The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 4 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,582 pages of information about The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 4.

The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 4 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,582 pages of information about The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 4.

“Panchachuda said, ’Even if high-born and endued with beauty and possessed of protectors, women wish to transgress the restraints assigned to them.  This fault truly stains them, O Narada!  There is nothing else that is more sinful than women.  Verily, women, are the root of all faults.  That is, certainly known to thee, O Narada!  Women, even when possessed of husbands having fame and wealth, of handsome features and completely obedient to them, are prepared to disregard them if they get the opportunity.  This, O puissant one, is a sinful disposition with us women that, casting off modesty, we cultivate the companionship of men of sinful habits and intentions.  Women betray a liking for those men who court them, who approach their presence, and who respectfully serve them to even a slight extent.  Through want of solicitation by persons of the other sex, or fear of relatives, women, who are naturally impatient of all restraints, do not transgress those that have been ordained for them, and remain by the side of their husbands.  There is none whom they are incapable of admitting to their favours.  They never take into consideration the age of the person they are prepared to favour.  Ugly or handsome, if only the person happens to belong to the opposite sex, women are ready to enjoy his companionship.  That women remain faithful to their lords is due not to their fear of sin, nor to compassion, nor to wealth, nor to the affection that springs up in their hearts for kinsmen and children.  Women living in the bosom of respectable families envy the condition of those members of their sex that are young and well-adorned with jewels and gems and that lead a free life.  Even those women that are loved by their husbands and treated with great respect, are seen to bestow their favours upon men that are hump-backed, that are blind, that are idiots, or that are dwarfs.  Women may be seen to like the companionship of even those men that are destitute of the power of locomotion or those men that are endued with great ugliness of features.  O great Rishi, there is no man in this world whom women may regard as unfit for companionship.  Through inability to obtain persons of the opposite sex, or fear of relatives, or fear of death and imprisonment, women remain, of themselves, within the restraints prescribed for them.  They are exceedingly restless, for they always hanker after new companions.  In consequence of their nature being unintelligible, they are incapable of being kept in obedience by affectionate treatment.  Their disposition is such that they are incapable of being restrained when bent upon transgression.  Verily, women are like the words uttered by the wise.[271] Fire is never satiated with fuel.  Ocean can never be filled with the waters that rivers bring unto him.  The Destroyer is never satiated with slaying even all living creatures.  Similarly, women are never satiated with men.  This, O celestial Rishi. is another mystery connected with women.  As soon

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The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 4 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.