006 Friendship - love - lust - Part 1
I am not writing this in a preaching mood; because I am not a religious preacher. Nor, am I writing this in an atheist sceptic mode, though I am an atheist.
I am writing from my own observations from the experiences of persons around, in this society.
There is a need to distinguish between lust, love and friendship. Lust is a part of our instinct. Just as we have hunger, need for sleep, we have sex, as a physical need. Through whom, the need gets satisfied, it is difficult to define, because satisfaction is abstract. (Economist- Marshall and his associates thought that utility and satisfaction are measurable).
STORY OF 'divA kAka ritau bhItA, rAtrau tarati narmadA'.
This is a proverb of the Sanskrit language. Its approximate meaning: A person who pretends to be frightened when a crow caws during day, crosses the River Narmada.
The River Narmada is in Central India. Ujjaini is an important town on its banks, in the State 'Madhya PradEsh'. Around 10th Century B.C., a king named bHOja ruled the town. In his court, was said to be, the great poet of Sanskrit, named 'kALidAsa'.
The King and the poet used to be very friendly. They used to move in Ujjain Town day and night, in disguise, to obtain feedback on the lives of the people of the kingdom.
They were, one day, disguised, going in a street where priests reside. The Sun was shining. A crow cawed. bhOja and kALidAsa found a priest's wife, quite beautiful, shuddered in fear, and fell on the chest of her husband, as if he were her saviour. The King wondered at her delicateness. kALidasa laughed, and said 'divA kAka ritau bhItAh, rAtrau tarati narmadA!'.
The King wanted the poet to explain. kALidAsa promised the King to demonstrate it practically.
Night fell. The King and the Poet were standing (hiding) before the house of the Priest. They were observing the happenings at the gate and in the house through the window.
The Priest's fed her children and husband, arranged their bed-steads and lulled them soft asleep, singing lullabies. She kissed them. The moon set, in the mean time.
She slowly shut the door of her home, came out of the gate silently, looking hither and thither to make sure that nobody was observing her. She calmly, holding a small cloth pouch, walked along the street to the River. The King and the Poet followed her, unnoticed by her.
She searched on the river banks for a boat, but could find nothing. She found a stiff corpse floating on the river. She used it as a sort of boat and crossed the River. The King and the poet swam the river from a distance and followed her to the other bank. She walked about 3 km. along the forest path. She, finally halted before a shack with a torn thatch.
A snake-charmer came out of the hut and yelled at her; 'Why are you so late?'. Fully drunk, he abused her and bet her
The Lady laughed and replied as though feeling guilty for the lapse: 'My husband and children did not sleep, in spite of my best efforts.'
She opened the pouch she brought and treated her paramour with the sweetmeats to his delight. They, ingratiated themselves for some hours. When Venus appeared on the Eastern horizon, she started back home, parting from her wooer quite unwillingly.
The snakecharmer asked her: 'When will you come again?'. The Lady promised him to come next new moon day without fail.
She, again used another corpse floating in the river and returned home nonchalantly, as if nothing happened. She was unaware that she was being followed by the King and the Poet.
The King stood stood stupefied. He wondered aloud before kALidAsa: 'She has a loving husband. She has lovable children. She sang lullabies. Why should she cross the turbulent river Narmada, night time, using a corpse as a boat? That too, why should she fancy a brutal sot?
The poet replied: 'Lust knows no bounds.'
ybrao a donkey's comments:
1. The King could have asked: 'Why do you call it lust? You can as well call it love, the love of the purest kind?'
The proverb 'Love is blind' has a wider meaning, enough to encompass the meaning of lust. Love and lust, they go hand in hand. One cannot exist without the other. (Exception: Parents' love to their children). Oedipus Complex and Freud's Psychoanalysis found sub-conscious sexual overtones even in parental love.
2. Kings of yore, all over the world, maintained hundreds of wives in their Palaces, building barracks. They knew the difference between love and lust, handling hundreds of women every month. The kings also arranged tight security to prevent cheating. Many poets also maintained quite a good number of wives. What is there to learn peeping through and spying on the house of an ordinary priest? History did not see just one NIccolo Machiavelli or Kautilya or Sherlock Holmes.
These are the days of dating, boy-friends and girl-friends. Permissiveness and suspiciousness co-exist among bf.s and gf.s with an all pervading unrest. Yet, there is some, welcome openness which was not the case in the Romantic Age or the Elizabethan Age or the Victorian Age.
