The last book I bought in Thailand was "The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana". While reading the introduction by John W. Spellman, I realised that, in India, the goals of human life have long been defined and can be listed as follows:
- dharma (right conduct, in accordance with what is the natural order of things);
- artha (the pursuit of wealth and material security);
- kama (desire, affection, love, sensual pleasure);
- and, if the previous three are done sucessfully, moksa (the ultimate liberation of the soul from the cycle of rebirths).
It was interesting to read that a lot of importance is attached to the accumulation of material goods; as it was refreshing to find out that sexual pleasures are perceived as one of the most delightful joys of which man partakes – so much so that to neglect them is the same as to deny what we are.
From what I know, most religions focus too much on virtue and repress human sexuality to unhealthy levels. As a matter of fact, if it would depend on the first Catholics and Buddhists human societies would be made out of angels and monks and sensual pleasures would be cataloged as one of the biggest obstacles to the achievement of purity and enlightment. This is the reason why I was so happy to realise that Hinduism is different.
It is true that it is possible to spot serious problems in contemporary Indian society. My admiration, however, goes to ancient Indian civilization and one of the products of this civilization is the above-mentioned book – a literary classic, which has survived for over a millennium. It is in this book that we can read inumerous insightful passages, including the one below:
"Of all the lovers of a girl, he only is her true husband who possesses the qualities that are liked by her, and such a husband enjoys real superiority over her only because he is the husband of love."
And I don't know about you but I never found anything quite like it in the Bible...
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