kaAma->krOdha->mOha->lObha->maDha->mAtsarya->bhAya
The Vedantic theory behind the psychology of “kaama” is a very simple and elegant one. But it is also a mordant and accurate commentary on the universal human condition.Bhagavat Gita has given immense insight into this Philosophy.“kaAma”
The root of “kaAma”, says the Gita, lies not in a person’s mind. It lies in the myriad objects of delight and pleasure that abound in the world. They generate or arouse a variety of tantalizing sensations and titillating impressions by invading a person's senses. The invasion then takes complete possession of the Mind.
Once the Mind is overpowered “kaama” gradually paralyzes the Will. Once the human Will goes into coma, “kAma” manifests itself as deep, raging and uncontrollable appetite for promiscuous self-gratification. This selfish appetite must be whetted no matter what. It is a compulsion. And the only way to do so is indulgence, at any cost. This is precisely the way that man’s state of attachment (or enchantment, beguilement, inebriation, enamor etc.) is ushered in. In plain and simple language, “kaama” is abject human bondage to the Pleasure-Principle of life.
It is precisely such indulgence in “kaama” that modern Consumerism, the Faith that today rules the entire world, lustily cheers and promotes. “Have a good time”, “Feel good”, “Just do it!”, “Life is for enjoyment! Have fun!”, “Chill out! It’s Saturday night out!” etc. are just a few of the oft-broadcasted messages constantly dinned into our collective sub-conscious by the “high-priests of Consumerism” viz.: the advertising and mass-communication media. Through alluring market-place promotions and seductive slogans, refined and perfected as creative art-form over several decades of the last century, these
“high-priests of marketing” have achieved truly fantastic success throughout the world in their mission to apotheosize commonplace commercial jingles,glorifying the “Feel good factor” or the “’Have-fun’ habit” in life, into sacred mantras of abiding faith for peoples of the world.
“krOdha”
Not all sensual appetites can be whetted at all times. Many of our desires cannot be satisfied so easily. Un-fulfilled “kaama” inevitably leads to “krOdha” i.e. frustrated Desire or longing that is accompanied by feelings of anger, resentment, impatience, deprivation and disenfranchisement in life.
If there is so much anger and hatred around the world today, it is chiefly because people are unable to satisfy many of their deepest desires in life, big and small. While the Consumerist faith does indeed inspire everyone with the dazzling promise of “Fun-in-life” Ideal, it cannot, however, provide everyone with the necessary means to attain it. And it is precisely that
yawning gap between inspiration and realization, between desire and fulfillment that is the source of all anger, resentment, frustration and self-loathing amongst people in the world.
“mOha”
When desires (“kaama”) in life are not satisfied, disappointment builds up. When the steam of disappointment swells, the engine of Anger (“krOdha”) cranks up. Pent-up anger in a person invariably leads to “mOha”, an unhinged mental state where he/she gets increasingly out-of-touch with reality. When one loses touch with reality, one begins to suffer rapid loss of capacity for right-thinking and right-resolution. (In modern clinical psychology this state of mind is usually associated with the condition called “severe manic depression” which, in most cases, is traced to mental disorders caused by deep-seated, pent-up anger and disappointment with oneself for not being able to fulfill desires). Perverse attitudes then quickly begin to seep into one’s personality, deeply warping and corroding one’s sense of life-values.
“lObha”
A mind so deeply afflicted with “mOha”,Vedanta tells us, is soon overtaken by yet another feeling that comes rolling along quickly on the syndromic cycle of “kaama”. This one is called “lObha” –- greed, unbridled lust, avarice.
Lust within Man’s heart represents the final triumph of human Desire over human Will. It is the critical state of mind a person reaches when he or she becomes utterly insensitive to moral imperatives in life. The eternal ethical question in Life, whether the “End justifies the Means”, becomes utterly irrelevant to him/her. The End as represented in the object/objects
of personal desire, by whatever means realized,becomes supreme goal in life. It is the moment when the person begins to believe with all the conviction at his command that Pleasure -- “kaama” – indeed is absolute ideal in itself, justifying and overriding any Means.
“maDha”
Whenever “lObha”, lust, is satisfied, feelings of extreme exultation follow. When Desire’s triumph over Will is completed, it cannot help indulging in a bit of gloating, a bit of self-congratulation and vainglory. A person then usually turns arrogant,
haughty and conceited. This new transformation of personality is what is called “madha”. When “kaama” preens its feathers one may easily recognize its colors to be the signs of “madha”.
“mAtsarya”
Those who are vainglorious i.e. they that are in the grip of “madha”, often slip into envy, “mAtsarya”.The vainglorious are always jealous of those they perceive to be their superiors. They simply cannot rest content with their lot but constantly covet the power and prestige of those more exalted than themselves. This is another form of extreme “kaama”, and what in the modern day is often recognized as “overweening ambition” in a person. The ancient Greeks had another special name for it –- they called it “hubris”. It is, in fact, a very advanced form of the rabid human affliction called “keeping-up-with-the-Joneses” syndrome. This sort of ambition is an extremely pathological form of “kaama” --- the sort that does not let a person rest content with satisfying one’s own desires but urges him/her on to adopt the desires of others too as one’s very own,and makes them slaves of those too!
“bhAya”
By the time a man has traversed the cycle of the full spectrum of feelings of “kaama” --- beginning with attachment, “kaama”, “krOdha”,“mOha”, “lObha”, “madha” and “mAtsarya” --- it is certain his whole personality has been severely ravaged. The mind is ripe and ready then to be possessed now by Fear, “bhaya”.
“Bhaya” manifests itself in personal behavior characterized by deep insecurities, restiveness, a nagging but nameless sense of loss etc. When a man is afflicted with such “bhaya” he fears that his deepest desires may not get fulfilled before
the curtains drop on his lifetime. His greatest fear --- dark fear hidden deep within the cavern of the human sub-conscious –-- is he may simply pass away from this world before having experienced all of its alluring delights and seductive pleasures. To him hell itself is nothing but untimely death befalling him before the burning thirst for Pleasure has been fully slaked.
It is precisely this sort of “kaama” that is known to often afflict some persons in the twilight of their lives when, knowing that their time on earth is nearing its end, they suddenly turn berserk and go all out to enjoy to the very hilt, in a sort of mad binge,all the sensual pleasures they had probably denied themselves earlier, and all with a vengeance or gusto quite unbecoming of their age.
It is in that fateful moment that "bhaya" and "kaama" come together in a tight coital embrace, and when the cycle of “kaama” too gets a fresh lease of momentum,and signalling, as it were, the birth of another desire inside the human heart....
And so, indeed, revolves the great inexorable cycle of life called “kaama”, where man's desires endlessly mutate and multiply, all in an endless stream of cosmic continuum... And wherein Man is but mere hapless, enmeshed cog.
Courtesy: srirangasri yahoo groups
posted by Unknown @ 3:26 PM
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