciousness of “I am not this body. I am spirit soul, an eternal part and parcel of the Supreme Lord.” Real knowledge entails renunciation, or nonacceptance of this body as the self.
FAQs
This verse explains that once the jīva comes out of the womb, the Lord’s māyā approaches and produces mithyā-mati (false understanding), which keeps the soul rotating in saṁsāra.
The verse voices the lament of the conditioned soul in the womb; it is part of Śrī Kapila’s instruction to His mother Devahūti about bondage and liberation.
Recognize how illusion fuels wrong identity and choices; cultivate remembrance of the Lord, humility, and disciplined devotional practice to counter mithyā-mati and weaken the cycle of repeated suffering.