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Quote by Diane Wolkstein

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The First Love Stories: From Isis and Osiris to Tristan and Iseult

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Diane Wolkstein

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“A person acquainted with the true principles of this science, who preserves his Dharma (virtue or religious merit), his Artha (worldly wealth) and his Kama (pleasure or sensual gratification), and who has regard to the customs of the people, is sure to obtain the mastery over his senses. In short, an intelligent and knowing person attending to Dharma and Artha and also to Kama, without becoming the slave of his passions, will obtain success in everything that he may do.”

PhilosophySciencePassionIntelligenceDharmaKamaKama SutraArthaSuccss
Book:Kama Sutra
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“And he is not at an age right for renunciation; he has not even entered the stage of the householder, as befits a well educated man; he has not therefore paid back his dues to the gods and to his ancestral spirits and to his fellowmen. Bound by these dues where can he go now? He has no experience at all of women and consequently of samsara. He has not therefore attained any of the purusharthas of life, namely dharma, artha and kama. He has not even rendered personal service to his parents to ensure their comfort. He has not helped his loving relations, nor endowed his dear friends with wealth, nor honoured the wise. He has not shared his wealth with his dependants nor fulfilled the desires of those begging for favours. "He has not founded his lineage by begetting sons and grandsons. Nor has he performed any great sacrificial rituals. He has not given generous gifts nor fulfilled his obligations of hospitality. He has not done his duty by this world. He has not adorned the earth with dams, wells and water distributing centres, with palaces, ponds and groves. Above all he has not still spread his fame far and wide which alone would live on till the end of the world.”

DharmaRenunciationStages Of LifeDutiesKamaArthaAshramas
Book:Kadambari
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“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.”

VedasKama
Book:The Great Hindu Civilisation: Achievement, Neglect, Bias and the Way Forward
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