Text 37
striyo hy akaruṇāḥ krūrā
durmarṣāḥ priya-sāhasāḥ
ghnanty alpārthe ’pi viśrabdhaṁ
patiṁ bhrātaram apy uta
striyaḥ — women; hi — indeed; akaruṇāḥ — merciless; krūrāḥ — cunning; durmarṣāḥ — intolerant; priya-sāhasāḥ — for their own pleasure they can do anything; ghnanti — they kill; alpa-arthe — for a slight reason; api — indeed; viśrabdham — faithful; patim — husband; bhrātaram — brother; api — also; uta — it is said.
Women as a class are merciless and cunning. They cannot tolerate even a slight offense. For their own pleasure they can do anything irreligious, and therefore they do not fear killing even a faithful husband or brother.
King Purūravā was greatly attached to Urvaśī. Yet despite his faithfulness to her, she had left him. Now, considering that the King was wasting his rarely achieved human form of life, Urvaśī 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 killing 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, unless women are trained to be chaste and faithful to their husbands, there cannot be peace or prosperity in society.