विकृता च विरूपा च न चेयं सदृशी तव।
अहमेवानुरूपा ते भार्यारूपेण पश्य माम्॥
vikṛtā ca virūpā ca na ceyaṁ sadṛśī tava
aham evānurūpā te bhāryā-rūpeṇa paśya mām
vikṛtā ca = deformed in body; virūpā ca = and ugly [in appearance]; na ca = not; iyam = this woman; sadṛśī = is like; tava = You; aham = I; eva = alone; anurūpā = am suitable; te = to You; bhāryā-rūpeṇa = as Your wife; paśya = look; mām = at me.
Deformed in body and ugly [in appearance], this woman is not like You. I alone am suitable to You as Your wife. Look at me!1
1 A Māyāvādī commentator has tried to manufacture a speculative interpretation out of this verse, which has been spoken by a spiritually ignorant rākṣasī, by asserting that Sītā is the svarūpa of Māyā whereas Rāma is purely liberated and that they are therefore intrinsically incompatible with each other. However, the reality is that Sītā-devī is Lakṣmī and Lakṣmī is the spiritual potency of Lord Nārāyaṇa who is as spiritual as her. Interested readers should go through Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī’s Bhagavat-sandarbha for an elaborate exposition of this.
NOTE. This statement of Śūrpaṇakhā is sufficient to prove that she was thoroughly under the influence of the material mode of ignorance. Prabhupāda notes the following in his purport to Bhagavad-gītā 14.8:
The mode of ignorance is a very peculiar qualification of the embodied soul. The mode of ignorance is just the opposite of the mode of goodness. In the mode of goodness, by development of knowledge, one can understand what is what, but the mode of ignorance is just the opposite. Everyone under the spell of the mode of ignorance becomes mad, and a madman cannot understand what is what. Instead of making advancement, one becomes degraded. The definition of the mode of ignorance is stated in the Vedic literature. Vastu-yāthātmya-jñānāvarakaṁ viparyaya-jñāna-janakaṁ tamaḥ: under the spell of ignorance, one cannot understand a thing as it is.
It is well known that Mother Sītā, the goddess of fortune, was most beautiful in appearance. But because this demoness was under the clutches of rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa, she was unable to sense the obvious. When one falls under the clutches of these two modes of nature, one cannot understand a thing as it is.