A study of human sexuality from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam
There are many passages in the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam that may at first appear without purpose, but that reveal very significant when we understand them.
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There are many passages in the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam that may at first appear without purpose, but that reveal very significant when we understand them.
One of these passages is the flattery of Āgnīdhra to Pūrvacitti described in the second chapter of the Fifth Canto. At first, it appears that the passage simply describes the features of a woman and the words of an infatuated king, but when we go deep into the meaning, it is a very significant passage that describes the sexual attraction that binds us to this world and gives us some hints on how to become free from it.
First of all, who is Āgnīdhra? He was the oldest son of Priyavrata, a pious king, who ruled based on religious principles and treated all citizens like his own sons. He was, however, not so serious about self-realization. He was more attracted to the idea of being elevated to Pitṛloka, and for that end, he worshiped Lord Brahmā in a valley of Mandara Hill.
The reason for his choosing this particular mountain appears to be that it’s a place that apsarās regularly visit. It seems that, from the beginning, his idea was that by the grace of Brahmā, he could meet one of these celestial ladies and beget a perfect son who would perform all religious duties after his departure and thus secure his position in Pitṛloka.
Each of the demigods is put in charge of a number of apsarās, which are devoted to them. These apsarās are often sent on missions to meet exalted earthly kings and beget good children with them. Because these are very handsome men, the apsarās have no objection to doing it. Following this system, Brahmā selected Pūrvacitti amongst the ladies in his court and sent her to meet the king and give him a child. The rest of the chapter describes the meeting and how Āgnīdhra courted the lady very expertly and made her eager to associate with him. It starts from text 5.2.7:
“The Prince mistakenly addressed the Apsarā: O best of saintly persons, who are you? Why are you on this hill, and what do you want to do? Are you one of the illusory potencies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead? You seem to be carrying two bows without strings. What is the reason you carry these bows? Is it for some purpose of your own or for the sake of a friend? Perhaps you carry them to kill the mad animals in this forest.”
What does it mean?
Āgnīdhra was instantly attracted to Pūrvacitti, but having been so long engaged in austerities, and with his intelligence bewildered due to her beauty, he was confused, and at first he thought she was the son of a saintly person in the forest, and thus addressed her as muni-varya (O best of munis). However, because she was so attractive, he questioned whether she was the personification of the illusory potency of the Lord. He then started studying her features, not believing she could be a boy. The first thing he noted was her eyebrows, which he compared to bows without strings. Following this analogy, he questioned whether she had the intention of hunting animals in the forest.
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura describes that in this situation, Āgnīdhra was the animal Pūrvacitti was hunting. Prabhupāda adds that “This material world is like a great forest, and its inhabitants are like forest animals such as deer and tigers meant to be killed. The killers are the eyebrows of beautiful women. Captivated by the beauty of the fair sex, all the men of the world are killed by bows without strings, but cannot see how they are killed by māyā.”
A man moved by lustful desires approaches and courts a beautiful woman, seeing himself as an enjoyer of this world, but in reality, he is just like an animal, victimized by the arrows shot by the powerful bows of a materialistic woman, who plans to use him to satisfy her own purposes. In the name of material enjoyment, he misses the chance of attaining self-realization, and is killed at the end by the material energy, just like an animal, and sent to an uncertain future in another material body.
Religious marriages are centered on the idea of cooperating in spiritual advancement. A man accepts a wife to assist him in his spiritual practice, and promises to protect her and keep her engaged in devotional service in all circumstances, and the woman accepts a man whom she admires as a husband, promising to follow and serve him for her whole life, putting aside all selfish considerations. When these spiritual goals are put aside, men and women just exploit each other in the most outrageous ways. One may think he or she is enjoying, but in reality, materialistic life means simply being killed by Māyā.
At the end of his purport, Prabhupāda summarizes the whole question: “Karmīs who act very seriously for sense gratification are always referred to in the śāstras by such terms as pramatta, vimukha and vimūḍha. They are killed by māyā. However, one who is apramatta, a sane, sober person, a dhīra, knows very well that a human being’s primary duty is to render service to the Supreme Person. Māyā is always ready to kill those who are pramatta with her invisible bows and arrows.”
