The Story of Saint Poosalar: Conquest of ?kaama? ------------------------------------------------ through Sublimation of Desire -- --------------------------------- ?bhakti yOga? ----------- It is quite true that a man who has utterly surrendered to the sway of uncontrollable feelings of "kaama" aroused by love for his house can quite easily self-destruct in very much the same way as when he is carried away by "kaamic" feelings for a woman. Earlier postings (#18 to #21) in this series described how when a fleeting maelstrom in the form of "kaama" struck the saint Tondar-adi-podi AzhwAr, he became possessed by unworthy love for a low woman, and it reduced him to a near-ruinous state of existence. If our awareness of the world is keen enough we would easily observe that it abounds in equally dramatic examples wherein "kaama" for a house -- for pieces of valuable real-estate -- can similarly destroy too the happiness of individuals, families and generations. Looking around us within our own family or coummunity circles, many of us will most certainly be able to recall someone or other who came to financial ruin on account of crippling indebtedness. Reason? Because he or she borrowed heavily for the sake of acquiring a "dream" house. Personally, I have myself witnessed how harmony and affection within some families instantly turned to mutual hatred and jealousy all because feuding broke out suddenly between brother and brother, sister and sister, or mother and children over issues of inheritance and possession of a grand old ancestral home bequeathed to them by a father or grand-father. Where once only laughter and good cheer echoed through the walls and rooms of such a happy house, later, after the bitter family feuding erupted, only a dark and brooding sullenness seemed to haunt and pervade the entire air inside. Similarly, in the homes of some close friends I have known for many years, I thought I sometimes sensed a certain silent but deep, simmering discord between husband and wife over such trifling yet rancorous domestic disagreements as, for example, over the way the home interiors ought to have been decorated, or over the exact shade of colour of the wall-paint or over how the nagging problem of a perennially leaking kitchen-roof needed fixing. Husband and wife in such a house not seeing eye-to-eye at all, seemed to me to be ever locked and engaged in a sort of "shadow cold- war" --- a "war" of slow attrition that seemed to continually interfere with and impair what otherwise must have surely been a warm and loving relationship. Just as the extreme of covetous attachment and possessiveness for a woman lands man in all manner of strange predicaments (example, Vipranarayana of the earlier postings) so too, surely, do feelings of misplaced "kaama" for one's home, its surroundings and all its paraphernalia bring all manner of unpredictable and unsavory tensions, yearnings and anxieties into the life of men and women. That the "mating" and "homing" instincts of Man are deeply entwined and embedded together deep within his psyche can be easily understood if we, as Indians, recall and truly understood the history of the Taj Mahal, that marvellous palace the Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan built for his queen Mumtaz with whose famed beauty he was utterly besotted. The queen pre-deceased him and left the king wallowing in sadness and desolation for the rest of his life. The bereaved emperor thereafter lived the life of a total recluse within the Taj Mahal -- a 'home' that became his only solace in life and which he came to increasingly adore. It became his haven and life-breath, reminding him as it constantly did, of the love that once had burned in his heart for Mumtaz and which he sought to keep aflame until the end of his own days on earth. The Taj Mahal, though undoubtedly a true Wonder of the World in terms of sheer architectural beauty, nonetheless remains, and shall remain always, something of a morbid monument to the unfulfilled love (a form of cancerous "kaama") that one man, a king, had borne for a woman and which he sought to keep consummating through the grand 'Home' he erected in her memory. The ancient Egyptians built their great pyramids intending them to be "Home" for their Pharoah-kings in the after-life. Shah Jahan did the same for his queen and built the Taj Mahal. If one stands today as a tall symbol of the defiance of Man's temporal Power against Death, the other stands as beautiful symbol of the defiance of Man's Love, "kaama", against Death. **************** If there are any insightful lessons of human psychology to be learnt from all the above examples, they are probably this: The conquest of "kaamic" feelings associated with Man's "homing-instinct" is indeed as important and essential to Man's well-being in life as is the conquest of "kaama" associated with his "mating instinct" or urge. The conquest of "kaama", in its passionate manifestations of both 'Sexuality' and 'Domesticity', represents two facets of Man's struggle to overcome one and the same fundamental problem of life. ************** (to be continued) Regards, dAsan, Sudarshan __________________________________________________________ Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your partner now. Go to http://yahoo.shaadi.com ------------------------ Yahoo! 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