(to continue in Part 2).
I am writing from my own observations from the experiences of persons around, in this society.
There is a need to distinguish between lust, love and friendship. Lust is a part of our instinct. Just as we have hunger, need for sleep, we have sex, as a physical need. Through whom, the need gets satisfied, it is difficult to define, because satisfaction is abstract. (Economist- Marshall and his associates thought that utility and satisfaction are measurable).
STORY OF 'divA kAka ritau bhItA, rAtrau tarati narmadA'.
This is a proverb of the Sanskrit language. Its approximate meaning: A person who pretends to be frightened when a crow caws during day, crosses the River Narmada.
The River Narmada is in Central India. Ujjaini is an important town on its banks, in the State 'Madhya PradEsh'. Around 10th Century B.C., a king named bHOja ruled the town. In his court, was said to be, the great poet of Sanskrit, named 'kALidAsa'.
The King and the poet used to be very friendly. They used to move in Ujjain Town day and night, in disguise, to obtain feedback on the lives of the people of the kingdom.
They were, one day, disguised, going in a street where priests reside. The Sun was shining. A crow cawed. bhOja and kALidAsa found a priest's wife, quite beautiful, shuddered in fear, and fell on the chest of her husband, as if he were her saviour. The King wondered at her delicateness. kALidasa laughed, and said 'divA kAka ritau bhItAh, rAtrau tarati narmadA!'.
The King wanted the poet to explain. kALidAsa promised the King to demonstrate it practically.
Night fell. The King and the Poet were standing (hiding) before the house of the Priest. They were observing the happenings at the gate and in the house through the window.
The Priest's fed her children and husband, arranged their bed-steads and lulled them soft asleep, singing lullabies. She kissed them. The moon set, in the mean time.
She slowly shut the door of her home, came out of the gate silently, looking hither and thither to make sure that nobody was observing her. She calmly, holding a small cloth pouch, walked along the street to the River. The King and the Poet followed her, unnoticed by her.
She searched on the river banks for a boat, but could find nothing. She found a stiff corpse floating on the river. She used it as a sort of boat and crossed the River. The King and the poet swam the river from a distance and followed her to the other bank. She walked about 3 km. along the forest path. She, finally halted before a shack with a torn thatch.
A snake-charmer came out of the hut and yelled at her; 'Why are you so late?'. Fully drunk, he abused her and bet her
The Lady laughed and replied as though feeling guilty for the lapse: 'My husband and children did not sleep, in spite of my best efforts.'
She opened the pouch she brought and treated her paramour with the sweetmeats to his delight. They, ingratiated themselves for some hours. When Venus appeared on the Eastern horizon, she started back home, parting from her wooer quite unwillingly.
The snakecharmer asked her: 'When will you come again?'. The Lady promised him to come next new moon day without fail.
She, again used another corpse floating in the river and returned home nonchalantly, as if nothing happened. She was unaware that she was being followed by the King and the Poet.
The King stood stood stupefied. He wondered aloud before kALidAsa: 'She has a loving husband. She has lovable children. She sang lullabies. Why should she cross the turbulent river Narmada, night time, using a corpse as a boat? That too, why should she fancy a brutal sot?
The poet replied: 'Lust knows no bounds.'
ybrao a donkey's comments:
1. The King could have asked: 'Why do you call it lust? You can as well call it love, the love of the purest kind?'
The proverb 'Love is blind' has a wider meaning, enough to encompass the meaning of lust. Love and lust, they go hand in hand. One cannot exist without the other. (Exception: Parents' love to their children). Oedipus Complex and Freud's Psychoanalysis found sub-conscious sexual overtones even in parental love.
2. Kings of yore, all over the world, maintained hundreds of wives in their Palaces, building barracks. They knew the difference between love and lust, handling hundreds of women every month. The kings also arranged tight security to prevent cheating. Many poets also maintained quite a good number of wives. What is there to learn peeping through and spying on the house of an ordinary priest? History did not see just one NIccolo Machiavelli or Kautilya or Sherlock Holmes.
These are the days of dating, boy-friends and girl-friends. Permissiveness and suspiciousness co-exist among bf.s and gf.s with an all pervading unrest. Yet, there is some, welcome openness which was not the case in the Romantic Age or the Elizabethan Age or the Victorian Age.
(to continue in Part 2).
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