We come then to the next verse:
“Then Āgnīdhra observed the glancing eyes of Pūrvacitti and said: My dear friend, you have two very powerful arrows, namely your glancing eyes. Those arrows have feathers like the petals of a lotus flower. Although they have no shafts, they are very beautiful, and they have very sharp, piercing points. They appear very peaceful, and thus it seems that they will not be shot at anyone. You must be loitering in this forest to shoot those arrows at someone, but I cannot understand whom. My intelligence is dull, and I cannot combat you. Indeed, no one can equal you in prowess, and therefore I pray that your prowess will be for my good fortune.”
The arrows shot by the two bows are her eyes, compared to two sharp arrows with feathers like the petals of a lotus flower. They are thus both beautiful and dangerous. The eyes of a beautiful woman are thus compared to a weapon that can be used to subjugate a man, whether for good or bad. Having looked at her eyes, Āgnīdhra was already victimized, just as a defenseless animal pierced by sharp arrows, completely at the mercy of the hunter. He thus prayed to Pūrvacitti that her glance was favorable (that she would become his wife), because it would be for him to remain without her.
Prabhupāda mentions that Āgnīdhra was afraid of the glance of Pūrvacitti. This exemplifies another passage in which he mentioned that we should have a healthy respect for the power of Māyā. The glance of an attractive woman or man is very powerful, just like a weapon. Just as we are careful around an armed person, understanding he can kill us in an instant, we should be careful with these glances if we don’t want to be victimized by the illusory energy. Such situations have no good outcome, because getting involved with such an attractive person because of lust means illusion, since material lust can’t be satisfied, and being rejected after becoming attracted can result in even greater bewilderment.
We come then to verses 5.2.9 to 14, where he appears to talk deliriously:
“Seeing the bumblebees following Pūrvacitti, Mahārāja Āgnīdhra said: My dear Lord, the bumblebees surrounding your body are like disciples surrounding your worshipable self. They are incessantly chanting the mantras of the Sāma Veda and the Upaniṣads, thus offering prayers to you. Just as great sages resort to the branches of Vedic literatures, the bumblebees are enjoying the showers of flowers falling from your hair.
O brāhmaṇa, I can simply hear the tinkling of your ankle bells. Within those bells, tittiri birds seem to be chirping among themselves. Although I do not see their forms, I can hear how they are chirping. When I look at your beautiful circular hips, I see they are the lovely color of kadamba flowers, and your waist is encircled by a belt of burning cinders. Indeed, you seem to have forgotten to dress yourself.
Āgnīdhra then praised Pūrvacitti’s raised breasts. He said: My dear brāhmaṇa your waist is very thin, yet with great difficulty you are carefully carrying two horns, to which my eyes have become attracted. What is filling those two beautiful horns? You seem to have spread fragrant red powder upon them, powder that is like the rising morning sun. O most fortunate one, I beg to inquire where you have gotten this fragrant powder that is perfuming my āśrama, my place of residence.
O best friend, will you kindly show me the place where you reside? I cannot imagine how the residents of that place have gotten such wonderful bodily features as your raised breasts, which agitate the mind and eyes of a person like me who sees them. Judging by the sweet speech and kind smiles of those residents, I think that their mouths must contain nectar.
My dear friend, what do you eat to maintain your body? Because you are chewing betel, a pleasing scent is emanating from your mouth. This proves that you always eat the remnants of food offered to Viṣṇu. Indeed, you must also be an expansion of Lord Viṣṇu’s body. Your face is as beautiful as a pleasing lake. Your jeweled earrings resemble two brilliant sharks with unblinking eyes like those of Viṣṇu, and your own eyes resemble two restless fish. Simultaneously, therefore, two sharks and two restless fish are swimming in the lake of your face. Besides them, the white rows of your teeth seem like rows of very beautiful swans in the water, and your scattered hair resembles swarms of bumblebees following the beauty of your face.
My mind is already restless, and by playing with a ball, moving it all about with your lotuslike palm, you are also agitating my eyes. Your curling black hair is now scattered, but you are not attentive to arranging it. Are you not going to arrange it? Like a man attached to women, the most cunning wind is trying to take off your lower garment. Are you not mindful of it?”
