(Rāma's) dislike for women

Sri Rāma

1. -4. What beauty is there in the fleshy doll of a woman moving like a skeletal cage, filled with bones, muscles and nerves? Seperate the eyes, skin, flesh, blood and the tears.Look at them (individually) if they are beautiful. Why get excited otherwise in vain?Here blood; here hair - this is all the body of a handsome lady. What will a man of deep mind do with such undesirable things? The limbs of women are kept smooth and fair with dresses and unguents.These are plundered (by dogs and jackals).

5. -7. The breasts of a lady are laced with rows of pearl necklaces which remind one of the cascades of "Ganga"-waters, flowing down the slopes of "Meru-peaks. Such breasts become food for the dogs in the burial grounds after death. Why such attraction towards the limbs of a woman , which are similar to those of a camel in a forest?

8. -9. O muni, we attribute beauty to women, which is merely transient, but is the cause of infatuation. In my opinion, (really) it does not exist.Women cause abundant lustful joy. But what is so great about that which is like the inabriation caused by consumption of liquor?

10. -12. O muni, the men-elephants are tied to the anchor of women. Lying in ecstasy, they are not awakened even by a strong goad of calmness. With beautifully dressed hair, and collyreum-dress decorated eyes, women are very attractive to the eye. However, they are like fierce flames, which burn men like pieces of straw. Women are the fuel for the hellish fire which burns even from a distance. They are sapless, (tasteless) though charming.

13. -14. With hair flying about, with star-like glittering eyes, and flower-like smile, the moon-faced women infatuate men into dalliance, destroy their activity and confuse their mind. Women are like long nights.

15. -16. Sweet and delightful like flowers, women kill men like a poisonous creeper, throwing them into a state of swoon with their hands like tender leaves, eyes like delightful bees, and boquet-like round breasts, and with a complexion, white like the filaments of flowers.

17. -18. Women entice and subdue men like a bear which breathes out snakes from their holes. The men-birds made artless and simple-minded by the "kirata" called Manmadha are held by women in the net of their limbs.

19. O knower of Brahman, the wild elephant of mind is held by the chain of lustful passion to the mighty anchor, called a woman.

20. Men are fish in the pond of births. They move in the mire of mind. Bad "vasanas" are the strings of the fishing rod. Women are the bait.

21. A lovely woman is a bondage for a man Like a stable for horses, "mantra" for the serpents and an anchor-pillar for elephants.

22. -24. This pleasure land of world is a many-splendoured one. It is existing on the support of women. A woman is a casket of pearls of vices. A woman is a chain holding sorrows. I am not interested in woman. What will I do with these flesh-filled breasts, hips, eyes, and eyebrows?

25. O knower of Brahman, within days, a woman diffuses and dismembers into blood, bones and flesh.

26. -30. O muni, these delicate and darling women lie in drowse in the cremation grounds, completely dismembered. The leafy decorations made fondly by the lovers, on the faces of darling women , are lying dry in the forests. Their (women's) hairs fly around like leafy fans on the trees in the symmetry. The bones shine like stars fall into the ground. The bood sinks into the dust.The eagles feast on the flesh. The jackals feed on the skin. The "pranas" blow up into the sky. This is the fate of the limbs of a woman in time. Knowing this, why should I be in an illusion about it?

31. What is called a woman, is formed out of the five elements. How can any person with intelligence fall for her?

32. -33. If one pursues a woman in the mind, it is like thinking of a "sutala" creeper with sour fruits. A mind agitated by passion is like a musk deer which has gone astray from its group.

34. One who is beset with thoughts of a lady will land himself in sorrow like an elephant in heat while running after a female elephant. It will land itself in a chasm in the "Vindhyas".

35. Where there is a woman, there is a desire for the pleasure of union. When there is no woman, where is the possibility for lustful desire? Giving up on women is to give up the world. When the world is given up, one becomes a happy person.

36. O knower of Brahman, afraid of old age and death, I shall not indulge in transient pleasures which are unstable like the wings of a bee. I shall become calm and peaceful and attain the Supreme state with effort.