[527] Then it occurred to the bhikkhunī Somā: "Who now is this that speaks the verse — a human or a non-human?"
#1 [Editorial footnote in the Siam edition:] Po., Ma. read: "ajjhogāhetvā."
Then it occurred to the bhikkhunī Somā: "This is Māra the Evil One (pāpimā), who speaks the verse desiring to arouse in me fear, trepidation, and horripilation, and desiring to make me fall away from concentration (samādhi)."
Then the bhikkhunī Somā, having understood, "This is Māra the Evil One," addressed Māra the Evil One with verses:
"What can womanhood (itthibhāva) do, when the mind (citta) is well concentrated,
when knowledge (ñāṇa) is proceeding, for one rightly seeing the Dhamma with insight?
One for whom indeed it might be thus: 'I am a woman,' or 'I am a man,'
or again, 'I am anything at all' — that one Māra is fit to address."
Then Māra the Evil One, [realizing] "The bhikkhunī Somā knows me," pained and dejected, vanished right there.
The Gotamī Sutta, the Third
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.