In his purports, Prabhupāda goes for a few verses with the understanding that Āgnīdhra was bewildered and could not understand if Pūrvacitti was a boy or a girl, while Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thākura suggests he was feigning surprise to show his expertise at seduction. This apparent disagreement should be interpreted simply as revealing two valid interpretations that expand the meaning of the verses.
Taking that Āgnīdhra was confused, the verses describe the pathetic condition of a man bewildered by a beautiful woman, incapable of speaking coherently, as Prabhupāda explains in his purports. His leads to the hopeless condition of Āgnīdhra, becoming an obedient servant of his wife, and becoming almost mad when she left, reduced to aspiring to take his next birth on the same planet as her in the hope of maybe seeing her again.
Taking that Āgnīdhra was aware that Pūrvacitti was an apsarā sent by Brahmā, we get the meaning that he continued to address her as a Brāhmana boy in text nine onward as a tactic of seduction, showing his capacity to play with words. In this mood, he glorified her mouth, the pleasing sound of her ankle bells, her well-formed hips, her waist, and her style of dress that revealed her beautiful forms.
Prabhupāda describes that “When a man looks upon a woman with such lusty desires, he is captivated by her face, her breasts and her waist, for a woman first attracts a man to fulfill his sexual desires by the beautiful features of her face, by the beautiful slope of her breasts and also by her waist. Pūrvacitti was dressed in fine yellow silk, and therefore her hips looked like kadamba flowers. Because of her belt, her waist seemed to be encircled by burning cinders.”
Āgnīdhra had become very lusty after her, and he showed that in his words. This approach of glorifying the beauty of a lady and showing interest is universally used by men as a strategy of seduction, because for a lady, beauty equals power. When a lady is very beautiful, she can obtain anything she wants and enjoy life to the fullest. Women thus universally desire to be beautiful, and this is exploited by lusty men. When a lady feels beautiful, she unconsciously sees it as an opportunity to enjoy life; this acts like a trigger for all kinds of repressed material desires. After making her feel beautiful and triggering these desires, a man directs them to himself, making the lady see him as an opportunity to satisfy all these desires. This push can be almost irresistible to a lady, putting her at the mercy of a materialistic man. In this case, the lady becomes the hunted one.
Āgnīdhra praised the thin waist of Pūrvacitti and compared her breasts to two horns, meaning that they were round, full, raised, and pointy.
There are some compositions in Sanskrit that sound clumsy to us, but that are very attractive in the context of the original culture, like a woman being compared to an elephant. This is a comparison that would not be very welcomed by a modern lady, but in the original context, it compares a woman’s gait with the graceful movements of an elephant while walking, and indicates that her hips are broad, full, and attractive.
He next inquired about her abode. Certainly, the people there must be very pious to possess such beautiful bodily features. Furthermore, because she has such a pleasing aroma emanating from her mouth, he concludes she must always eat the prasāda of Lord Viṣṇu. He continues to glorify her other features and movements, addressing her as suhṛttama (the best friend), which brings in a mood of intimacy.
The conclusion comes in text 5.2.16:
“Lord Brahmā, who is worshiped by the brāhmaṇas, has very mercifully given you to me, and that is why I have met you. I do not want to give up your company, for my mind and eyes are fixed upon you and cannot be drawn away. O woman with beautiful raised breasts, I am your follower. You may take me wherever you like, and your friends may also follow me.”
Āgnīdhra concludes that, being so qualified, she must have been sent by Brahmā to become his wife, in response to his desire to beget a perfect son. Being completely infatuated by her beauty, he completely surrenders to her.
Prabhupāda summarizes the mood in his purport:
“Now Āgnīdhra frankly admits his weakness. He was attracted to Pūrvacitti, and therefore before she could say “But I have no business with you,” he expressed his desire to be united with her. He was so attracted that he was ready to go anywhere, hell or heaven, in her company. When one is absorbed in lust and the influence of sex, one surrenders to the feet of a woman without reservations.”
Human life offers us the possibility of attaining self-realization, and a relationship with a wife or husband can assist us on that if properly conducted. When we become infatuated by the desire to enjoy our senses, however, we become involved out of lust, which can have very negative results. Forgetting about the higher goals of life, we waste our human life.
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