स्त्रियो ह्यकरुणाः क्रूरा दुर्मर्षाः प्रियसाहसाः ।
घ्नन्त्यल्पार्थेऽपि विश्रब्धं पतिं भ्रातरमप्युत ॥३७॥

striyo hy akaruṇÄḥ krÅ«rÄ
durmará¹£Äḥ priya-sÄhasÄḥ
ghnanty alpÄrthe 'pi viÅ›rabdhaá¹
patiá¹ bhrÄtaram apy uta

 striyaḥ - women; hi - indeed; akaruṇÄḥ - merciless; krÅ«rÄḥ - cunning; durmará¹£Äḥ - intolerant; priya-sÄhasÄḥ - for their own pleasure they can do anything; ghnanti - they kill; alpa-arthe - for a slight reason; api - indeed; viÅ›rabdham - faithful; patim - husband; bhrÄtaram - brother; api - also; uta - it is said.


Text

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.

Purport

King PurÅ«ravÄ 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.