Text 7.11

अश्लीलम् अश्रीमत्. तच् च व्रीडा-जुगुप्सामङ्गल-बोधित्वात् त्रिधा. क्रमेणोदाहरणम्.

aślīlam aśrīmat. tac ca vrīḍā-jugupsāmaṅgala-bodhitvāt tridhā. krameṇodāharaṇam.

(9) Aślīla (unpleasant) means “not splendid.” It has three varieties, since it causes the perception of either shame, disgust or inauspiciousness. This verse exemplifies all three:

bhagaṃ tava bṛhad bhāvi mukunda-bhajanena viṭ |
sūnos te naiva naṣṭasya punar dṛṣṭiṃ gamiṣyasi ||

O Vaiśya, your upcoming great good fortune, owing to your worship of Mukunda, will never result in seeing your son go away again.

atra bhaga-śabdaḥ sampatty-arthako’py adhamāṅga-pratītyā vrīḍā-bodhī. “bhaginī śiva-liṅgam ātma-yoniḥ” ity-ādau bhagādi-śabdo na tathā, evam eva śabda-maryādā-prāpteḥ. viṭ-śabdo vaiśyārthako’pi purīṣa-pratyayāj jugupsā-bodhī. evaṃ mukha-vāyu-śabdaś ca. adarśanārthako’pi naṣṭa-śabdo maraṇa-pratyayād amaṅgala-bodhī. evaṃ “nāthe pathikatāṃ yāte śokaḥ ko’pi nata-bhruvaḥ” ity atra śoka-śabdaś ca.

In this verse, although the word bhaga has the sense of “good fortune”, it brings about a feeling of shame, on account of the perception of a lower limb.^[1]

However, the usage of words such as bhaga, liṅga, and yoni is not shameful in: bhaginī (sister), śiva-liṅgam (emblem of Śiva), ātma-yoni (Brahmā, lit. self-born), and so on, since in those cases the usage of those words is in conformity with the convention.

Although the word viṭ means “Vaiśya” in this verse, it brings about a feeling of disgust due to perceiving the sense of “excrement.” Another example is the word mukha-vāyu (burp, lit. wind from the mouth).

Although here the word naṣṭa is used in the sense of “not seeing”, it causes a feeling of inauspiciousness since it makes one perceive the sense of “death.” The word śoka (sorrow) in the following example generates inauspiciousness in that exact same way: “When her lover became a traveler, the woman with arched eyebrows experienced a particular sorrow.”

Footnotes and references:

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[1]:

The word bhaga also means “a woman’s private parts,” by the definition: bhagam aiśvaryamāhātmya-jñāna-vairāgya-yoniṣu, yaśo-vīrya-prayatnecchā-śrī-dharma-ravi-muktiṣu, “The word bhaga means opulence, glory, knowledge, renunciation, vagina, fame, strength, endeavor, desire, good fortune, religion, the sun, and liberation” (Viśva-kośa).