The Classical Indian Literature - Essay Example

Running Head: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SANSKRIT TERM KAMA TO DENOTE PLEASURE AND DESIRE IN CLASSICAL INDIAN LITERATURE The significance of the Sanskrit term Kama to denote both “pleasure” and “desire” in Classical Indian Literature Institution Date Introduction The most important surviving classic of India's Kama teaching is Vatsayana's commemorated Kama Sutra. It is a sensual work that has earned India a reputation for a sensuality that seem to be misleading, for instance, the subject of sex is entirely treated based on both secular and technical level. The Kama Sutra is relatively a textbook for the lovers and courtesans. Through such an organized environment, with its well-arranged marriages, the existence of plenty dull as well as painful households where the copy of the Kama Sutra would appear in handy. Hinduism acknowledges that searching for pleasures and avoiding pain are essential to human psychology. This implies that pleasure is considered to be one of the ends or the goals of human existence. However, people come to their realization that pleasure is not what they expected it to be. Indeed, the uncontrollably pursuit of pleasure in India may in the future turn out to be trivial and ultimately boring since people desire something that is more lasting (Dallapiccola, 2002). The discussion of human goals commonly referred to as dharma or duty, artha or the purpose, kāma as the pleasure or desire and moksha as liberation occupies a long-standing tradition in the attempt to explain the association of the individuals to their society as well as to the world, for instance, the nature of ‘Self’ and the operations of karma (Doniger, 2003). The study examines the significance of Sanskrit term Kama in relation to pleasure and desire as well as their overlap in suggestion of the attitude to love in the classical Indian literature. The significance of the Sanskrit term Kama in denoting both “pleasure” and “desire” The Sanskrit term Kama is so significant in denoting both “pleasure” and “desire because it is considered as a force in the human life within the Indian thought. As a result, Hindu myth and speculation greatly give it a key role in creation. Kama is perceived as the main motive power with growth and development of phenomenon life which is widely celebrated in lore as well as in worship. Kama or desire and pleasure are often and consistently set forth as the major impediment to human being’s self-realization. Furthermore, this Sanskrit word Kama is normally translated as the sexual desire. However, its application is broadly related to the English term desire that commonly denote lust though not limited to that meaning and carries the connotations of wish, passion as well as craving. Kama means pleasure, particularly sexual pleasure as it is reflected in both the Kama Shastra and Kama Sutra. Hindu dharma literature considers Kama as one of the key Four Goals that make up human life (Purusartha). Since the word Kama basically means "desire," it can refer to desires of any kind such as people wanting to get satisfied for food and drink, it can be an aesthetic pleasure, pleasant company, or even desiring to leave the world. Hinduism acknowledges that searching for pleasures and avoiding pain are essential to human psychology. This implies that pleasure is considered to be one of the ends or the goals of human existence (Dallapiccola, 2002). However, Kama is a term that also has implications of connoting sexual desire that in its all-consuming desirability stands as the standard for them all. As a result, the Classical Indian society identified the importance of Kama. For example, Chapter One of the Kama Sutra supports pleasure as a lawful part of the human experience. This is because it recognizes a hierarchy of the human goals, and hence accepts that any quest for pleasure should be ultimately regulated by the commitment to dharma which means righteous action. Without this commitment the quest for pleasure turns out to be destabilizing. But if one's priorities are properly balanced Kama emerges to be a GOOD thing that is worthy to be pursued. Generally, Kama perceived as the enjoyment of the appropriate objects through the five senses of hearing, tasting, smelling, feeling and seeing enabled by the mind in addition to with the soul. The emerging ingredient within this is the peculiar contact between an organ of sense and its own object as well as the consciousness of pleasure that arises from such contact. Studies indicate that Kama is a name given to the Indian god accountable for the art of love since it means ‘desire’ or ‘joy’. Within the Indian context, desire signifies more than just the sexual desire. Therefore, Kama comprises all kinds of desire which can be experienced through the senses. This identifies Kama as the pleasure that the mind, the body and the soul obtain from exquisite sensations. Depending on arouse of the eyes, the tongues, the ears, the nose and the skin as well as between feeling and those things felt, it is clearly implied that the nature of Kama will thrive (Dallapiccola, 2002). The most important pleasure that human nature seeks is basically relaxation, the nonexistence of bodily pain as well as the gentle self-control of the mind. This suggests that Kamasutram can be best and successfully achieved by people scaling down their