Shloka 86
Aṣṭāvakra–Strī-saṃvāda: Dhṛti, hospitality, and a dispute on autonomy
सर्वान् कामानुपाश्रीमो ये दिव्या ये च मानुषा: । नात: परं हि नारीणां विद्यते च कदाचन
sarvān kāmān upāśrīmo ye divyā ye ca mānuṣāḥ | nātaḥ paraṃ hi nārīṇāṃ vidyate ca kadācana ||
Aṣṭāvakra said: “We seek and take refuge in the fulfillment of all desires—whether heavenly or human. Indeed, for women there is nothing beyond this; at no time is anything higher found.”
सअद्टावक्र उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames a viewpoint that human conduct often gravitates toward the pursuit of desires—both worldly and imagined heavenly enjoyments—and it asserts, in a gendered generalization, that for women nothing higher is sought or recognized beyond such desire. Ethically, it can be read as a critique of desire-centered living and of reductive social judgments.
Aṣṭāvakra is speaking and articulates a sweeping claim about the pursuit of pleasures and about women’s aims, presenting a didactic or polemical observation within the Anuśāsana-parvan’s broader instruction on conduct and values.