[the Third Method of Closing the Womb-Door]

Still, if it be not closed even by that, and thou findest thyself ready té enter the womb, the third method of re- pelling attachment and repulsion is hereby shown unto thee:

There are four kinds of birth: birth by egg, birth by womb, supernormal birth,® and birth by heat and moisture.‘ Amongst these four,® birth by egg and birth by womb agree in character.

As above said, the visions of males and females in union will appear. If, at that time, one entereth into the womb through the feelings of attachment and repulsion, one may be born either as a horse, a fowl, a dog, or a human being.®

1 ‘The father and mother’ are the male and female seen in union; the Guru is the celestial or spiritual Guru, not the human guru; and the Divine Mother is the Gurw’s Shakti.

‘ This refers to the germination of seeds and spores, or the processes of birth in the vegetable kingdom.

° ‘Brahmanism, likewise, recognizes four kinds of birth: svedaja (sweat- born, or moisture-born), azdaja (egg-born), jarayuja (womb-born), and udbhijja (vegetation),’—Sj. Atal Behari Ghosh.

° Esoterically, this passage implies that, in accordance with karma, one may be reborn with the peculiar propensities which the various animals named symbolize, Plato in The Republic has employed animal symbols in the same way. (See p. 1791.)

a male dawneth upon the Knower, and a feeling of intense hatred towards the father and of jealousy and attraction towards

feeling of itself being a female dawneth upon the Knower, and a feeling of intense hatred towards the mother and of intense attraction and fondness towards the father is be-

the path of ether, just at the moment when the sperm and the ovum are about to unite—the Knower experienceth the bliss of the simultaneously-born state, during which state it fainteth

encased in oval form, in the embryonic state, and upon emerging from the womb and opening its eyes it may find itself transformed into a young dog. Formerly it had been a human being, but now if it have become a dog it findeth itself under-

pig in a pigsty, or as an ant in an ant-hill, or as an insect, or a grub in a hole, or as a calf, or a kid, or a lamb,! from

stupidity, and miserable intellectual obscurity are suffered, and a variety of sufferings experienced. In like manner, one may wander into hell, or into the world of unhappy ghosts, or throughout the Six Zokas, and endure inconceivable miseries.

Those who are voraciously inclined towards this [i.e. sazgsaric existence], or those who do not at heart fear it,—O dreadful ! O dreadful! Alas !—and those who have not received a guru's

1 Herein we see the animal symbolism expanded in such manner as quite to parallel the passage in Plato’s Republic describing the choosing of animal bodies for the next incarnation. (See p. 178%; also pp. 49-53.) The popular or exoteric interpretation of such passages in our text as this passage (cf. pp. 126, 129, 156-7 herein) would seem to be as reasonable as it would if applied to similar passages in Plato; and, furthermore, the copyist, and possibly the composer or composers of the Bardo Thédol, may have been exotericists, or at least intended their text to emphasize the exoteric interpretation, holding as priests often have held, and as some hold even nowadays, that fear-producing doctrines (e.g. the Christian doctrine that hell is an eternal condition), although literally untrue, are, nevertheless, like whips to keep the lower mentalities alert and possibly more virtuous. Nevertheless, for our own (more or less corrupted) text, as for Plato’s, there does exist the esoteric key to the real meaning, such as we have given in our Introduction, pp. 55-9.

teachings, will fall down into the precipitous depths of the Sangsara in this manner, and suffer interminably and un- bearably. Rather than meet with a like fate, listen thou unto my words and bear these teachings of mine at heart.

Reject the feelings of attraction or repulsion, and remember one method of closing the womb-door which I am going to show to thee. Close the womb-door and remember the opposition. This is the time when earnestness and pure love are necessary. As hath been said, ‘Abandon jealousy, and meditate upon the Guru Father-Mother.’

As above explained, if to be born as a male, attraction towards the mother and repulsion towards the father, and if to be born as a female, attraction towards the father and repulsion towards the mother, together with a feeling of

upon thee.

For that time there is a profound teaching. O nobly-born, when the attraction and repulsion arise, meditate as follows:

‘Alas! what a being of evil karma am I! That I have wandered in the Sangsara hitherto, hath been owing to attraction and repulsion. If I still go on feeling attraction and repulsion, then I shall wander in endless Sangsara and suffer in the Ocean of Misery for a long, long time, by sinking therein. Now I must not act through attraction and repulsion. Alas, for me! Henceforth I will never act through attraction and repulsion.’

Meditating thus, resolve firmly that thou wilt hold on to that [resolution]. It hath been said, in the Zantras, ‘The door of the womb will be closed up by that alone,

O nobly-born, be not distracted. Hold thy mind one- pointedly upon that resolution.