priyā - prem

Śrīmad Bhāgavatam
=Bhāgavata-Purāṇa [Kṛṣṇa/Bhakti-bible]

Canto 11 Chapter 8
The Story of Pingala

(22) In the city of Videha, there used to be a prostitute called Pingala. Oh son of kings, learn now from me something I learned from her.

(23) One night, she stood as a prostitute outside her door, showing off her beautiful figure to get a customer into her house. (24) Oh best among men! Desiring money, she looked at all the men passing in the street, and thought: 'Oh this lover can pay the price, that one is wealthy enough.' (25) With them coming and going, she thus subsisting on selling her love, thought: 'Maybe some guy carrying plenty will approach me for love, and give me a bundle.'

(26) Giving thought to this vain hope, standing in the doorway and spoiling her sleep, walking down the street and returning to the house, it became midnight. (27) As she sadly dropped her face in her desire for money, her anxiety started to give way to a supreme detachment that brought her happiness. (28) Please, hear from me the song she sang, after this disgust of her mind, a detachment that is like a sword to the ties of someone's hopes and desires. (29) Dear King! A person who has not developed detachment, is not willing to give up his physical ties. Just as a human being lacking in wisdom, is not willing to give up his [claims of] ownership.


Pingala said...

(30) See how badly illusioned I am! I must be out of my mind, making a fool of my self in my lust to desire useless pleasures from a lover!

(31) Being ignorantly devoted to a most insignificant and unsatisfactory lust - that only leads to illusion, grief, distress, misery and fear - I have refrained from the love of Him, the Eternal One, bringing welfare, most dear and close to me.

(32) Oh, uselessly subjecting my soul to torture, I engaged as a prostitute, the most reprehensible of all occupations! Desiring money and sexual pleasure, I sold my body to greedy, lusty, pitiable womanizers.

(33) Who else but me would devote herself to this house with nine doors, full of stool and dripping urine, that is constructed with the bones of a spine, ribs, hands and legs, and covered by a skin, hair and nails?

(34) Among the residents of Videha, I am the one as foolish of intelligence to desire, most unfaithful lusting, another man than Him who gives us the Soul, Achyuta [Vishnu].

(35) When I pay the price of giving myself to Him, the well-wisher who is the one most dear, the Lord and Soul of all embodied beings, I will enjoy with Him, just like [the goddess] Rama.

(36) How little happiness gave me the sensual pleasure and the men who pleased my senses? To have a wife or [even the grace of] the gods has, being spread in time, all its beginning and its end.

(37) I who so stubbornly went for pleasure therefore, with my disgust, somehow must have pleased the Supreme One, Lord Vishnu, who brings the happiness I now experience!

(38) Had I been unlucky, there would not have been this misery leading to disgust, this loathing that makes someone relinquish his bondage and find [real] peace.

(39) Having refrained from cherishing vain hope in my addiction to sensual pleasures, I now approach Him for shelter and accept devotedly the great help that He, the Original Lord, offers me.

(40) Fully satisfied convinced that I thus can handle whatever comes my way, I will succeed in living and enjoying just with Him, the Self of Love and Happiness that is certain.

(41) When one has fallen in the well of a material existence, by sensual pleasures has been robbed of one's insight and is caught in the grip of the snake of Time, who else but the Original Lord, would deliver one's soul?

(42) The moment a soul attentively sees the universe as seized by the snake of Time, he being sober will detach from everything material and be suitable to serve as his own protector.

The honorable brahmin said:

(43) Thus being determined to put an end to the desperation that was caused by her desire for lovers, she sat down on her bed having found inner peace.

(44) The greatest unhappiness results from [material] desires, and the greatest happiness from the absence of them. Therewith putting an end to her hope for a lover, Pingala [finally] happily slept.'