shri: Shrimathi Jayashree saara.. Wonderful article. nice thinking in words. thanks for your moving mail. appaaDiYo !!! Great Thinking Adiyane T.K.Nambi daasan --- In ramanuja@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, jasn sn <jayasartn@xxxx> wrote: > > SRIMATHE RAMANUJAYA NAMAHA. > > The first 27 sutras of the 3rd chapter of Brahma > sutras which talk about the ascent and descent of the > soul, shed some light on cloning too. In his bhashya > to the 1st sutra, (3-1-1), Ramanuja speaks about > PanchAgni Vidhya which explains 5 oblations, in the > forms of shraddha, soma, rain, food and seed. They > are offered in 5 fires (i.e., objects imagined to be > fires for the sake of upasana) ?namely heavens, > parjanya, earth, man and woman. The 5th oblation comes > to be designated as man. > > Explanation for this is found in subsequent verses > whereby it is said that the soul which descends to be > born comes through water (rain), earth, plant food , > man and finally woman. In the first 4 stages the > descent is quick and the soul is only connected to the > `oblations' / fire and does not undergo or experience > any karma. The process is irreversible and once the > soul has entered the chain, it is headed to be entered > into the womb. There is no question of not getting > discarded mid way. > > Verse 26 clearly states that till the soul remains > with in the man's body, it just stays only `connected' > to him and is not actually born. Only when it enters > the womb of the woman, the soul is born. There is no > mincing of words about this according to Brahma > sutras. > > In the case of cloning arising from human endeavour, > thanks to advancement in science, the 5th oblation > (mating) is missing. Verses 18 & 19 of the Brahma > sutra do speak about this probability. Verse 19 tells > about the cases of Drona, Drupadi and Dhrishtadhyumna > as without 5th oblation. They have been recorded in > Smritis. > > There is another type also who are not born through > the 5th oblation. > Of the three types of souls, the lowest ones, namely, > the evil-doers (the former two are the ones who go to > the abode of gods and the abode of fathers) `do not > ascend or descend from the world of moon'. (That is > why the heavens never get filled up) ` It follows > therefore that the 3rd place or evil-doers do not > depend on the 5th oblation for the origination of a > body. They are born irrespective of this oblation." > (verse 18) > > Verse 20 tells about other 3 types which are born > without 5th oblation. They are the ones born of eggs, > from living beings and those that germinate. > > But one qualitative difference between these types and > the cloning of today is that they have been part of > the scheme of Creation of the Lord. No where in > scriptures, are there references to empowering men (by > artificial tools) to skip the 5th oblation. Even in > the birth of Kauravas, the division of the embryo into > 100 containers happen after the 5th oblation is > completed. (Growth of embryo outside the womb is > something mankind might someday achieve, if we go by > this precedence but the same can not be said of > deliberate skipping of the 5th oblation). > > This (cloning) is also akin to man taking up creation > in his hand, which is a prohibited act as in the case > of Vishwamithra. There are 2 sides to this issue. One > is that since the soul descends through 5 oblations, > human cloning without 5th oblation is impossible. If > at all man succeeds in getting it done, it would be > that of the birth of evil-doers whose evil karma would > doom them to bad conditions of living. In other words > the creator-man would face further problems in keeping > up his `creation' than would achieve any positive > results. > > Another side of it is the very undesirability or > unsustainability of cloning. The sudden death of the > first animal clone (Dolly, the sheep) showing signs of > sudden aging reminds one of similar trends noticed in > the created world of Vishwamithra. > It is by hearsay (from elders) that whatever was > created by Vishwamithra fell short in some aspect from > the original world created by the Creator. For > instance there is a variety of curry leaves > (karivEppilai) known as `Vishwamithra karivEpilai, > which would grow yellow with aging. Whereas the > original karivEppilai does not grow yellow. It just > whithers. This might just be a figment of imagination > (I don't know for sure whether such a variety of > karivEppilai ever existed. Can any one clarify?) But > the point that must be noted is that our system of > knowledge does not foresee the creation and > sustainability of anything that is not part of the > scheme of Creation by Brahman. Human cloning is one > such thing. > > Regards, > Jayasree saranathan. > > > > > __________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - Send 10MB messages! > http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/.itolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> azhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyAr thiruvadigalE saranam Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ramanuja/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: ramanuja-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
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