Devanagari
स्त्रीपुंप्रसङ्ग एतादृक्सर्वत्र त्रासमावह: ।
अपीश्वराणां किमुत ग्राम्यस्य गृहचेतस: ॥ १७ ॥
Verse text
strī-puṁ-prasaṅga etādṛk
sarvatra trāsam-āvahaḥ
apīśvarāṇāṁ kim uta
grāmyasya gṛha-cetasaḥ
Synonyms
strī
—
pum — prasaṅgaḥ — attraction between husband and wife, or man and woman
;
etādṛk
—
like this
;
sarvatra
—
everywhere
;
trāsam
—
āvahaḥ — the cause of fear
;
api
—
even
;
īśvarāṇām
—
of controllers
;
kim uta
—
and what to speak of
;
grāmyasya
—
of ordinary men of this material world
;
gṛha
—
cetasaḥ — who are attached to materialistic household life .
Translation
The attraction between man and woman, or male and female, always exists everywhere, making everyone always fearful. Such feelings are present even among the controllers like Brahmā and Lord Śiva and is the cause of fear for them, what to speak of others who are attached to household life in this material world.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Such attraction between man and woman is a cause of saṁsāra even for Brahmā and others in this life and the next. What to speak of the common people who are attached to their houses?
Others, attached to lust, remember women and sink in saṁsāra. Irregular sandhi in strī-puṁ-prasaṅga is poetic license. This attachment exists even for Brahmā and others, producing saṁsāra (trāsam) in this world and the next (sarvatra) since it is material and arises from lust. Trāsam-āvahaḥ should also be in the genitive case. This is indicated by the word etādṛk: it appears to be the case of Rāma and Sītā also. There is a semblance of material association in their relationship but it is not factual, since their relationship is spiritual and arises from prema. Therefore this statement applies to the devatās but not to the Lord.
Purport
As explained above, when the feelings of love and transcendental bliss from the spiritual world are pervertedly reflected in this material world, they are certainly the cause of bondage. As long as men feel attracted to women in this material world and women feel attracted to men, the bondage of repeated birth and death will continue. But in the spiritual world, where there is no fear of birth and death, such feelings of separation are the cause of transcendental bliss. In the absolute reality there are varieties of feeling, but all of them are of the same quality of transcendental bliss.