Biology

Table of contents

1. Vedas
2. Bhagavad Gita
3. Ramayana
4. Mahabharata
5. Upanishads
6. Puranas
   1. Bhagavata Purana or Srimad Bhagavatam
7. Manusmriti

Comments

Vedas

Bhagavad Gita

BG 6.13-17

Translations:

Besant: Holding the body, head and neck erect, immovably steady, looking fixedly at the point of the nose, with unseeing gaze, The self serene, fearless, firm in the vow of the Brahmachâri, the mind controlled, thinking on Me, harmonised, let him sit aspiring after Me. The Yogî ever united thus with the Self, with the mind controlled, goeth to Peace, to the supreme Bliss that abideth in Me. Verily yoga is not for him who eateth too much, nor who abstaineth to excess, nor who is too much addicted to sleep, nor even to wakefulness, O Arjuna. Yoga killeth out all pain for him who is regulated in eating and amusement, regulated in performing actions, regulated in sleeping and waking.

Comment: This makes sweeping claims about posture, nose-gazing, celibacy, diet, sleep, and yoga killing pain, without biological evidence.

BG 5.27-28

Translations:

Besant: Having external contacts excluded, and with gaze fixed between the eyebrows; having made equal the outgoing and ingoing breaths moving within the nostrils; With senses, mind, and Reason ever controlled, solely pursuing liberation, the Sage, having for ever cast away desire, fear and passion, verily is liberated.

Comment: It treats eyebrow-gazing and breath control as a path to liberation, which is a physiological claim dressed as spiritual certainty.

BG 4.29-30

Translations:

Besant: Yet others pour as sacrifice the outgoing breath in the incoming, and the incoming in the outgoing, restraining the flow of the outgoing and incoming breaths, solely absorbed in the control of breathing. Others regular in food, pour as sacrifice their life-breaths in life-breaths. All these are knowers of sacrifice, and by sacrifice have destroyed their sins.

Comment: This presents breath manipulation and regulated eating as sacrifice that destroys sins, which is not a biological mechanism.

Ramayana

Ramayana Balakanda sarga 1 shloka 97

दश वर्ष सहस्राणि दश वर्ष शतानि च |
रामो राज्यम् उपासित्वा ब्रह्म लोकम् प्रयास्यति || १-१-९७

sanskritdocuments.org: On reverencing the kingdom for ten thousand years plus another one thousand years, i.e. for a total of eleven thousand years, Rama voyages to the abode of Brahma…

IITK: Rama, reigning the kingdom for eleven thousand years, will attain Brahmaloka.

Comment: Humans cannot live for 1000s of years. I too would like if it was possible. But that is biologically a stupid fantacy.

Ramayana Balakanda sarga 20 shloka 10

षष्टिः वर्ष सहस्राणि जातस्य मम कौशिक || १-२०-१०
कृच्छ्रेण उत्पादितः च अयम् न रामम् नेतुम् अर्हसि |

sanskritdocuments.org: Sixty thousand years have passed from my [Dasharatha] birth, oh! Vishvamitra, and this Rama is engendered at this age, that too with tribulations, hence taking Rama with you will be inappropriate of you.

IITK: O scion of of Kusika family, sixty thousand years have passed since I was born. Rama was born to me after a great deal of suffering. It is not proper to take him with you.

Mahabharata

MB Book 3 Vana Parva Tirtha-yatra Parva Section CVIII

sacred-texts.com: And for one thousand years his subsistence was nothing but water, fruit and roots. When, however, a thousand years according to the calculation of gods had elapsed, then the great river Ganga having assumed a material form, manifested to him her (divine) self.’

Comment: Bhagiratha did this for 1000 years according to the deva or god years. 1,000 deva yr = 360,000 human yr.

Upanishads

Puranas

Bhagavata Purana or Srimad Bhagavatam

SB 6.9.9

शश्वत्कामवरेणांहस्तुरीयं जगृहु: स्त्रिय: ।
रजोरूपेण तास्वंहो मासि मासि प्रद‍ृश्यते ॥ ९ ॥

Translations:

srimadbhagavatam.org: The [youthful] women being blessed with a constant sexual appetite accepted as their quarter of the burden of sin the monthly period as the visible reaction.

Vedabase: In return for Lord Indra’s benediction that they would be able to enjoy lusty desires continuously, even during pregnancy for as long as sex is not injurious to the embryo, women accepted one fourth of the sinful reactions. As a result of those reactions, women manifest the signs of menstruation every month.

Manusmriti

MS III.48

On the even nights sons are conceived and daughters on the uneven ones; hence a man who desires to have sons should approach his wife in due season on the even (nights).

Comments

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