DHARMA SENSUAL

Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha are the milestones in the human journey towards perfection. When they come together, it becomes integrated living.

‘Artha’ means useful. Does money matter? Is there anyone who can say it doesn’t? Even the greatest of renunciates need some for survival. His dress is the commodity which gives him the ability to get his meal and place to stay.

When one aspect of ‘artha’, i.e. money, is given so much importance then other things that are needed get neglected.

One of the defects of modern civilization is lack of the ability to moderate. When we fail in moderating, it takes us to either one of the extremes.

In the Indian tradition, students were taught to live with less, not nil. Less sensuality, more restrain. This would make the senses less distracted, making the intelligence sharper and more analytical. A self-restrained student is sensitive to his surroundings. He responds to appreciate the good and acts responsibly to change things when they are hostile for the growth of the society. But when the senses are let lose, the stupidity of the student increases. He or she becomes self-absorbed, desensitized to the surroundings.

When one is raised as a student with dharmik values, as an adult, in keeping with the foundation of this training, he works on developing his economical condition, but not at the cost of sensuality. Here, in adulthood, he is able to balance sensuality and self-restraint. Further, as he grows to take to the path of organically withdrawing from life’s responsibility, he would maximize self-restraint and minimize sensuality. And in the last stage of his life, he would have given up all sensuality and self-restraint, completely absorbed in the higher values of life – any of the Yogic processes like Karma, Astanga, Jnana or Bhakti, as recommended in the Gita by Krishna. This would completely transform his life.

The Pandavas learned this art from their childhood. Born and brought up in the ashram, let lose their senses for some time to marry, earn the kingdom, fight the war.  And slowly, as they became old and the time was up, they were able to give up everything and walk into the forest being carried by their own upbringing.

Life of Kauravas was otherwise. They did not live a life of sobriety, neither in their childhood, nor in the adulthood and they didn’t live to see their maturehood. Their senses were brutally abused and being hit by Bhima was simply a detail.