Food In Semen
As if to support what I was saying yesterday, I came across this Upanishadic quote earlier this evening:
I wouldn't credit Radhakrishnan's translations much ('prajapati' in this context does not mean that food is the lord of all creation!) but it's interesting to see these principles supported everywhere. No wonder semen is derived from the food we eat, as that tallies with my personal experiences also.
annaM vai prajApatiH, tato ha vaitad retaH,
tasmAd imAH prajAH prajAyante
"Food, indeed, is the lord of creation; from this, verily is semen. From this creatures here are born." - Prashna Upanishad 2.1.14
I wouldn't credit Radhakrishnan's translations much ('prajapati' in this context does not mean that food is the lord of all creation!) but it's interesting to see these principles supported everywhere. No wonder semen is derived from the food we eat, as that tallies with my personal experiences also.
posted by "Gaurasundara das" @ 05:02
4 Comments:
At 14 August, 2006 08:18,
advaitadas said…
Monier Williams says about prajApati: "divinity presiding over procreation"
So RK's translation is apt. Thanks for that quote, I get served at my beckoning! I doubt though whether each ejaculation is murder - The Bhagavata (3rd canto, Kapila) says pumso retah kaNAzrayaH - The soul takes shelter of a drop of sperm - but does he always take shelter of it? And which drop? As you know lakhs of reta-kaNAhs are racing towards the finish of the ovum, only one of them reaches the finish. Not each time one copulates during the fertile days a woman gets pregnant.
At 15 August, 2006 01:05,
"Gaurasundara das" said…
Yes, that's true. I wonder what happens to all those spem cells who didn't make it. I guess this is where "survival of the fittest" comes into play. Or we could also say that it was the karma of that particular sperm cell which allowed it to win the prize which may also be true. But this doesn't answer what happens to the rest of them.
At 15 August, 2006 01:30,
"Gaurasundara das" said…
Ah I see what you mean, in the context of my previous statement re "wilfully killing jivas".
I was speaking about premarital/extramarital sex as well as masturbation which are to be considered selfish acts when they fail to reach the purposes of sex for having children only. I wouldn't know if it would be construed as a sin to engage in "selfish sex" but I guess maybe that's why there are so many rules and injunctions against it. The amount of these suggest that there may be sin in there somewhere if those rules are broken.
At 15 August, 2006 13:31,
advaitadas said…
I wrote this on my website before - in Dutch the word sin is a synonym for waste. Certainly passing sperm for other reasons is a waste - of brains, equilibrium, virtue etc.
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