desires, overcoming some useless fears and revolving pleasures of their minds. Such pleasures are associated with the highest degree of some permanence and physical pleasures in a similar manner as they can have the impact of preventing some over indulgence within matters that concerns flesh, and hence their ensuing pain. The four main goals of life for any Indian householder involve desiring (Kama), to fulfill the desire, to get the means (artha), to observe the social as well as religious obligations (dharma) and to seek for liberation (moksha) form a chain of rebirth. This implies that Kama which is the desire and pleasure is considered to be one of the most important aspects of life in the Indian literature. Studies indicate that without Kama, a person has no wish for the worldly profit (artha), no striving for the good (dharma), no love which implies that Kama is central to the well-being of each and every person (Dallapiccola, 2002). Kama is the pleasure, please of desires, sensual gratification, sexual fulfillment, Eros as well as the artistic enjoyment of life. Therefore, the urge to both enjoy pleasure and satisfy the desires is considered to be the most powerful enticement for human being progress. It has been argued that all that a person does is normally inspired by Kama. For instance, as Manu perceived Kama as the desire, a person can examine it as the desire for pleasure. This could be sensuous pleasure, or the mental pleasure for in pursuit for satisfaction or an impulse for the sexual pleasure. When Kama is examined in a broader sense implies the desire as well as in a narrow sense means sexual desire. In accordance to Hindu and Buddhist Philosophy, desire is considered as the root cause of the human suffering. For example, in Bhagavadgita desire results into delusion and a bondage to the cycle of both birth and death. Based on a woman playing with the parrot, the parrot is perceived as the vehicle of the god of desire or Kama and the impeller of all creation. Furthermore, Kama is considered as the god of beauty and the youth. Creation is normally preceded by desire, and as a result there can be no existence of creation without desire. Certainly the parrot idea symbolizes another pointer to the basic association of the feminine with creative principle within nature (Dallapiccola, 2002). Ways in which the overlap between pleasure and desire ideas in a single term suggest about attitudes to love in Classical Indian literature There is an existence of interesting correlations between pleasure and desire, for instance, a number of people on various occasions, desire for pleasure. Love is usually considered to be an unconscious affair at its beginnings. An individual finds him or herself unconsciously in love. Therefore, Love involves carrying out of the general feeling of pleasure into a specific thing, and hence inseparable from desire. Desire is the impulse directed by ideas and that how people trace the psychology of love. Initially, they find pleasure in other people’s presence and later the egoistic desire to maintain or increase that pleasure. As a result, desire follows in order to hold or own the other person exclusively, which consecutively is followed by a solicitude for some else’s welfare, a feeling of responsibility as well as the extension of protection (Vanita, 2005). An Exclusive possession and ownership are followed, and later love comes to its full bloom of a Creative Impulse from which it emanated from, or simply dies of due to suffocation. On the other hand, individuals marry for a number of reasons though very few who marry just to please their parents. In this case, the two best motive qualities for action are considered to be curiosity and selfishness, similarly, in love and marriage. The moment people think that they have exhausted all the possibilities of their partners, they have established the entire charms of mind, heart as well as have surveyed all the associated excellencies, and as a result nothing remains to either excite their further wonder or curiosity, they become open to the emerging challenges of the subsequent candidate in order to cover the picture (Vanita & Saleem, 2001). Only the hinder fidelity to the memory of the past actions will hinder love from seeking some new images so as to express its own spiritual counterpart. The long­ing for union with a God-dess is also com­monly observed to the Chris­t­ian and Sufi mys­tics. Provided that people are in the world, their pri­mary rela­tion­ship to a God-dess is more often than not one of sep­a­ra­tion that is based on their exis­ten­tial sit­u­a­tion. However, the long­ing for a union is almost more or less sweet and intense as the union itself. It is also what pro­pels people to such union (Vanita & Saleem, 2001). Accord­ing to some Indian literature, man and woman possess in them both divine Krishna and Radha. A woman is considered to be female because she has within her the pre­pon­der­ance of Radha, while a man is perceived to be a man because he is generally Krishna. As a result, the Love between man and woman redu­pli­cates within micro­cosm the love of both Radha and Krishna, a love that involved phases such as sep­a­ra­tion and union. The Sep­a­ra­tion of lovers as well as the long­ing involved within it is referred to as viraha in both the Saha­jiya and ortho­dox tra­di­tions, and to viraha is the significant way of sal­va­tion. Kama