Guest guest Posted March 29, 2006 Report Share Posted March 29, 2006 The Story of Saint Poosalar: Conquest of “kaama” --------------- through Sublimation of Desire -- “bhakti yOga” ----------- Next to Man's "mating instinct", it is his "homing instinct" that is perhaps the most powerful passion ("kaama") ruling his life. Every man in the world dreams first of acquiring a "beautiful, loving wife". It is the primal urge of "kaama" within the human breast. But after a wife has been won, the next thing every man dreams about is acquiring a "nice big house" where he and his wife "could then live happily ever after". This universal dream for a "home-sweet-home" where the ideals of both conjugality and domesticity can come together to reside in everlasting union and bliss ("kaama") --- this dream too is in fact yet another manifestation of the Vedantic "purushArtha" called "kaama" which all men aspire. In the 4-fold scheme of Vedantic "purushArtha", the 3rd and 4th are known as "inbam" and "veedu", Tamil expressions which in ordinary day-to-day parlance mean "happiness" and "home". None can fail to appreciate the subtle significance behind the linguistic association between the two. *********** Many are the poets in the world who have been inspired to give expression to this great twin-ideal of human sexuality and human domesticity. A "home" somewhere on Planet Earth that one could possess and proudly call "one's own" is a very deeply sentimental and universal yearning of Man indeed. The English poet Alexander Pope defined Man's Happiness as little more than being "bound by a few acres of land" around his home: "Happy the man whose wish and care A few paternal acres bound, Content to breathe his native air In his own ground". (Alexander Pope: "The Quiet Life") Another English poet S.Rogers waxed eloquent about the happiness of domesticity i.e. a comely wife and a cozy home upon a hill beside a brook running quietly through the valleys.... "Mine be a cot(tage) beside the hill, A bee-hive's hum shall soothe my ear; A willowy brook that turns a mill With many a fall shall linger near. The swallow, oft, beneath my thatch Shall twitter from her clay-built nest; Oft shall the pilgrim lift the latch And share my meal as welcome guest. Around my ivied porch shall spring Each fragrant flower that drinks the dew; And Lucy (my wife), at her wheel, shall sing In russet gown and apron blue. The village-church among the trees Where first our marriage-vows were given, With merry peals shall swell the breeze And point with taper'd spire to Heaven". (S.Rogers: "A Wish") ************* Being "homeless" in this vast, lonely world is one of the most terrifying prospects for Man. If there was no such thing as a "Home" to which we could all daily return at nightfall to retreat and to retire from our weary, working lives, our plight would be unimaginably sad and troubled. We would find ourselves lost in the sheer and frightening desolation that we know envelops all the world as it spins eternally through the dark, cold emptiness of endless, timeless space. Soldiers upon a battle-field, especially, are the ones most prone to yearn for the peace and security of the homestead. Amidst the death and pain, the blood and guts, the carnage and grief surrounding them all the time while in battle, soldiers who encounter Death almost every day of their lives are indeed the ones who most acutely experience the pain of loneliness that overwhelms every man who finds himself far, far away from home. The pain of such soldierly pathos was captured in extremely moving verse once by an old English poet: "Our bugles sang truce, for the night-cloud had lower'd, And the sentinel stars set their watch in the sky; And thousands had sunk on the ground overpower'd, The weary to sleep and the wounded to die. "Methought from the battlefield'd dreadful array Far, far away I had roam'd on a desolate track; T'was autumn -- and the sunshine arose on the way To the home of my fathers, that welcomed me back. "Then pledged we the wine-cup, and I formally swore: From my home and my weeping friends never to part; My little ones kiss'd me a thousand times o'er And my wife sobb'd aloud in her fulness of heart". ************* The love and longing that every man carries within him for a home are indeed as powerful a passion in life as the love he harbours for his Woman. Wife and home are but two sides of the same "kaama" coin. A man will willingly travel to the ends of the world to secure a home. He will go to any lengths -- beg, borrow, steal or undertake any penance ("tapas") -- to acquire a house. I have lived and worked in the Arabian Gulf for well over 12 years now. Every year I have seen plane-loads of my countrymen arrive here all in search of fortune. I have witnessed them toiling hard for several years. They work hard and earn much and though thrift and prudence manage to put aside handsome savings. And almost everyone whom I took the liberty to ask "What made you leave your native shore?" always had this reply for me, "To make money, of course; make enough to build a nice house back home for myself in India!". That stock reply never fails to vividly remind me of one of several of my own dreams which, many years ago, brought me here too from my native land. What is true of the expatriate worker from India in the Arabian Gulf is perhaps true to a much