The Song of Pingala

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_
continue=54&v=NMrRzDJ3Wuc

Uddhava Gita 2.28 "Now please hear from me the song sung by [Pingala] the prostitute ..."

Pingala is a prostitute.  This might rise the query from the reader how one can gain by hearing a poetry describing the greed and miserable life of a prostitute, but 

Pingala's story is told by Lord Krishna to Uddhava and sastra so instruct about this type of narration : Itihasa-samucchaya [SD 3.5.12 Comm.]  "What result can be attained by describing the lust of lusty men and the greed of greedy men, except to sent them into the darkness of a well? In the Mahabharata, lust and greed are described to purify people's hearts, and are moreover condemned by stories with pure meaning.  Otherwise, why would the most merciful and learned Vyasa describe lust and greed, the cause of bondage to terrible material existence?"

Pingala's is just one of the sixteen stories that an avadhuta brahmana told to King Yadu. Every story is a lesson about material life and Krishna retells the whole narration to Uddhava ~ in the section of the Bhagavatam (11th Canto) called "Uddhava Gita" ~ during His final instructions before closing up His pastimes on Earth.  Therefore so auspicious and beneficial is hearing and learning from this story.

Pingala's ambition, cause of her bondage, and her relentless desires bring her to anxiously waiting every night to the side of the road.  The description of her mental stream of thoughts reveals the ignorance and psychology of the living entities in the material world, the mentality of the allured souls trapped in their own desires and false identity  (ego).

Behind her ambition to gain wealth and to indulge in sensual pleasure, a greater ambition stands as the egotistical root of material life and that is acting as the doer, self-centered and deluded, as if independent from any superior will. She, as all deluded souls, believes that with her own efforts she will be able to satisfy her own desires, but in reality she is spending her whole life blindly serving unworthy and degraded people, incapable also of their own happiness. 

The jiva does not have energy on its own ["This is the nature of tamas that it eclipses the power of the jiva, who has only small power." SD 3.7.10 Comm.] 
Only when the jiva comes to accept its dependence on the Lord, approaches the Lord for bhakti.  This is how Pingala's story ends, with her enlightenment and surrender to seek the Lord's grace to cultivate a relationship with Him.  So, the ability that is invoked in the last stanza of the poem -by the poet through Pingala - is for performing devotional service, the ability to perform bhakti through its 9 angas.  This is the ability that the Lord grants when pleased with His devotee,  in order to attain Him by knowing, thinking and ultimately loving Him, since granting the seed of bhakti does not necessarily implies the ability for its performance.  

SD 2.9.32 "By my mercy, may you attain perfect realization of whatever dimensions, intentions, forms, qualities and pastimes I manifest."

Uddhava Gita 2.23-26 "One night, the prostitute dressed herself attractively and sat outside her house, waiting for the arrival of a lover. 

Oh foremost of men, this prostitute wanted desperately to get some money and for that purpose she stood by the side of the road at night gazing at all the men as they passed by.. She thought, "This man looks wealthy and I am sure that he would like to enjoy with me."  In this way, she evaluated all men as they passed her by.   [...] Her only means of  support was her profession as a prostitute, and so she anxiously thought, " Maybe this man will enjoy my company.  He looks like he has a lot of money.  Here is another man who will surely pay me for my love.  Alas! This man did not stop but someone else is coming now who will surely want to pay me for my love."  Thus, hoping against hope, Pingala, remained standing in her doorway, unable to earn enough money and thus retire for the night.  Being very anxious, she sometimes went out  into the street , and then again went back into her house.  In this way the night passed."

"She then meditated on Sri Hari and attained great peace in her mind. The instruction received from her is that desire for material enjoyment is the cause of our distress.  Therefore, only one who has given up such desires can fix himself in meditation upon the Supreme Lord, and thus achieve transcendental peace."

