The Technique of Child Birth

The first lesson we learn from the story of the birth of the five Pandavas is how to give birth to a child. Sex can be used for excitement or it can become a vehicle to lift us to higher levels of consciousness and sensitivity. The male is a symbol of being active and aggressive and the female is that of receptivity and passivity. Whenever sex becomes a tool of excitement, the male is active in both the partners and the act becomes aggressive and leads to a deeper state of hypnosis. Biologically a child is a child but the scriptures say that conception through sensitivity is different from conception through excitement. Nowadays we see more and more instances of children being accidentally conceived. My teacher used to tell me that if a child is conceived in the right way then that child will be of a different quality, he will know from within what is right and wrong and will be free of aggressiveness, the very root of violence.

Three things combine to form a new born child – life, psychic nature, and body. Life comes from the sun, psychic nature from planetary material, and body from the material of the earth. The psychic nature descends from the stars and forms the mind of the child. This material can have a high or low rate of vibration. When we have children through indulgence, we invite a very low rate of vibration and the child is born with more intense negative emotions lying within the unconscious mind.

We should understand the concept of male or female not as genders but as psychic principles which are equally balanced in the minds of both, physical men and woman. In our last article, the male principle is represented by Pandu. He is cursed by a rishi that if he enters into a union with his wives, he would die. He wants children but cannot actively participate in begetting them. His wife, Kunti, has a mantra which allows her to invoke a god and have a child from him. Here, Rishi Vyasa has given us the secret of giving birth to children of higher quality by invoking a higher psychic nature, represented by the different gods.

Pandu does not actively take part in the act of having children. This signifies that the male principle is a silent witness to everything and is totally passive, remaining in a high level of consciousness. The female principle, Kunti, is invoking different gods. This shows that she is at a higher level of receptivity and because she is invoking different gods her inner posture is one of prayer and deep meditation. We relate sex only with excitement and hence, cannot imagine the quality and beauty of this kind of sex. The first god to be invoked is ‘Dharmaraja’ or the god of law. We are told that the child was born in ‘Jyeshta’ or Alpha Scorpio. This is the great bright star Antares in the house of Scorpio. Here, the rishi is giving us a hint of the kind of child born. The constellation has mercury as its ruler and so the child would be phenomenally intelligent. He would be very kind and always command respect, and also have a leaning to charity and benevolence. It is a dual star and so the child would see both sides of the pendulum, extreme riches and extreme poverty. Here we see how adversities in life are just stepping stones to growth for the inner soul. This child was Yudhisthira.

For the second child, Kunti invoked the wind god or vayu. The word vayu means much more than just wind. It also represents energy or matter in an electronic state. The god came on a ‘mrig’ or deer in Sanskrit. Mrig means to search; to search for the mystery of life. It also represents softness and in Taoism, the deer exercise is a symbolic of transforming the lower sex energy into a higher form of energy. Bhima was very strong and yet at the same time also very gentle; this is the basic characteristic of a transformed sex centre.

For the next child, Pandu performed severe austerities and pleased Indra or the lord of the five senses or ‘indriya’. Here, the rishi shows that the quality of the child which is to come also depends on the mental state or level of being of the parents. Pandu increased the level of his sensitivities to great heights. To do this, one has to remain in the present moment and slow the speed of one’s thoughts. Sensitivity is the foundation on which we build the mansion of spirituality. Only then, the great Arjuna was born, the greatest warrior of all time. In all of us this Arjuna lies hidden and by proper practice, we can awaken him to search for the meaning of life within ourselves. He is the disciple whose chariot is led by the Lord himself. Hence, a son was born who would rise to great spiritual heights. The lord sits in all of us but Arjuna is the one who in his lifetime can awaken the inner Krishna and give the reigns of one’s life to him.

Pandu then asked his wife Kunti to allow his other wife Madri to use the mantra. Kunti agreed to allow her to use it once. She invoked the twin physicians of the gods or the ‘Ashwinikumars’. The Rishi tells us that they were endowed with very good looks. They were born with certain creative abilities. They had the ability to tame any wild horse. Sahdeva, the younger twin, had a deep sensitivity of the future. So here we have children with natural abilities.

In this small story, Rishi Vyasa shows us the simple way to give birth to children with higher qualities. If this could be made a part of our education, we as a human race would rise to a higher level of consciousness and live a life of non- violence.