which is considered as the second aim of life, means having fun or pleasure. Indian mythology perceives desire and pleasure (Kama) as the counterpart of cupid which is considered to be the Hindu’s god of love. Based on the love, Kama reflects the emotional being, the desires one has to the other and the feelings. In accordance to the Indian philosophy, individuals who are not given their emotional lives as well as their fulfillment of pleasurable desires are held back and left to live under the continual strain. The teachings of Kama are exciting since they run counter to some of the frustrations that emanate from organized marriages of convenience. In addition, the Traditional Hindu marriages increasingly became family-managed affairs. Despite all the sensuality presented and depicted within the classic Kama Sutra of lovemaking, majority of the Hindus hold a chaste, austere and extremely controlled attitude concerning sexuality activity. The main goal of an ideal life is considerably to be immersed within the spiritual pursuits as well as to have the mystical experiences which can result into a union with God (Dallapiccola, 2002). In India, Female-female unions are considered as love unions. Consequently, families respond to such loves as they do to the male-female love unions. Based on the family dynamics, the responses may range from the wholehearted acceptance to a hesitant tolerance and to virulent opposition. When the female couples elope and marry within the temples, their families often join up the assistance of police to track them down as well as separate them. Furthermore, such families normally appeal to the law against abduction that is as well commonly used against the eloping heterosexual couples. Over and over again, in Hindu tale, authority bodies who oppose person’s passionate love are forced to give in after realizing that such love is irresistible. During the eleventh-century in Sanskrit Kathasaritsagara story-cycle states, within the context of a powerful male-male attraction at the first sight: "Vakti ji which is affection that arises within the heart and without any cause speaks of the love persisting from the former birth. Kama is considered as sensual desire or the erotic love within Sanskrit, longing as well as sexual pleasure which is occasionally applied to the longing in general. However, in Buddhism Kama perceived as one of basic obstacles on spiritual path and the leading obstacle to the progress to enlightenment (Vanita & Saleem, 2001). The major and ultimate aim of the human life is achievement of the state of pleasure, which appears impossible until one’s mind become vagrant, aimless as well as instable. It is due to this reason that a person needs both love and eroticism in youth hood. This implies that every person is provided with some aesthetic sense. Detachment cannot be simply achieved without aesthetic sense. The idea of Satyam Shivam Sundaram is appropriately based on the above-mentioned notion. The truth is that, only the welfare-oriented and what is welfare-oriented are examined to be undoubtedly beautiful. The Shringar Shataka totally adheres to this concept. In creative process of love, both rapture and agony exists. However, the major paradox of love concerns its craving for completeness that is not totally achieved. Love is the passionate desire that is perpetually aching for both expression and communication. For instance, in India the Memory festive is the ideal account of poet’s rapture and sorrow and the two make this paradox of love. Conclusion Indians acknowledge that searching for pleasures and avoiding pain are essential to human psychology. Kama is the main motive power with growth and development of phenomenon life which is widely celebrated in lore as well as in worship. It is basically the desire and pleasure that are often and consistently set forth as the major impediment to human being’s self-realization. In addition, Kama perceived as the enjoyment of the appropriate objects through the five senses of hearing, tasting, smelling, feeling and seeing enabled by the mind in addition to with the soul. The most important pleasure that human nature seeks is basically relaxation, the nonexistence of bodily pain as well as the gentle self-control of the mind. This implies that Kamasutram can be best and successfully achieved by people scaling down their desires, overcoming some useless fears and revolving pleasures of their minds. The four major goals of life for any Indian householder include desiring (Kama), to fulfill the desire, to get the means (artha), to observe the social as well as religious obligations (dharma) and to seek for liberation (moksha) form a chain of rebirth. The key and ultimate aim of the human life is achievement of the state of pleasure, which appears impossible to achieve until one’s mind become vagrant, aimless as well as instable. It is due to this reason that a person needs both love and eroticism in youth hood (Vanita, 2005). References Dallapiccola, A. (2002). Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend. London. Thames and Hudson. Doniger, W., (2003). Kamasutra - Oxford World's Classics. Oxford University Press. Vanita, R., (2005). Love's Rite: Same-Sex Marriage in India and the West. Penguin Books India. Vanita, R. & Saleem K., (2001). Same-Sex Love in India: Readings from Literature and History. Palgrave. Wadsworth Publishing Co. Read More