Faces,

faces passing  quickly,

walking briskly,

believing my anguish

will pass,

hopefully by tomorrow,

I step into the night

of  palpable sorrow,

anxious for someone to come,

to pay for the love

 I offer to everyone,

along with the pain

and hope in my heart,

maybe this one ... coming this way...

      yes, this is my art... on sale;   ⁽¹⁾

wearing sensual pleasures

         like tattoos on my skin,         ⁽²⁾

I walk down the street,

would you like just for one night

to be a king and me

your favorite mistress?

I give my body to enjoy

                        just a fleeting remedy for distress,  ⁽³⁾                 

I know no other way to give joy,

but, alas, no one is gazing to this side,

nobody takes notice of the heart

of an importunate, begging tramp!

  Oh, this one now looks towards me....⁽⁴⁾

Feeling lonesome?

I sell my sad heart, I have nothing else,

and I try to smile at unseeing eyes ...

crowds of faces crowd my nights;

all seem just grey masks,

nobody has stopped tonight

dawn comes again ~

with my frustration

and under my eyes

a residue

of the shadows of this night.

morose, anxious and disappointed

now I see this street of illusion

where rose my hope

                   and sooner died my ambition,  ⁽⁵⁾            

paved with pebbles of delusion,

lamentation cadenced my steps

eager to serve insignificant men,

now I see the trap of this mundane folly,

my soul numbed by melancholy

                              lets a distaste to set in                          

for the coveted riches

and banal dreams, 

for the grace of Lord Hari 

unconcerned

feeling an unfamiliar relief

       a smile arises within me,    ⁽⁶⁾

O true Lover in my heart!

I will not waste in vain

my efforts of love

never to the unworthy again,

You, O Source of Love, allow me

the ability to accept

       Your favor upon my head      ⁽⁷⁾

to know and love You.

Now at peace I close the door

without further ado.  

1) Uddhava Gita 2.32 Ppt "The art of arousing the spirit of enjoyment is called sanketya vrtti, and it involves employing sensual gestures and movements.  Employing this art is one of the sinful ways of earning one's livelihood."

2) Uddhava Gita 2.23 Comm.  "By dressing in attractive ways and making vaious sensual bodily gestures the prostitute, Pingala, would attract her lovers."

3) SBMM 8.13 [...]The happiness in this world is not actually happiness; it is only a remedy for distress.

4)Uddhava Gita 2.25-26 "As Pingala stood in her doorway, many men passed her by, Her only means of support was her profession as a prostitue and so she anciously thought "Maybe this man iwll enjoy my company..."

5)Uddhava Gita  2.28 Comm. "Pingala thought, 'My ambitions are the cause of my material bondage" 

6) Uddhava Gita 2.27 "Being full of anxiety and greatly disappointed, she began to experience a sense of detachment from her situation, so that a kind of happiness arose within her mind."

SB 2.9.37 Ppt "This  detachment from the sensory world is called the brahma-bhuta stage of realization, the preliminary stage of transcendental devotional life (para bhaktih)."

Therefore difficulties might turn into opportunities for growing detachment.

5) SD 2.7.42 Comm. " Only those persons to whom the Lord shows mercy saying, 'Let these persons know me' cross the ocean of maya and know the Lord.

Notes

***From the following comment of Visvanath C. Thakura  it seems that Pingala really existed :  UG 2.37 Comm.

"Some learned authorities have said that when Dattatreya happened to come to Pingala's house she said to him "O foremost sage, what have I done to have the good fortune of seeing you?  Today, you have mercifully blessed my house.  Please come in.  Haves ome food and water and then rest awhile." Indeed, Pingala even cleansed her courtyard when Dattatreya arrive there, out of his own sweet will."

In the previous verses of this same chapter Pingala is said to be a resident of the town of Videha.  I could only found that Videha was in the area of Bihar/West Bengal also during the time of the Panchala kingdom, but  the Bhagavatam verses  recite : "O son of kings, long ago, there lived a prostitute named Pingala who resided in the city of Videha."