Guest guest Posted January 7, 2006 Report Share Posted January 7, 2006 When the gods want to punish us, they grant ---------- us our desires (“kaama”) ------------------------ The Vishnu-Sahasranamam enumerates several names of the Almighty that are derivatives of the word “kaama”. (1) In Shloka 32 ‘nAma’ #295 He is called “kAmahA” i.e. He is the Creator of “kaama”, the power of Desire that enlivens all the worlds. This ‘nAma’ echoes the Lord’s own declaration in the Bhagavath-Gita: balaM balavataa.n chaahaM kaamaraagavivarjitam. dharmaaviruddho bhuuteshhu kaamo.asmi bharatarshhabha ... 7\.11. “Know Me to be the mainspring of all virtuous Desires in all beings, O Arjuna!” (2) In ‘nAma’ #296 He is hailed as the Supreme Lord who inspires the great deeds or achievements of the world that are enabled by the engine of individual energy i.e. by the sheer propellant force of “kaama”. Hence He is “kAmakrit”. (3) In ‘nAma’ #298 He is “kaamah”. Possessing captivating qualities such as “shIla”, “owdArya”, “dayaa” and such other endearing ones, the Almighty is Himself the “object of craving” for His devotees. They are besotted with His form and beauty. (There is the legend of TiruppAn-AzhwAr, the great saint of S.India who once looked into the eyes of the Deity at SriRangam and became so bewitched by their beauty, he swore that having feasted upon those eyes of the Lord his own mortal ones would never again settle for anything less to witness in the world --- ‘yen amudhinai kanda kaNNgaL matronninnai kAnAvE”). (4) In ‘namA’ #299 the Almighty is called “kAmapradah”. To His devotees striving to attain Him, and equally too, to those who desire worldly ends, He grants them their desired ends, each exactly according to his or her deserts. This is an echo of the voice of the SvetasvatarOpanishad (6.13): “EkO bahUnAm yO vidadhAthi kAmaan” – “He is the only One who grants or fulfills the desires of many”. It is also echoes Krishna’s own words in the Bhagavath-Gita: yo yo yaa.n yaa.n tanuM bhak{}taH shraddhayaarchitumich{}chhati . tasya tasyaachalaa.n shraddhaa.n taameva vidadhaamyaham.h .. 7\.21.. “I reside in everyone's heart as the real motive Power behind the intensity of their Desire. As soon as one resolves to pursue and realize a particular desire, it is I who make such resolve strong-willed, firm and fruitful!” (5) Then again in Shloka 70 ‘nAma’ #657 there is the name “kAmadevah” ascribed to the Almighty. (Krishna’s devotees like the “gOpikAs” and “naayikAs” of Brindavanam were utterly bewitched by His attractive form and demeanor. Hence to them He was ‘Kamadeva’, the Supreme Paramour). (6) In ‘nAma’ #658 the Lord is called “kAmapalah”: He freely bestows on his devotees favors sought by them and protects them; hence He is Kamapalah. (7) In ‘nAma’ #659 God is hailed as “kAmi”: He is the most gracious and generous of compulsive givers. He simply loves giving. Every seeker looks to Him therefore with eager expectation to receive boons and desires. Hence He is ‘kAmi”. **************** A very incisive Vedantic thinker of the modern time, Eknath Easwaran, in his book of commentary on the ‘Vishnu-Sahasranama’ titled ‘The Thousand Names of Vishnu’, wrote an extremely illuminating passage about the several ‘nAmAs’ of the Lord rooted in the word “kamaa”. I do not hesitate to quote it below rather extensively since not only does it shed light upon why “kaama” came to be a divine ‘nAma’ for the Almighty but, furthermore, it also greatly helps one in appreciating the Vedantic flavour of the main message contained in the TiruppAvai expression “maRRai nam kaamangaL maaRRu”. (QUOTE): “One of the most frequent incidents in Hindu mythology (“purANa”) is for someone to sit down in profound meditation until the Almighty appears in person to grant him/her a boon. This is a vivid way of reminding us all that every strong desire (“kaama”) of ours is a prayer. When we have a powerful desire that we cannot forget, we are meditating on that desire, actually praying for it to happen and be fulfilled. In time, the very depth of that desire will release the deeper resources to bring it within our reach. “There is nothing occult or extraordinary about this; it is simply the dynamics of desire (“kaama”) working quietly but efficiently behind the scene. When someone is haunted by the desire to make money, for example, that desire focuses all his will and drive and attention. The very intensity of