Quote by Pavan K. Varma

“The Rig Veda says that desire was the first movement that arose in the One after it had come into being through the power of abstraction. ‘Desire arose first in It, which was the primal germ of mind; (and which) sages, searching with their intellect have discovered in their heart to be the bond which connects entity with non-entity.’48 The very strength of the urge made it useful to use as a metaphor to convey or explicate a metaphysical point. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says: ‘Just as a man, closely embraced by his loving wife, knows nothing without, nothing within, so does this “person”, closely embraced by the Self that consists of wisdom, knows nothing without nothing within.’49 The same Upanishad also has this passage where a woman’s genitals are used as symbols to describe a sacrificial fire: ‘Woman is a fire, Gautama: the phallus is her fuel; the hairs are her smoke; the vulva is her flame; when a man penetrates her, that is her coal; the ecstasy is her sparks.’50 As I have discussed, the major gods in the Hindu faith have all got consorts. They are rarely described as celibate recluses; they may be said to be beyond passion in an ontological sense, but in their incarnate form they are explicit in the demonstrative attraction of the opposite sex. The goddesses do not lag behind. Their love for their husbands or lovers is often portrayed in an assertively earthy and sensual manner. Gods and goddesses represent a conscious duality, Purusha and Prakriti, complementing each other. The inclusion of desire in the larger religious and spiritual vision gave it both sanctity and philosophical legitimacy. Kama, the God of Love, akin to the Greek Eros, or the Roman Cupid or Amor, has been exalted in a hymn of the Atharva Veda as a supreme god and creator. ‘Kama was born the first. Him neither gods, nor fathers, nor men have equalled. Thou art superior to these and for ever great.”

Quote by Pavan K. Varma