Glory of Death - Chapter 2

2. SORROW OF BIRTH: The first sorrow is that of being born. The terrible description of the unbearable pain when a being enters its mother’s womb, stays there for nine months with the head hung upside down and legs crouched is described in Shrimad Bhagwat - especially in the "Garbha Stuti" (Bhagwat, 3/31) by Vyasa Narayana. While reading it one is horrified and gets unnerved. Such terrible sorrow in the mother’s womb has been experienced by you, myself and all of us. Probably it is the Lord’s illusory power (Maya or compassion), that we have forgotten that pain. If a man is forced to crouch down with hands and legs tied up in such a way that he cannot move an inch, cannot change sides and is placed in a dark gutter full of foul stench, urine, and a variety of germs, etc. with head hanging upside down, that person cannot live even for nine hours let alone nine days or nine months. You, I and all of us have undergone nine months of imprisonment in our mother’s womb, which was full of darkness, dirt and germs. Yet, whether it is the Lord’s grace or his illusory power, we have totally forgotten this pain. We have totally forgotten this unbearable sorrow and that is the Lord’s compassion. Otherwise if the being remembers this excruciating pain he will never even think of being re-born from any mother’s womb. Even a mother experiences immense pain while giving birth to her baby and the pain is like emitting a coconut from one’s nostril. If a mother continues to remember this labor pain, she will never even think of becoming a mother again. But the Lord’s Maya (Illusory Power) is such that despite undergoing a painful experience while giving birth to her child she rejoices in becoming a mother again.