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           ?kaama?: Friend or Enemy of the Human
spirit?
          
---------------------------------------------

Despite all the negative impressions associated with
?kaama? in popular perception or imagination, in the
Vedantic school of human psychology, the 3rd great
?purushArtha? or Goal of life is not really looked
down upon with any sort of real moral disdain or
repugnance. The fulfillment of mortal Desires --- an
entirely normal urge that swells up quiet naturally in
every human heart --- is regarded, on the contrary, as
a necessary and positive step forward toward spiritual
progress. The fact of this matter is clearly revealed
to us in the very famous Vedic passage or ?prashna?
called ?chamakam?.

The ?chamakam? occurs in the 4th ?kAnda?, 7th
?prapAthaka? of the Yajur Veda. It has 11 ?anuvAkAs?
or passages. The passage rings throughout its course
with the conjunctive word ?cha?, ?cha, ?cha? meaning
?and?, ?and?, ?and?. Hence the name ?chamakam? given
to the ?prashna?. When a group of expert Vedic
chanteurs recite the ?chamakam? in stentorian tones,
it is sheer joy to listen to the incantation. The
?chamakam? has a poetic cadence and sparkling rhythm
of its very own that is truly magical. No one who
listens to the ?chamakam? incantation can remain
unmoved by it in a deeply spiritual way. The
?chamakam? also contains the verb ?kalpataam? which in
Sanskrit means ?may it be granted to me?. The whole of
the passage thus reads: ?May this and (?cha?) this and
(?cha?) this and (?cha?) this and (?cha?)..... be
granted to me (kalpataam?), O Almighty!?

Between the verb ?kalpataam? and the conjunctive ?cha?
is contained a lengthy recital of things of this world
that one perhaps may best describe (using the modern
expression) as the ?good things of life?! It is
virtually a ?shopping-list? of every possible thing
that a human being may ever desire to secure happiness
and wellbeing in an entire lifetime. The whole of the
?chamakam? thus is a prayer for 347 items (to be
precise!) of the most valuable and desirable things in
life Man must petition God!

Perusing the ?chamakam?s? virtual ?shopping-list? of
human desiderata, one will find detailed in it a truly
amazing and formidable inventory of items to pray for:
the range swings from such ordinary necessities of
life as wholesome grain for food and medicament for
robust health-care to such higher social needs as
friendly neighbors, obedient subordinates and
kith-and-kin who harbor no secret jealousy! Every such
item in the inventory is thus invoked, one after the
other in series, in a cascading torrent of wonderful
poetry punctuated, as it were, with the magical sound
of the sweet refrain: ?cha ? cha? may? kalpataam??. 

Thus does the Vedic ?chamakam? beseech the Almighty to
bestow the several things on earth that are dear to
the human heart  - things that are worth craving for
in honest, earnest prayer.

             ***************

It is very significant to note that the 3rd ?anuvAka?
of the ?chamakam? ?- a very popular piece indeed that
is very often chanted on occasions wherever the Vedic
faithful congregate in worship ?-- the 3rd ?anuvAka?
is actually called ?kaama? or ?priya? ?anuvAkam?. It
begins as:

?sham cha may, mayas cha may, priyam cha may, anu
kaamas cha may, kaamas cha may, sowmana-sas cha may,
bhadhram cha may, srEyas cha may???

(meaning):
(quote):?May God grant me these things: the Happiness
of this world, the Happiness of the other world,
objects dear and pleasing, objects alluring, all
things desired for in the other world, the happiness
of having well-disposed relations, welfare and
prosperity in this world ??.?(unquote)

>From the above we should be able to understand beyond
a shadow of doubt that the ?kaama? ?anuvAka? of the
?chamakam? is an explicit prayer to the Almighty to
grant the human heart the fulfillment of its ?kaam-ic?
urges i.e. to grant it all the natural and normal
desires that it unabashedly seeks in the world. It is
unimpeachable affirmation, indeed, of the human goal
of ?kaama purUshArtha?. For the human spirit to
progress onward in its journey, the Veda says, its
earthly desires must be duly and fully whetted. No
unrequited appetites, no regrets should be left
behind. This is the natural and normal order of all
existence as revealed in the Vedas.

             ************

Now, the determination of the exact place of ?kaama?
in the life of Man poses an extremely complex and
fundamental problem. 

(In the previous postings) When we turned to classical
Vedanta, we saw ?kaama? being held up as a
?purUshArtha?, one of the four cardinal goals of human
existence. Yet, when we turned to the Bhagavath-gita,
the last word on Vedanta that one can find in all the
scriptures, we heard Lord Krishna denouncing ?kaama?
in no uncertain terms (?dushpurENa-nalEna cha?) as the
very bane or ruination of human existence. But then
again, when we turned to the Veda, we saw that
passages such as the ?chamakam? above firmly declared
the importance of ?kaama? as a central and desirable
human end in itself. 

Thus, at the end of it all, we are left utterly
bewildered, are we not, by questions on ?kaama? that
seem to pose themselves to us, as it were? Should we
yield submissively to the power of our ?kaama?? Or
should we wage a battle against it? Should we seek to
root out our ?kaam-ic? urges or should we pray for the
realization of desires, instead? Is ?kaama? a friend
of the human spirit or its worst enemy?

These are daunting questions to which, however, that
seemingly simple but truly eloquent phrase of the 29th
Verse of AndAl?s ?tiruppAvai? indeed provides
illuminating answers --? ?maRRai nam kaamangaL
maaRRu?.

               ****************      
               (to be continued)

Regards,

dAsan,
Sudarshan 



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