that focus will release creative schemes for extracting wealth in ways the rest of us may never see. “Desire is the key to life because desire is power. The deeper the desire, the more power it contains. It is the power that gives life meaning. To desire something is to will it, and to will it is to achieve it. (This is called “icchA-shakti”). The Upanishads, in fact, say: “You are what your deep driving desire is. As your deep, driving desire is, so is your will. As your will, so is your deed. As your deed, so is your destiny”. “Wherever you find great success in life, it is due to the intense unification of desires. This is particularly easy to see in a person of genius for whom most personal desires are focused very dearly on one particular, overriding goal. “For the person with many small desires, the power of desire (“kaama”) trickles away in many different directions. There is not much power in a trickle that dissipates away, and little desires often fail to reach their goal. But then, because they are little, it does not matter much if many of them should get nowhere. What matters is the sense of futility that builds up in a person whose desires are many and trivial and unrealized. Like rain that falls on a mountain peak, running down slopes on every side, his vitality is dispersed and drained away; his life itself gets fragmented. “On the other hand, there are people whose lives are moulded by one all-consuming desire, as overwhelming as a mighty river like the Ganges or the Mississippi”. “The irony of it all, of course, is that getting your wishes (“kaama”) granted is not necessarily the way to become happy in life. I think the Greeks had a saying that when the gods want to punish us, they grant us our desires. We need no god to punish or reward us; the natural consequences of our actions are their own punishment or reward.”(UNQUOTE) **************** If fulfillment of one’s heartfelt desires and strong “kaami-c” urges could guarantee everlasting happiness in life, surely, ‘paurAnic’ characters like Ravana in the ‘Ramayana’ and Hiranyakasipu in the story of Prahlada, for example, should never have ended up meeting the sad fate they eventually did. Greek mythological characters like King Midas too should not have been the woe-begotten men they ended up being. Both Ravana and Hiranyakasipu, as the “purAna” narrates, were driven by one overwhelming and “unified” desire. It was to reign as undisputed lord of the world in their lifetime. They were overbearing, power-crazed beings. And yet they were extremely devout in worship too. They prayed earnestly and incessantly to all the powerful gods of the Vedic pantheon like Indra, Brahma and Shiva who, pleased with such worship, promptly granted Ravana and Hiranyakasipu the greatest single, “unified” desire of their lives. The gods thus made Ravana monarch of all he surveyed. Yet, ironically, as the “itihAsic” story-line later on clearly shows us, in the very act of granting Ravana his heart’s desire, the gods sowed too the seed of his eventual and tragic destruction, did they not? The Greeks, after all, were wise people indeed. They were not wrong when they said that when the gods want to punish Man, they simply grant him his desire! ****************** Thus, the moral of those “paurAnic” stories, and the underlying message conveyed to us through their mythological characterizations, such as Ravana and Hiranyakasipu, is that the human heart desires passionately but too unwisely. The tragedy of Man is not that he is hapless victim in the grip of his “kaama”. The real tragedy is that his “kaama”, his desires in life are: (a) either too many, too trivial to be really meaningful in the larger context of Life’s purpose; (b) or, they are far too “fragmented” or far too fissiparous to turn into a dynamo of real power and vitality (“icchA-shakti”) needed for purposeful human action or achievement; © or else, even if their desires came to be somehow “unified”, they are, alas, invariably misplaced and most often misdirected. And it is precisely against such a tragedy befalling them that the wise "aaypAdi" girls in the TiruppAvai sent out their ringing prayer to the Almighty: "maRRai nam kaamangaL maaRRu"! (to be continued) Regards, dAsan, Sudarshan Send instant messages to your online friends http://in.messenger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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