for
saving oneself from this misery. Those regions where creatures dwell when
they ascend from this world I shall now declare truly. Do thou listen to
me with attention. By listening to what I say, thou shalt attain to
firmness of understanding and a clear apprehension of (good and bad)
acts. Know that even those are the regions of all creatures of righteous
deeds, viz., the stellar worlds that shine in the firmament, the lunar
disc, and the solar disc as well that shines in the universe in its own
light. Upon the exhaustion, again, of their merits, they fall away from
those regions repeatedly. There, in Heaven itself, is distinction of
inferior, superior, and middling felicity. There, in Heaven itself, is
discontent at sight of prosperity more blazing than one's own. Even these
are the goals which I have mentioned in detail. I shall, after this,
discourse to you on the attainment by Jiva of the condition of residence
in the womb. Do thou hear me, with concentrated attention, O regenerate
one, as I speak to thee!'"'"

SECTION XVIII

"'"The Brahmana said, 'The acts, good and bad, that a Jiva does are not
subject to destruction. Upon attainment of body after body, those acts
produce fruits corresponding with them.[16] As a fruit-bearing tree, when
the season comes of productivity, yields a large quantity of fruit,
similarly merit, achieved with a pure heart, yields a large crop (of
felicity). After the same fashion, sin, done with a sinful heart,
produces a large crop of misery. The Soul (or Jiva), placing the mind
ahead, addresses himself to action. Hear then how Jiva, equipt with all
his acts and overwhelmed with lust and wrath, enters the womb. The vital
seed, mixed with blood, enters the womb of females and becomes the field
(of Jiva), good or bad, born of (his) acts. In consequence of his
subtlety and the condition of being unmanifest, Jiva does not become
attached to anything even after attaining to a body. Therefore, he is
called Eternal Brahman.[17] That (viz., Jiva or Brahman) is the seed of
all creatures. It is in consequence of Him that living creatures live.
That Jiva, entering all the limbs of the foetus part by part, accepting
the attribute of mind, and residing within all the regions that belong to
Prana, supports (life). In consequence of this, the foetus becoming
endued with mind begins to move its limbs.[18] As liquified iron, poured
(into a mould), takes the form of the mould, know that the entranc