What rules should pregnant women follow to obtain excellent offspring?

At Shri Hit Radha Keli Kunj in Vrindavan, a private conversation with Pujya Shri Hit Premanand Govind Sharan Ji Maharaj. Sadhakas place their questions about life and sadhana, and Maharaj Ji provides solutions.

Full Discourse

Doctor Chandra Prabha Ji, Shri Harivansh Maharaj, you are saying that you are a physician, and by Shri Ji's grace, you treat women's ailments and pregnant women, and you are serving here in the dham. They say that many people come to listen to you, but they are devoted to their practice. When they are pregnant, they wake at 2:00, they get minimal sleep—as you tell them, they eat prasad one time. Maharaj Ji, in such situations, during pregnancy, how the unborn child is affected—this is necessary for the body.

Just as we have said to sleep six hours, you should sleep six hours. Because if you do not sleep six hours, during the time you are awake when you perform bhajan, you will experience distraction. Laziness will come repeatedly. You should sleep six hours. In 24 hours, you should sleep six hours. And after that, you should remain engaged in your daily routine for the remaining time. Yes, as the pregnancy advances, for the protection of the pregnancy, we should not do harsh practices. We should not do such practices that cause any distress to the unborn child, and we should take that diet which, after consulting with doctors, nourishes our unborn child.

We should conduct ourselves in this way. The first practice is that as soon as you know that a boy or girl child has manifested in your womb, has come inside, the pregnancy is forming—from that very day you should observe brahmacharya. This is the first rule. Because if you do not observe brahmacharya, it will affect your child. Some deficiency will be created in your child. Therefore, observing brahmacharya is absolutely necessary because the child has already entered the womb. After that, we should take nourishing food. We should take adequate sleep, and we should engage in devotional work. Listening to the stories of God, performing kirtan of the name, doing naam jap—and what will come from that? Our child will receive very good impressions.

So it seems to us that waking at 2:00 and sleeping at various times—we need to see what time they sleep. At 2:00, everyone here generally wakes up. Waking at 2:00 is in a sense a rule, but they sleep at various times. Say they sleep four hours at night, then rest two hours during the day—that makes six hours total. And for those who cannot rest during the day, they should sleep comfortably for six hours at night. And those who labor with their body should rest for seven hours.

And they were saying this—because they could not catch the words correctly, normally there is no problem. But like they had severe constipation. When they were examined, there was great weakness. When asked about it, their husband said that they have become very devoted, and are even doing ashtayam of Shri Ji in this condition—that is fine. But eating one meal and waking at 2:00 in the morning—no. In this matter, now we should not think about our own affairs. We should think about the unborn child's affairs. If we need to eat three times, we should eat three times, because the unborn child should be nourished.

But you say, like a bird, one should not eat little bits at a time. A sick person and a pregnant woman—you cannot count them in sadhana. If a sick person needs medicine, then eat a little first, then take your medicine. "No, medicine is very heating." The rules are for a healthy body. The rules are not for an unhealthy body. Do whatever suits you. A healthy body sits in asanas. But an unhealthy body—sit on a sofa, a chair, however you sit. Your bhajan should be the recitation of Radhe Radhe. A pregnant woman's life is not her own. The life is for that child.

Therefore, do not understand these things to mean that you should eat only once. If you eat only once, the unborn child will receive less nourishment and will be born weak. Then you will have destroyed a life. You will have done harm to that one being. Therefore, the mother should take whatever nourishing food the doctor approves—juice, fruit, milk. Take these two or three times so that your unborn child is nourished.

One should not act arbitrarily. One should act according to the doctor's advice. And when the pregnancy is delivered and you are well, then you engage in your sadhana. Then you practice austerity for yourself. There is nothing wrong with it. There is no problem. The body can remain very healthy even on one meal in 24 hours. If brahmacharya is observed, we went many days without food, but we never felt despair. We never became sad or despondent. Therefore, as long as the unborn child is there, we should follow the doctor's advice about what nutritional elements to give the child, which ones are needed.

Now, if you have an unborn child and you are lifting heavy things, you are bending—it causes the child distress. At that time, for the child's protection, you should abandon those actions that are forbidden. You are mopping. It will cause the unborn child great distress. Harm will result. Do not do it. Bend only as much as you can. Do only those actions from which the unborn child is nourished and no harm comes to it in any way. You should take advice from doctors for this. Millions upon millions of bows at your feet. Yes, Lord, the soul that enters through our actions—their karma, their future life is determined by what God does. So how do our impressions affect their consciousness?

The first thing to understand is that the atma is inactive. The atma does not perform any action. The atma influences. Its power is like placing a magnet behind cloth—when there is iron material in front, the iron material rests there, but due to that magnetic element, movement is created in it. Action arises in it. Similarly, the atma is a consciousness-light. There is no action within it. The body is inert. The inner instrument is inert. The body is inert—that is the reason. The atma illuminates these bodies. It influences them.

All are joined in supreme light. So these samskaras of ours—they are formed from our mind, not from the atma. The atma is divine, it is consciousness, it is the form of the Supreme. No defect ever affects the atma. It affects the inner instrument. It affects the mind. Our mind receives two types of influences. One is asat and the other is sat. Sometimes even those walking the sat path slip when influenced by asat. Sometimes even those walking the asat path, receiving the company of sat influence, attain a higher state.

Now we must decide: which path is ours? The sat path or the asat path? If we indulge our senses in sensory pleasures, giving our mind and senses freedom to pursue wrong subjects, acting as we please, then we follow the asat path, which results in punar janma punar maranam punar janani jayam—repeated birth, repeated death, repeatedly entering the womb. And there is the sat path, in which we restrain our senses from wrong subjects, enjoy the right subjects, place our mind at God's feet, contemplate thus, perform naam jap, and live in dharma. Through this we attain the supreme state.

We attain the company of superior people. Good samskaras will develop within us only when we keep the company of sant purush and abandon the company of asat people. Embrace the sat path. Abandon the asat path. Consume sat subjects, reject asat subjects—then good samskaras develop within us.

This text is taken from auto-generated captions of a video—there may be errors in the words. Please listen to the video for the authentic words.

Original video: Bhajan Marg (YouTube)