Hindo Giidelines For Living

[s243a]

Gidelines For Living

There are four main aims (purusharthas) in Hindu life. These aims were expounded by Brahma, the creator, and member of the Hindu Trinity, and relate to man's spiritual, physical and emotional needs, so regulating his existence.

Dharma is a doctrine that encompasses religious, moral and social duty, and is set out in the Dharma Shastra. Every person has their own specific dharma that they must fulfil. This personal dharma takes into account social contexts such as caste and gender. Because everyone has different circumstances, everyone's dharma is different. It is a teacher's dharama to teach his students, a member of parliament's dharma to represent his constituency and an actor's dharma to entertain his audience. Dharma is considered to be the most important of the four purusharthas, and fulfillment of your dharma means freedom from the cycle of rebirth.

Artha, the second aim, has to do with a citizen's duties as a member of society (its text is the Arthashastra). There is a responsibility to secure fame and fortune, to better yourself socially and to promote the worldly success of your family through acquired wealth and power. Artha is tempered by dharma (or it would merely become opportunism). The pursuit of money allows for the pursuit of spirituality, by fulfilling one's earthly requirements, thus also liberating a person to seek pleasure.

Kama is the third aim. Think of Kama as the Hindu Cupid. In ancient Indian texts, Kama is depicted as a handsome young man with wings, never without his sugarcane bow and quiver full of flower-festooned arrows. According to some sources he may be one of the sons of Brahma, the Creator of the Universe. He is associated with springtime, gentle spring breezes and birds such as parrots and cuckoos. He is identified as the beginning of life, the desire to create and procreate. "Kama means desire or, more explicitly, sexual desire, though some say its meaning is broader, meaning all pleasures experience by the sences. Because it is the dharma of a married man to make love to his wife, kama though relegated by some to the inferior position of the three mortal purusharthas, has an amazing amount of weight. The Kama Sutra is therefore a book that teaches how to make love well, how to do your duty to the utmost of your ability. In essence, the Kama Sutra was written to create masters of sensuality.

Within the four main aims of life, kama is certainly the most dangerous, the one that can easily overturn the applecart and leave its practitioner firmly in reincarnation's grip, and with no hope of moving into a higher caste for the next life. The shastras (teachings) of dharma and artha are quite hostile to kama (despite the idea that they should all be pursued in harmony). Kama contradicts dharma and artha by giving advice on immoral (but likely pleasurable) activities such as adultery. Kama's very existence contradicts the other two and causes many ambiguities and moral problems. But kama is a reward for the religion and power found in dharma and artha, though kama is also riddled with possible temptations that can lead to weakness. With such a complex web of concepts and tenets the Kama Sutra is teaching its reader that you can't live a life based purely on pleasure.

The above aims are, of course closely associated with the four stages of Hindu life. A young man should gain knowledge and study classical texts - and the Kama Sutra (he should, however, only learn the text in theory, remaining celibate). In middle age, he should acquire wealth through the practice of artha and sensual experience through kama. In old age he should perform dharma, and thereby, gain moksha (the fourth and final aim), enlightenment and release from rebirth.

From, "The Mammoth Book of the Kama Sutra: The Fullest Ever Illustrated Collection of the Kama Sutra and its variants", Edited by Maxim Jakubowski.

P.S. can a moderator fix the title. I spelled Hindu wrong.

[El Barto]

Interesting.
On one hand everything is in a simple category.
On the other hand ot talks about the conflict between them.
I see this as a philosophy , a guide .
The aim is to better the persons life through balance .

[s243a]

Interesting.
On one hand everything is in a simple category.
On the other hand ot talks about the conflict between them.
I see this as a philosophy , a guide .
The aim is to better the persons life through balance .

I think their is an element of balance. Islam also has this idea. From someone who is Islamic I learned that in Islam you can't be a monk because it is important to balance the obligations of your religion with those of your family and career.

I think that conflict in the Hindu guides to living is important because it is clear that a blind application of rules is not sufficient to address how to live ones life. If we were for instance to follow the Christian 10 commandments literally there would be no war but people have no trouble using the bible to justify war.

At one time in Hinduism kama was very important in India.

"The Kama Sutra sets out the rules for living the life of a gentleman. Vatsyayna instructs them how to perfume and paper themselves, how to spend idle days with friends and how to outfit the ideal bachelor pad for seductions. The study of the Kama Sutra was, in its own right, and exercise in self-improvement for the aspiring nararaka. It was also simply not possible to afford all of the Kama Sutra's prescribed luxuries and pleasures without a lot of money.

For these gentlemen, sex should be elevated to a level of civilized humanity, over and above the basic, instinctual mating of animals, and sexual expertise was a social and moral obligation. Becoming masters of sensuality meant success in all areas of life. The mastery of the 64 arts of love (of which more later) guaranteed a man the respect of the learned, made him a leader in society and earned him the love of his wife, other men's wives and courtesans.

However, by the 16th century, the Kama Sutra was largely forgotten in India. Amid disapproval by religious scholars and, in a large sense, because of the now sizable Muslim presence in the country. Much later around 1890 the British Raj introduced a Penal Code that punished all "non-procreative sex" as criminal. Ironically enough though the British penal code was based on the ancient laws of Dharma.

[s243a]

Religion often provides us with guidelines on how to live our lives. The Hindu guidelines to living our lives are one example of such guidelines.

Various people in the social sciences have tried to understand the motivations of people in order to predict their behavior. On motivation of human behavior is needs and how needs are prioritized. While the ranking of such needs in not universal Maslow provides one possible Hierachy.

The Hindu model is in a way the reverse of Maslow model in that the principle goal of the Hindu way of life is to achieve dharma (the role in life that is meant for you). This is self aculization (Morality creativity spontaneity, problem solving, lack of prejudice, acceptance of facts) in Maslow’s pyrmind.

In Maslow’s model people seek to fulfill their most basic needs first well in the Hindu model our first priority is to the high level needs and we fill in the other needs as necessary to help us work towards our ultimate goals.

The Hindu model makes no mention of Esteem as a goal in life. Perhaps they believe that results are much more important then feeling good about your self. None of this touchy feel good positive self esteem where no one can fail liberal bullsh!t.

Artha (the accusation of wealth) is the second goal of the Hindu guidelines to living and could be seen as the most basic needs in the Maslow model. Maslow calls these physical needs (breathing, food, water, sex sleep, homeostasis, excretion) in Maslow’s model.

I’m a little confused as to why Maslow put sex as a physiological need and sexual intimacy as a love/belonging need. It’s like he can’t make up his mind. I guess sex can be purely physical but it certainly isn’t on the same level as the other physiological needs he listed.

Anyway for the Hidu sex and love are put into to places. They are put in the high level need the Dharma since supposedly your wife fuilliles part of the role you are meant to play in life. (Awe they were such romantics) It is also falls in the category of Kama which is considered the lowest level of needs. Thus in the Hindu model love somehow falls in terms of importance both above and bellow the basic needs of life.

I partly wonder if marriage was moved into Dharma from Kama so that people could be initially down play down the importance of Kama and later in history vilify Kama, and consider it not much above the basic instincts of the barn yard animals.

Anyway I find it interesting that once upon a time it was the art of love that people in India believed put them above barn yard animals and as they became more conservative though history it is now only the goals which are devoid of passion and pleasure that distinguish man from the animals.

I guess not all religions become more liberal with time.