Devanagari
नाथमान ऋषिर्भीत: सप्तवध्रि: कृताञ्जलि: ।
स्तुवीत तं विक्लवया वाचा येनोदरेऽर्पित: ॥ ११ ॥
Verse text
nāthamāna ṛṣir bhītaḥ
sapta-vadhriḥ kṛtāṣjaliḥ
stuvīta taṁ viklavayā
vācā yenodare ’rpitaḥ
Synonyms
nāthamānaḥ
—
appealing
;
ṛṣiḥ
—
the living entity
;
bhītaḥ
—
frightened
;
sapta
—
vadhriḥ — bound by the seven layers
;
kṛta
—
aṣjaliḥ — with folded hands
;
stuvīta
—
prays
;
tam
—
to the Lord
;
viklavayā
—
faltering
;
vācā
—
with words
;
yena
—
by whom
;
udare
—
in the womb
;
arpitaḥ
—
he was placed .
Translation
The living entity in this frightful condition of life, bound by seven layers of material ingredients, prays with folded hands, appealing to the Lord, who has put him in that condition.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
The wise devotee jīva, frightened and pleading, bound up by the seven dhātus, folding his hands, prays with distressed words to the Lord who has placed him in this place.
He asks for blessings like “I should get the Lord’s mercy.” He who sees the ātmā (ṛṣiḥ) but, bound up the by seven dhātus, is frightened because of repeated birth, “should” pray with distressed words. Potential case is used, but it is impossible that it can mean that all jīvas must pray in this manner, since giving orders to embryos is not possible. It is used because of the relation of cause and effect. The cause is a person who should worship the Lord. Thus the person who should worship the Lord should pray in the womb. This means that other persons, who do not worship the Lord, would not pray in the womb. Thus, jīvas who do not praise the Lord will later be described in this scripture, and have also previously been described. Therefore, the prayers of the jīva in the womb mentioned here do not indicate that every jīva bound up in the material world prays in this manner, since that would contradict statements such as the following:
akāmād api ye viṣṇoḥ sakṛt pūjāṁ prakurvate
na teṣāṁ bhava-bandhas tu kadācid api jāyate
Those who worship Viṣṇu once without material desire are not subject to bondage and no longer take birth. Nārada Purāṇa 1.36.57
sakṛd eva prapanno yas tavāsmīti ca yācate
abhayaṁ sarvadā tasmai dadāmy etad vrataṁ mama
I have made a vow that I will give fearlessness to that person he who surrenders and once says “I am yours.” Rāmāyaṇa, Yuddha-kāṇḍa 18.33
As well, the text does not say “The jīva at ten months, lying in the urine and stool, fainting because of great pain, and bent over, praises the Lord.” The present tense is not used. The past tense is used (jantuḥ uvāca in the next verse.) This indicates that a jīva who was a devotee prayed in this manner in the womb in the past. Not every jīva does so. Those skilled in derivation of meanings of words also declare this. After stating that in the ninth month the limbs are all formed and that the jīva says “I am again born and again die,” Garbhopaniṣad then says:
avāṅmukhaḥ pīḍyamāno jantuś caivaṁ samanvitaḥ
sāṅkhyaṁ yogaṁ samabhyasyet puruṣaṁ paṣcaviṁśakam
tataś ca daśame māsi prajāyata
The suffering embryo facing forward, endowed with Sāṅkhya-yoga, should worship the twenty-fifth person, the Supreme Lord. In the tenth month he is born.
The word vā in the Upaniṣad indicates that some karmī jīvas remember their previous lives, some jṣānī jīvas practice Sāṅkhya-yoga, some yogī jīvas practice yoga, and that devotees should worship the item superior to the twenty-four elements, the Supreme Lord. It is logical to conclude that what was previously practiced will appear in the womb.
Purport
It is said that when a woman is having labor pains she promises that she will never again become pregnant and suffer from such a severely painful condition. Similarly, when one is undergoing some surgical operation he promises that he will never again act in such a way as to become diseased and have to undergo medical surgery, or when one falls into danger, he promises that he will never again make the same mistake. Similarly, the living entity, when put into a hellish condition of life, prays to the Lord that he will never again commit sinful activities and have to be put into the womb for repeated birth and death. In the hellish condition within the womb, the living entity is very much afraid of being born again, but when he is out of the womb, when he is in full life and good health, he forgets everything and commits again and again the same sins for which he was put into that horrible condition of existence.