Read the passage and answer the question:

The Therigatha

This unique Buddhist text, part of the Sutta Pitaka, is a collection of verses composed by bhikkhunis. It provides an insight into women's social and spiritual experiences. Punna, a desi or slave woman, went to the river each morning to fetch water for her master's household. There she would daily see a Brahmana performing bathing rituals. One morning she spoke to him. The following are verses composed by Punna, recording her conversation with the Brahmana:

I am a water carrier:
Even in the cold
I have always gone down to the water
frightened of punishment
Or the angry words of high-class women.
So what are you afraid of Brahmana,
That makes you go down to the water

(Though) your limbs shake with the bitter cold?
The Brahmana replied:
I am doing good to prevent evil;
anyone young or old
Who has done something bad
is freed by washing in water.

Punna said:
Whoever told you
You are freed from evil by washing in the water?...
In that case all the frogs and turtles
Would go to heaven, and so would the water snakes
and crocodiles!
(Instead) Don't do that thing,
the fear of which
leads you to the water.
Stop now Brahmana!
Save your skin from the cold...

Punna's message to the Brahmana was:

To leave the fear

The correct answer is Option (3) → To leave the fear

Based on the dialogue in the Therigatha, Punna’s message centers on challenging the Brahmana's internal motivations and external rituals:

• Challenging Ritualism: Punna uses logic (the example of frogs and turtles) to argue that physical washing cannot cleanse internal "evil" or bad deeds.

• Addressing Fear: She identifies that the Brahmana is performing these rituals out of a fear of consequences ("doing good to prevent evil").

• The Final Advice: She tells him, "Don't do that thing, the fear of which leads you to the water." Her message is that instead of performing cold-water rituals out of fear, he should simply stop committing the acts that cause him fear in the first place, thereby "saving his skin" from the cold.

While Punna was a Buddhist follower, the specific verses provided focus on the futility of fear-based rituals rather than an explicit command to join the Sangha or renounce the world.