Kama Sutra: A way to achieve human goal

Posted by VASUDEVA REDDY on Thursday, December 22, 2011 Under: ancient history

Today morning I read a forward message which was like,

All the books in the world- The Bible, The Quran, and The Gita teach us to love each other but only Kama sutra explains exactly how!!!

Though it was in funny way, it conveys the right meaning. Making love merely doesn’t mean having sex with somebody. I’ve seen many people whose feelings getting weird by listening to very word KAMA SUTRA. Actually it is the one of the best text the world has ever produced. As you know, better than our text book author name, it was written by Vatsyayana. Historians attribute Kama sutra to be composed between 400 BCE and 200 CE.

Let us go to the basics on with which Hinduism was established. According to Hindu mythology, there are four objectives of human life which are Dharma (righteousness), Artha (livelihood, health), Kama (sensual pleasure), and Moksha (liberation). The first three are to be achieved in living form, that means in day to day life while moksha is the release of soul from rebirth. As it says, Kama is one of the human life’s objectives. Kama Sutra explains the way to attain the third objective of life. Sutra means thread which will be used to bind two or more things together. The word Kama Sutra means the way of binding two or more things with kama. Here those things are humans and their binding is based on the kama (love).

Contrary to popular perception, especially in the western world, Kama sutra is not an exclusive sex manual; it presents itself as a guide to a virtuous and gracious living that discusses the nature of love, family life and other aspects pertaining to pleasure oriented faculties of human life. When world just knew about sex, we showed them what the love was. The Kama Sutra, when used as it was intended to, can awaken sexual hungers and allow people to become comfortable with expressing themselves in creative ways that can amplify the emotions of affection and love.

Kama sutra says,

“Dharma is better than Artha, and Artha is better than Kama. But Artha should always be first practised by the king for the livelihood of men is to be obtained from it only. Again, Kama being the occupation of public women, they should prefer it to the other two, and these are exceptions to the general rule." (Kama Sutra 1.2.14)

Kama sutra is actually more about spirituality involved in sex than it is about purely lustful pursuits. The Kama Sutra deals with much more than just love-making technique. It involves meditation, sensuality, health and manners, and it strongly stresses the importance of using all your senses. The text is intended to help give you a deeper understanding of yourself and your partner, ultimately increasing the pleasure for you both.

The book Kama sutra has 1250 verses, distributed in 36 chapters, which are further organized into 7 parts. The seven parts are,

1. Sadharana (Introductory part)

2. Samprayogika (Sexual union)- describes about 64 sexual acts which were divided into 10 parts

3. Kanya Samprayuktaka (Acquiring wife)- deals about the selecting, getting married and other related activities

4. Bharyadhikarika (Duties and privileges of wife)- contains two chapters (one wife and more wives)

5. Paradika (Other men’s wife)- which is irrelevant to current society, but related to ancient culture.

6. Vaisika (About courtesans)

7. Aupamishadika (Occult practices)- improving physical attractions, arousing a weakened sexual power

Though it may seem weird to have two or more wives and courtesans etc in the current society, one must consider before commenting it was written in the period where multiple wives were allowed to have. And some historians say it was particularly intended to kings. Although many of these sections offer unique insights into the lives of ancient Indian people and Indian cultural traditions, contemporary readers tend to associate the Kama Sutra with simply being a sex manual.

The initial version of Kama sutra didn’t contain any images but just the illustration. Some painters drew pictures of those illustrations.

The reason why I wrote this article is to change the opinion about Kama Sutra. Kama Sutra is not about the lust, but love. Kama Sutra is not about how to have sex, but how to enjoy the sex. Kama Sutra is not a novel, but it is an epic to achieve the goal of human life. Adopt the Kama Sutra to the current society, the entire book may not well suit for this society, but definitely there are the things which can help. Why marriages are breaking due to sexual problems, the simple reason is that they do not understand each other properly.

Im not suggesting you to read or practise the things in Kama Sutra, but just change the opinion about that book. It is not a simple sex manual. If you observe the pics related to Kama sutra, you would have known that practising the acts in that book is not an easy task. One should learn Yoga to achieve those acts which in turn will helps in mental and physical fitness.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kama_Sutra