Part
1 - Chapter
2
ON
THE ACQUISITION OF DHARMA, ARTHA AND KAMA
MAN,
the period of whose life is one hundred
years, should practise Dharma, Artha and
Kama at different times and in such a manner
that they may harmonize together and not
clash in any way. He should acquire learning
in his childhood, in his youth and middle
age he should attend to Artha and Kama, and
in his old age he should perform Dharma, and
thus seek to gain Moksha, i.e. release from
further transmigration. Or, on account of
the uncertainty of life, he may practise
them at times when they are enjoined to be
practised. But one thing is to be noted, he
should lead the life of a religious student
until he finishes his education.
Dharma
is obedience to the command of the Shastra
or Holy Writ of the Hindoos to do certain
things, such as the performance of
sacrifices, which are not generally done,
because they do not belong to this world,
and produce no visible effect; and not to do
other things, such as eating meat, which is
often done because it belongs to this world,
and has visible effects.
Dharma
should be learnt from the Shruti (Holy
Writ), and from those conversant with it.
Artha
is the acquisition of arts, land, gold,
cattle, wealth, equipages and friends. It
is, further, the protection of what is
acquired, and the increase of what is
protected.
Artha
should be learnt from the king's officers,
and from merchants who may be versed in the
ways of commerce.
Kama
is the enjoyment of appropriate objects by
the five senses of hearing, feeling, seeing,
tasting and smelling, assisted by the mind
together with the soul. The ingredient in
this is a peculiar contact between the organ
of sense and its object, and the
consciousness of pleasure which arises from
that contact is called Kama.
Kama
is to be learnt from the Kama Sutra
(aphorisms on love) and from the practice of
citizens.
When
all the three, viz. Dharma, Artha and Kama,
come together, the former is better than the
one which follows it, i.e. 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.
Objection
1
Some
learned men say that as Dharma is connected
with things not belonging to this world, it
is appropriately treated of in a book; and
so also is Artha, because it is practiced
only by the application of proper means, and
a knowledge of those means can only be
obtained by study and from books. But Kama
being a thing which is practiced even by the
brute creation, and which is to be found
everywhere, does not want any work on the
subject.
Answer
This
is not so. Sexual intercourse being a thing
dependent on man and woman requires the
application of proper means by them, and
those means are to be learnt from the Kama
Shastra. The non-application of proper
means, which we see in the brute creation,
is caused by their being unrestrained, and
by the females among them only being fit for
sexual intercourse at certain seasons and no
more, and by their intercourse not being
preceded by thought of any kind.
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