women; while the rest of mankind smitten and stupefied by the irresistible, serpent-like poisoned arrows of Cupid, and brought under the infatuation of Love, can neither enjoy their desires nor renounce them at will.
[प्रियतमदेहार्धाहरी—This refers to the symbolic representation of Śiva and Gaurĩ in a single divided form. "On one side grows the hair in long and black curls, And on the other, corded like rope ;
One side is white with ashes, like the snow-mountains, The other golden as the light of the dawn. For He, the Lord, took a form, And that was a divided form, Half-woman and half-man."
भोक्तुं न मोक्तुं क्षमः - Ordinary persons when they give themselves up to enjoyments, lose all control and become slaves to them ; so even when satiety comes, they cannot detach themselves from them, as the force of blind attachment has enslaved them. But Śiva, who has subdued His mind, is unaffected by them, as in His state of mental poise of Yoga, pleasure and pain are the same to Him.]
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अजानन्दाहात्म्यं पततु शलभस्तीव्रदहने |
18. Without knowing its burning power
