tus of Lord Mahavira was taken out be fore his birth from the body of a mi serly

brahmin mother and transplanted into the womb of a gen er ous queen. A sage was
chant ing holy texts in the prese nce of his preg nant wife. On hear ing the chant,
the foet us in the womb of the lady spoke from in side that the in ton a tions were
not cor rect. his en raged the sage. !e cursed his son in the womb that since he
had a crooked mind, his body too would bec ome crooked. he story goes that the
child was born with eight de for mi ties. !e be came the great and in tel lec tu ally
bril liant sage Ashta" vak ra. Ar#una, the great hero of the Maha bha ra " ta war, had
a pro di gious son, Abhi manyu. $hile still in the womb, Abhimanyu had learnt a
spec ial mil i tary sec ret that his fat her de scribed to his mother. %ut since the
moth er fell asleep and did not lis ten to the whole se" cret, Abhimanyu too ob
tained only a par tial knowl edge. $ith the help of this knowle dge he was able to
break and en ter the spec ial army for ma tion of the en emy called chakravyuha .
%ut due to in com plete knowl " edge, he could not come out of it and was killed.
Ashwatthama, ano ther hero from the Ma habharata, out of in tense ha" tred for the
righ teous &andavas, 'red the deadly and in fal li ble weapon brahmastra to de "
stroy the em bryo of &arikshit, the lone succ es " sor to the &andavas. he em bryo
was saved by (ri )rishna, *od in carn ate. Ashwatthama was cursed with ex treme
suf fer ing for an in ' nite per iod of time with an open, pain ful wound on the fore
head. Myth o logically, %rahma stands for the in tel lect. %rahmastra, theref ore,
means the weap " on or in strum ent obt ained as a gift of the in tel " lect. he leg
end of Ashwatthama is thus sym" bolic of the use of in tel li gence for the de struc "
tion of the emb ryo or foet us, which is cons id " ered an unp ard on able sin. he
lege nds show
that alt hough it is poss i ble to mod ify the foe" tus in the womb, it is not free from
dan ger. +e " spect for life in the mother,s womb and of fer " ing better in tel lec tual
and spir i tual en vi ron " ment to the exp ect ant mother- these two are the bas ic
eth ics of !in du ism. ./0/, /123
4onclusion (ci ence has opened two av en ues for us5 power and knowl edge. &ower
corr upts and ab so lute power cor rupts ab so lutely. !u man be ings are gen er ally
more drawn to the power as pect of sci ence brought about by the tech no " log i cal
rev o lu tion. 6n the glare of tech nol ogy we have some times lost sight of the knowl
" edge as pect of sci ence, which alone en cour " ages hol is tic ethi cs and el ev ates
us from the snares and pulls of a purely in di vid u al is tic, self" cent red ex is tence,
and unites us with the whole of man kind. ech no logically ad vanced so ci et ies,
both in the 7ast and in the $est, are in the grip of a deep socio"eth i cal tur bu
lence. Amer i cans,
forty" eight per cent of whom use guns, have found them selves in a sort of 8gun c
ivili9ation, .ime, 2: ;ecember 2<</3. 7thi cal probl ems are knock ing even at the
doors of the biggest pol it i cal power. (even thousand crime re" cords and 2=:::
crime en qui ries were made ev ery day in 2<<1 in the city of (t &et ersb urg alone
.Asiaweek,2: October 2<<13. (ci ence and tech nol ogy have en riched ex tern al life
in a thous and ways, but in many places have cre" ated more and more of vac uum
in in tern al life be cause of con fused eth i cal val ues. &rof Maurice ! $ilkins, who
shared the >obel &ri9e for Medicine in 2<0/ with ?ranc is 4rick and @ames $at son,
rev ealed in an int er" view held in %om bay in @anu a ry 2<A0 that
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