"maRRai nam kaamangaL maaRRu"- (PART 24)

[Guest guest]

The Story of Saint Poosalar: Conquest of “kaama”

---------------

through Sublimation of Desire --

“bhakti yOga”

-----------

 

It is quite true that a man who has utterly

surrendered to the sway of uncontrollable feelings of

"kaama" aroused by love for his house can quite easily

self-destruct in very much the same way as when he is

carried away by "kaamic" feelings for a woman.

 

Earlier postings (#18 to #21) in this series described

how when a fleeting maelstrom in the form of "kaama"

struck the saint Tondar-adi-podi AzhwAr, he became

possessed by unworthy love for a low woman, and it

reduced him to a near-ruinous state of existence. If

our awareness of the world is keen enough we would

easily observe that it abounds in equally dramatic

examples wherein "kaama" for a house -- for pieces of

valuable real-estate -- can similarly destroy too the

happiness of individuals, families and generations.

 

Looking around us within our own family or coummunity

circles, many of us will most certainly be able to

recall someone or other who came to financial ruin on

account of crippling indebtedness. Reason? Because he

or she borrowed heavily for the sake of acquiring a

"dream" house.

 

Personally, I have myself witnessed how harmony and

affection within some families instantly turned to

mutual hatred and jealousy all because feuding broke

out suddenly between brother and brother, sister and

sister, or mother and children over issues of

inheritance and possession of a grand old ancestral

home bequeathed to them by a father or grand-father.

Where once only laughter and good cheer echoed through

the walls and rooms of such a happy house, later,

after the bitter family feuding erupted, only a dark

and brooding sullenness seemed to haunt and pervade

the entire air inside.

 

Similarly, in the homes of some close friends I have

known for many years, I thought I sometimes sensed a

certain silent but deep, simmering discord between

husband and wife over such trifling yet rancorous

domestic disagreements as, for example, over the way

the home interiors ought to have been decorated, or

over the exact shade of colour of the wall-paint or

over how the nagging problem of a perennially leaking

kitchen-roof needed fixing. Husband and wife in such a

house not seeing eye-to-eye at all, seemed to me to be

ever locked and engaged in a sort of "shadow cold-

war" --- a "war" of slow attrition that seemed to

continually interfere with and impair what otherwise

must have surely been a warm and loving relationship.

 

 

Just as the extreme of covetous attachment and

possessiveness for a woman lands man in all manner of

strange predicaments (example, Vipranarayana of the

earlier postings) so too, surely, do feelings of

misplaced "kaama" for one's home, its surroundings and

all its paraphernalia bring all manner of

unpredictable and unsavory tensions, yearnings and

anxieties into the life of men and women.

 

That the "mating" and "homing" instincts of Man are

deeply entwined and embedded together deep within his

psyche can be easily understood if we, as Indians,

recall and truly understood the history of the Taj

Mahal, that marvellous palace the Mughal emperor, Shah

Jahan built for his queen Mumtaz with whose famed

beauty he was utterly besotted. The queen pre-deceased

him and left the king wallowing in sadness and

desolation for the rest of his life. The bereaved

emperor thereafter lived the life of a total recluse

within the Taj Mahal -- a 'home' that became his only

solace in life and which he came to increasingly

adore. It became his haven and life-breath, reminding

him as it constantly did, of the love that once had

burned in his heart for Mumtaz and which he sought to

keep aflame until the end of his own days on earth.

 

The Taj Mahal, though undoubtedly a true Wonder of the

World in terms of sheer architectural beauty,

nonetheless remains, and shall remain always,

something of a morbid monument to the unfulfilled love

(a form of cancerous "kaama") that one man, a king,

had borne for a woman and which he sought to keep

consummating through the grand 'Home' he erected in

her memory.

 

The ancient Egyptians built their great pyramids

intending them to be "Home" for their Pharoah-kings

in the after-life. Shah Jahan did the same for his

queen and built the Taj Mahal. If one stands today as

a tall symbol of the defiance of Man's temporal Power

against Death, the other stands as beautiful symbol of

the defiance of Man's Love, "kaama", against Death.

 

****************

 

If there are any insightful lessons of human

psychology to be learnt from all the above examples,

they are probably this:

 

The conquest of "kaamic" feelings associated with

Man's "homing-instinct" is indeed as important and

essential to Man's well-being in life as is the

conquest of "kaama" associated with his "mating

instinct" or urge. The conquest of "kaama", in its

passionate manifestations of both 'Sexuality' and

'Domesticity', represents two facets of Man's struggle

to overcome one and the same fundamental problem of

life.

 

**************

(to be continued)

Regards,

dAsan,

Sudarshan

 

 

 

 

 

________

India Matrimony: Find your partner now. Go to http://.shaadi.com