While wandering here and there in that garden (the body), King Puranjana suddenly saw a very beautiful woman who was walking there, without any particular engagement. (In youth, when the sex impulse is awakened, a man searches after the opposite sex by the use of intelligence, either actively or in his imagination.) She was accompanied by ten servants (five knowledge acquiring and five working senses), and each of them was followed by hundreds of wives (desires of the senses).
The beautiful young woman was being protected on all sides by a five-hooded snake. (The vital force, which includes five kinds of air, is likened to a bodyguard, for without it, one could not live for a moment.) She appeared very anxious to find a suitable husband. (The woman represents intelligence, which cannot act without consciousness, the husband. She is described as very young, indicating that intelligence must be very fresh.) Her nose, teeth, and forehead were very lovely, as were her ears, which were adorned with dazzling earrings. (In material life, one utilizes the body of intelligence to enjoy the objects of sense gratification.) The girl’s waist and hips were exquisitely formed, and she wore a yellow sari with a golden sash. Due to shyness, she repeatedly tried to cover her well-rounded breasts with the end of her sari, and as she walked, her ankle-bells tinkled. (These descriptions express the mind’s joyfulness at seeing a beautiful young girl. The two breasts represent attachment and envy, which are but opposite sides of the same coin, and thus non-different.)
The great hero, Puranjana (When one chooses to be a servant of the senses, he can become a great material hero. If one chooses to resist the attraction of beautiful women, thus becoming a controller of the senses, a gosvami, he can become a great spiritual hero.) was very attracted by the woman’s shyly smiling face, and his heart became pierced by the arrows of her lusty glances.
This is a section of the book “A Sidelong Glance”.
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