Whatever birth a soul takes, human, animal or insect, it involves a painful process right from the period of gestation in the womb followed by birth, growth and death. It may take many births for the soul to understand that apart from the physical body that is taken and shed in every birth, it journeys with its subtle body through the spheres, earth, hell or heaven, to reap the benefits of past actions.
Kapila’s message in the Bhagavata Purana captures the ironical plight of the soul who, as a ten month old foetus in the mother’s womb, is endowed with all this jnana, and also knows that it will be surely lost at birth, pointed out Sri B. Sundarkumar in a discourse. The foetus is disgusted by repeated entry into the mother’s womb and prays to the Lord not to send it to the world, where it will have to face misery that is far greater than the misery in the womb. It has a clear perception of the past birth and wants to avoid fresh actions that become the basis of future births.
Though this memory of the past is present in the foetus, it is erased by the sway of the Lord’s Maya when by the force of wind and by the natural course of circumstances the full grown foetus is pushed out of the womb. Automatically losing this wisdom, it gives in to worldly attachments as it passes through the experiences of infancy, boyhood, youth and old age. The values of truth, purity, compassion, wisdom, prosperity, forbearance, control of mind and senses are overtaken by infatuation and bondage of the evils of samsara.
Kapila’s advice is that the soul can get liberated from this cycle by knowing its true nature as distinct from all else and by staying devoted to the Lord, and by offering the all the fruits of one’s actions at His feet.