Kama-- desire

Kama means desire.  Kama also means lust, but lust is basically a desire.

Desire or Kama is everywhere, all the time. Everything in existence or not in existence is due to desire.  All things are backed by desire. The entire universe is here just because the supreme creative force desires it to be here. It may disappear, if the same force wants it to disappear.

This is said in the Upanishads: ‘Prajapatir-akamayata, bahu syam prajayeya’: ‘The Creator Prajapati wished to multiply itself’.  There was nothing in the beginning.  A spark (of desire) popped up in the infinite ocean of nothingness. That is the desire of Prajapati. Prajapati was alone.  It wished to be many. This wish created to multitude of living creatures and objects. Prior to this wish, there was no living creatures or objects since there was absence of wish.

‘Kamas-tad-agre samavartatadhi manaso retah prathamam yad-asit’ –Rigveda-Sukta:129.

Kama existed in the beginning. It is the foremost potentiality of manas (mind faculty).

Yama, the lord of death has this to say about Kama: ‘Kamasyaptim jagatah pratistham’ –Kathopanishad. The Rishi of the Katha Upanishad takes this to a different level. He is of the opinion that the universe here provides the ground for fulfillment of desires.   

Desires (Kama) can multiply. One single desire can give rise to any number of desires and then each one of them can produce innumerable desires.  This process goes on for eternity unless this chain is broken and the process is smashed completely. This can be done by Yoga. (Shiva, the supreme master of Yoga does this.  He burns Kama into ashes).      

This is said about Kama:

‘Na hi kamah kamanam upabhogen shamyati

 Havisha krishna-vartma iva bhuya iva-abhivardhate’

(Desires cannot be quenched by fulfilment of desires. It is just that fire cannot be extinguished by offering more oblations (of ghee etc.).  More the oblations, more the blazing of fire).

Here is something different on Kama:

One morning the sage Valmiki was wandering in the woods around his hermitage.  All of a sudden, a Krauncha (a kind of stork) fell from the sky near his feet. The sage was deeply pained to see that the stork was killed by an arrow. The hunter who shot the stork came rushing to claim for the dead bird. The entire sky was filled up with loud and extremely painful shrike of the female stork.  This is what the sage uttered spontaneously:     

‘Maa nishada pratistham-agamah sasvatih samah

Yat-krauncha-mithunad-ekam-avadhi kama-mohitam’  

(O poor hunter! I wish you don’t experience peace all through your life. You have killed the stork which was engaged in love with its partner!)

To his pleasant surprise, the sage noticed that he belted out poetry without effort! The pain of separation made him a poet!  He composed Ramayana to depict the future story of separation of Rama and Sita. 

Note: The history of Ramayana was composed long before Rama was born.

In the literature of Sanskrit such as Puranas (and also Kavya, Champu and Nataka literature were influenced by Puranas on this matter), Kama as a force was given a personified form. It has been called as Kama Deva who was the son of Shri Krishna and Rukmini. Kama was depicted along with Rati as his female partner.     

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