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               ?Kaama? as true ?purushArtha?: 
The story of Sage Yagnyavalkya in the Brihadaranyaka
Upanishad
             ----------------------------             


After they have patiently heard the theory of ?kaama?
expatiated, students of Vedantic philosophy generally
encounter a rather intriguing but genuine doubt: 

Is ?kaama? Vedantic ?purushArtha? or Vedantic ?hita?? 

In other words, does ?kaama? constitute a ?Goal? of
Life or, is it far more accurate to define it as
?Means? (?hita?) to greater goals in life? 

This confusion over ?Ends and Means? arises in our
minds because ?kaama? is indeed fundamentally
dualistic in nature. While on the one hand, ?kaama? is
a ?Goal?, an earthly Pleasure-Principle that human
beings everywhere honestly aspire to attain, on the
other hand, in so far as it is raw, elemental Power
--- a primal source of spiritual energy in life --- it
also rightly constitutes ?hita? (?means?). In other
words, although ?kaama? is neither inherently good nor
bad, it is a Power eminently capable of both use and
abuse by Man. It is capable, accordingly, of bestowing
in equal measure both the greatest Good as well as the
greatest Evil upon Man. Thus, in as much as it is
recognized that without ?kaama? no progress anywhere
is possible, including progress on the spiritual path,
it is as much Vedantic ?hita? as it is ?purushArtha?.

The same genuine doubt arises in the minds of the
student of the TiruppAvai too. When we read the prayer
of the ?aaypAdi?, the cowherd-girls in the 29th
stanza: ?maRRai nam kaamangaL maaRRu? (?Change Thee, O
Lord, the Desires of our lives?) the question that
immediately strikes us is this: 

?What ?kaama? are the ?aayapAdi? girls talking about?
Is it ?kaama? the ?purushArtha? (Goal) or ?kaama? the
?hita? (Means) they have in mind? Is it the ?Goal of
Life? that is sought to be changed or is it the ?Means
to the goal?? What truly is the significance of the
Vedantic prayer-call of the TiruppAvai -- ?maRRAi nam
kaamangaL maaRRu??? 

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

It is to the Bhagavath-Gita, once again, that one must
turn for help to clear the confusion between ?Ends?
and ?Means?. There are 2 wonderful verses in the
Second Chapter of the Gita which are so very
illuminating in this regard: 

"shriibhagavaan-uvaacha:

(1) ?prajahaati yadaa kaamaan sarvaanpaartha
manogataan.h . 
aatmanyevaatmanaa tushhTaH sthitapraGYastadochyate ..
2\.55..

(meaning): ?Thus spake Sri Krishna: O Pârtha, when Man
gives up all varieties of desire for mere
sense-gratification (?kaama?), and when his mind, thus
purified, finds satisfaction and fulfillment in the
Self alone, then does he discover that the Self itself
is indeed the greatest root or source (?sthitapraGYa?)
of Pleasure and Joy (?tushhTaH?)?.

(2) ?aapuuryamaaNamachalapratishhTha.n 
samudramaapaH pravishanti yadvat.h . 
tadvatkaamaa yaM pravishanti sarve 
sa shaantimaap{}noti na kaamakaamii? .. 2\.70.. 

(meaning): ?A person who remains undisturbed by the
incessant flow of desires ?-- he who may be likened to
the great ocean that remain always full though rivers
flowing into it are sometimes in spate and sometimes
dry ?-- such a person alone achieves Peace; not the
man who is constantly striving to satisfy or fulfill
such desires?.

Beyond the greatest of pleasures, the Gita declares
above, that mere senses may afford us in the world,
there is an infinitely greater Joy and Peace, a
greater pleasure of satisfaction -- or ?kaama?, that
is -- called ?tushhTaH? and ?shaanti?, which the human
Mind discovers and experiences the moment it has
learnt to free itself from the bewitching spell cast
upon it by ordinary, commonplace ?kaama?. So long as
desires in life remain centered around personal
gratification, so long does one continue to remain
ensnared in an unending but futile ?cycle of ?kaama??
(described elsewhere in this series of postings -
#12). So long as ?kaama? is pursued ?- or, to put it
more accurately, so long as it continues to be
?misused? or ?abused? as means of spiritual power
(?hita?)?- i.e. pursued as mere means for base
self-fulfillment, so long does the true nature of
?kaama? as a higher Goal in life, as an Ideal or
?purushArtha?, always remain beyond our comprehension
and grasp.
 
                   ***********

In the ?BrhadAranyaka-Upanishad? there is a
magnificent passage that describes the scene where
Sage Yagnyavalkya is on the point of renouncing all
pleasures and comforts of the world (?kaama?) and
taking to 'sannyAsa'. 

