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School of pleasure
ama - is the Hindu god of love. The
word also refers to the pursuit of love
or pleasure, one of the four aims of life in Hindu
traditions. Kama is always depicted as a hand-
some youth, shooting arrows of love that produce
love. The Kama Sutra, which means Sex Science,
is the earliest surviving example of a written
Hindu love-manual.
Vatsyayana’s Kama Sutra has 1250 verses, dis-
tributed in 36 chapters, which are further organ-
ized into 7 parts. According to both the Burton
and Doniger translations, the contents of the
book are structured into 7 parts “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)
Of the first three, virtue is the highest goal, a se-
cure life the second and pleasure the least impor-
tant. When motives conflict, the higher ideal is to
be followed. Thus, in making money, virtue must
not be compromised, but earning a living should
take precedence over pleasure, but there are
exceptions.
In childhood, Vātsyāyana says, a person should
learn how to make a living; youth is the time for
pleasure, and as years pass one should concen-
trate on living virtuously and hope to escape the
cycle of rebirth. The Kama Sutra acknowledges
that the senses can be dangerous: ‘Just as a horse
in full
gallop, blinded by the energy of his own speed,
pays no attention to any post or hole or ditch on
the path, so two lovers, blinded by passion, in
the friction of sexual battle, are caught up in their
fierce energy and pay no attention to danger’.