Text 38] King Purdrava Enchanted by Urvasi 199

striyo hy akarunah krira
durmarsah priya-sahasah

ghnanty alparthe ’pi visrabdham
patim bhrataram apy uta

striyah—women; hi—indeed; akarunéh—merciless; kriiraéh—cun-
ning; durmarsdh—intolerant; priya-sGhasah—for their own pleasure
they can do anything; ghnanti—they kill; alpa-arthe—for a slight
reason; api—indeed; visrabdham—faithful; patim—husband; bhrata-
ram—brother; api—also; uta—it is said.

TRANSLATION

Women as a class are merciless and cunning. They cannot toler-
ate even a slight offense. For their own pleasure they can do any-
thing irreligious, and therefore they do not fear killing even a
faithful husband or brother.

PURPORT

King Purdrava was greatly attached to Urvasi. Yet despite his faithful-
ness to her, she had left him. Now, considering that the King was wasting
his rarely achieved human form of life, Urvasi frankly explained the
nature of a woman. Because of her nature, a woman can respond to even
a slight offense from her husband by not only leaving him but even kill-
ing him if required. To say nothing of her husband, she can even kill her
brother. That is a woman’s nature. Therefore, in the material world, un-
less women are trained to be chaste and faithful to their husbands, there
cannot be peace or prosperity in society.

TEXT 38
PaPTSEATY = TATETT: |
aa aaa: dae: Aeaaa: 118

vidhayalika-visrambham
ajriesu tyakta-sauhrdah

navam navam abhipsantyah
pumscalyah svaira-vurttayah