He divides his wealth between his two wives, KAtyAyani
and MaitrEyi. The first wife, on receiving her share
of the wealth, takes the news of her husband's
impending 'sannyAsa' in her stride and quietly retires
to her own station in life. But the younger wife,
Maitreyi, does not give up so easily. She demands an
explanation from YagnyavAlkya as to why and wherefore
his decision to renounce the delight of the world
(?kaama?).

"Sir, you are leaving home", Maitreyi says, "you are
leaving home because, you say, greater Joy is to be
found in the renunciation of wealth and pleasures of
conjugal life than there is in their continued
enjoyment. What is such ?Joy?? Won't you tell me about
it?"

YagnyavAlkya replies, "You have always been a loving
one to me, O MaitrEyi! Now that you ask this question,
you have become even dearer to me than before!"

The Sage then proceeds to deliver a stirring
exposition on the true nature of human love and
affection... i.e. ?kaama?, the Pleasure-Principle of
life.

"Why is a wife is dear to her husband, O MaitrEyi? Not
so much for the sake of giving pleasure or happiness
to the wife as for the sake of pleasure and happiness
his own inner self derives by it, isn?t it? Similarly,
a husband becomes dear to a wife not for his sake but
for the sake of her inner self? Our children too are
so dear to us...  not for their own sake but for the
sake of the inward pleasure of our self. So is the
case with the love that we cultivate for all the
wealth and possessions we have in this world. We are
filled with love for it all, not for their intrinsic
sakes but for the sake of the pleasure (?kaama?) the
self within each one of us derives there from. 

?We have affection for a person or for a thing because
it pleases and delights the self within. Does it not
therefore stand to reason, O Maitreyi, that this inner
Self deep within us is itself essentially of the
nature of pure affection, of pure love and joy
(?kaama?)? 

?So my dear Maitreyi, it is to know this Self ---
independently of everything else attaching itself to
it or otherwise associated with it --- that I now wish
to forsake all things dear and desirable to me, and
take to the renunciation of 'sannyAsa'. 

?When we know the Self itself to be the very root and
source of Pure Love (pure ?kaama?)... and as being
truly independent of all worldly objects, entities and
persons that may come to be associated with or in any
way related to It... then do we begin to realize there
is nothing in the world greater than the Self itself
that is both primal and ultimate source of Love and
Joy (?kaama?)! Everything else in the world, without
any distinction, then becomes at once, as if by sheer
magic my dear Maitreyi, truly joyful and supremely
lovable!"

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

In the collection of mystic poems called
?peria-tirumOzhi? of the great Tamil saint
?Tirumangai-AzhwAr? there is an extremely beautiful
verse that echoes the very same sentiments of Sage
YagnyavAlkya in the "BrhadArAnyaka-Upanishad". 

?Slave to carnal desires that I once was?, sang the
AzhwAr,?I went looking for delights in every
pleasure-den of this world. Then one sudden day,
thanks to the sacred ?mantra? called ?nArAyaNa?, I saw
the Truth that my search had all along been in vain!
For ?kaamanaar thaathai?, the ?Father of all Love, all
Joy and all Desire?, He, after all, was close at hand
living within my own breast! So I forsook Desire, once
and for all, and chose instead, Desire's Father!?   

?sEmamEvEndith theevinaiperukkith* therivaimaar
uruvamEmaruvi*
oomanaar kaNda kanavilumpazhudhaay* ozhinNdhana
kazhinNdha anNnNaaLgaL*
kaamanaar thaadhai nNammudaiyadigaL* thammadainNdhaar
manatthiruppar*
nNaamam nNaaNnuyya nNaaNnkaNdu koNdEn* nNaaraayaNaa
ennum nNaamam.?   
                            1.1.3 (?peria-tirumOzhi?)

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

When we witness the examples of great souls like Sage
YagnyavAlkya and Saint Tirumangai-AzhwAr, the truth of
the matter begins indeed to slowly dawn on us too that
?kaama?, in its very absolute sense, has a truly
platonic dimension; and that dimension makes it both a
self- and senses- transcendent Ideal of Life, and
therefore, a true Vedantic "purushArtha" indeed. 

When the seed of such a lofty realization plants
itself in our hearts, grows then a brand new desire
within us: the Desire to master our desires. 

The Desire to master our desires is the whole secret
of spiritual transformation. It is an overwhelming
spiritual urge to somehow transform all our
self-centered, self-gratifying passions in life into
the sort of self- and sense- transcending Desire that
the likes of YagnyavAlkya or Tirumangai-AzhwAr in
sought to attain in the world. It is Desire for life?s
truly highest goal -- the summum-bonum called ?parama
pUrUshArtha?. 

It is such Desire, such sublime "kaama" indeed, that
the "aaypAdi" girls had in mind when they sang out the
prayer of the TiruppAvai --- ?gOvindha! maRRai nam
kaamangaL maaRRu!?.
                  
                  (to be continued)

Regards,

dAsan,
Sudarshan 





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