Text 36
urvaśy uvāca
mā mṛthāḥ puruṣo ’si tvaṁ
mā sma tvādyur vṛkā ime
kvāpi sakhyaṁ na vai strīṇāṁ
vṛkāṇāṁ hṛdayaṁ yathā
urvaśī uvāca — Urvaśī said; mā — do not; mṛthāḥ — give up your life; puruṣaḥ — male; asi — are; tvam — you; mā sma — do not allow it; tvā — unto you; adyuḥ — may eat; vṛkāḥ — the foxes; ime — these senses (do not be under the control of your senses); kva api — anywhere; sakhyam — friendship; na — not; vai — indeed; strīṇām — of women; vṛkāṇām — of the foxes; hṛdayam — the heart; yathā — as.
Urvaśī said: My dear King, you are a man, a hero. Don’t be impatient and give up your life. Be sober and don’t allow the senses to overcome you like foxes. Don’t let the foxes eat you. In other words, you should not be controlled by your senses. Rather, you should know that the heart of a woman is like that of a fox. There is no use making friendship with women.
Cāṇakya Paṇḍita has advised, viśvāso naiva kartavyaḥ strīṣu rāja-kuleṣu ca: “Never place your faith in a woman or a politician.” Unless elevated to spiritual consciousness, everyone is conditioned and fallen, what to speak of women, who are less intelligent than men. Women have been compared to śūdras and vaiśyas (striyo vaiśyās tathā śūdrāḥ). On the spiritual platform, however, when one is elevated to the platform of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, whether one is a man, woman, śūdra or whatever, everyone is equal. Otherwise, Urvaśī, who was a woman herself and who knew the nature of women, said that a woman’s heart is like that of a sly fox. If a man cannot control his senses, he becomes a victim of such sly foxes. But if one can control the senses, there is no chance of his being victimized by sly, foxlike women. Cāṇakya Paṇḍita has also advised that if one has a wife like a sly fox, he must immediately give up his life at home and go to the forest.
mātā yasya gṛhe nāsti
bhāryā cāpriya-vādinī
araṇyaṁ tena gantavyaṁ
yathāraṇyaṁ tathā gṛham
(Cāṇakya-śloka 57)
Kṛṣṇa conscious gṛhasthas must be very careful of the sly fox woman. If the wife at home is obedient and follows her husband in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the home is welcome. Otherwise one should give up one’s home and go to the forest.
hitvātma-pātaṁ gṛham andha-kūpaṁ
vanaṁ gato yad dharim āśrayeta
(Bhāg. 7.5.5)
One should go to the forest and take shelter of the lotus feet of Hari, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.