lesser degree in the case of other Indians who too have ventured out to other far-flung parts of the world in search of a fortune. Still it is true: at the end of the day, they all simply want one thing in life --"To build a nice big house back home one day in India where I and my wife can live happily (ever after)!" Such is indeed the awesome power of attraction and attachment("kaama") for a house that a man will want to move the tallest mountain or cross the high sea for one! *************** The complex feelings of "kaama" associated with one's home are nowhere as clearly manifested than in the extraordinary behaviour of a person immediately after he has proudly secured his earthly abode. For millions of those living and working in India -- all the 1 billion-odd teeming humanity in that vast, blessed country -- building and owning a house has nowadays become something of a national obsession. Getting a house is a "lifetime dream". From the day a young Indian couple marries until the day it owns an "apartment" (or, better still, "an independent bungalow"), the couple virtually "eats, dreams and breathes 'home, home and home'". >From the day the young couple eventually owns one (thanks to the mortgage-loan that the "friendly ("main hoon na!") "housing-bank" advertising itself as a "dream-merchant", advanced them) until their dying day, the young "home-owners" are usually as deeply infatuated with their house, and as deeply engaged in continually beautifying and embellishing it, as they are with each other. And what extraordinary ways indeed such love ("kaama") for the home manifests itself! Some "dream-couples", for example, dream of turning their "beautiful new living room" into that "perfect hi-tech home-theatre that we'd both always wanted in life --- replete with "Bose-speakers and Dolby- projection systems with hi-resolution flat-screen wall-mounted LCD" (whatever that means!). Now, whenever I meet such effusive couples, it has never ceased to intrigue me why someone would want to take a hefty 20-year mortgage to buy a nice big-house only to then turn it into a stuffy domestic cinema-hall! Then there are other couples whose love for their home makes them want to proudly turn it into an art-gallery of sorts. They will show off their "lifetime collection" of antique pieces and objets-de-art. Jade, porcelain, china, crystal etc. from exotic parts of the globe, as well as all manner of bauble and frippery from the remotest corners of the world, not to mention a few imitation Monet or Picasso reprints thrown in for effect.... all these will find a pride of place on a shelf-rack in their brand new drawing-room! Then there are some couples who will use books to elaborately ornament their homes. Walking into their homes can often be an experience only somewhat less awesome than entering the sprawling reading-rooms of the British Museum Library. You will find floor-to-ceiling shelves all loaded-up with books and tomes of every sort on every possible subject in the world. Hard-back, paper-back, leather-bound, vellum-wrapped books, collector's editions, dictionaries, encyclopaedia, best-sellers; fiction, travelogue, biography, history, popular science, poetry, drama.... you name it, you will see it all there in their living room all stacked up in shiny, freshly varnished shelves. There is yet another type of "kaamic" feelings for a home that exhibits itself in human behaviour. Many couples these days are inspired by what are known as "environmental concerns". Besides subscribing to those great global causes for which the worldwide environmental organization known as "Greenpeace" today fights, these couples choose to voice such concerns at home too by turning the private living spaces of their home into a bold 'environmental statement'. Nothing gives them greater pleasure than letting everyone walking into their house discover that the host and hostess are both such great "lovers of the earth's forests" that they've willingly brought large chunks of it right into their bedroom even. Walking around the house you will notice that much of their living space has been converted into make-believe tropical rain-forest bottled inside a mini-greenhouse. Indoor plants, vine, orchids, rhodendrons, bonsai, ivy, potted-cactus, Amazonian creepers, Japanese cherry-blossom.... all these you will see right there swirling around the sofa or settee you are seated upon while you converse with the proud couple sitting happily hand-in-hand before you, reminding you once again of the old English verse above: "Around my ivied porch shall spring Each fragrant flower that drinks the dew; And Lucy (my wife), at her wheel, shall sing In russet gown and apron blue". ************** Thus, so intense and pervasive indeed is Man's love of his earthly home, and indeed so deep his attachment to it, that his feelings of "kaama" for the house that he loves to call is his "very own" lasts for an entire lifetime. It is what you might call "a passionate love-affair"; one that survives and endures time... as long, in fact, as the one for his spouse which neither wilts nor fades "until Death do them part". **************** (to be continued) Regards, dAsan, Sudarshan ________ India Matrimony: Find your partner now. Go to http://.shaadi.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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