The Kama Sutra & Hinduism
‘I am the lust (or Kama) in human beings that is in harmony with Dharma’
(Gita 7:11)
Classical Hindu thought recognises four basic aims of human life, called ‘purusharthas’. These are kama (sexual pleasure and other enjoyment), artha (material prosperity), dharma (duty and harmony) and moksha (liberation). Each is considered more important than the preceding one. Yet all four have to be balanced, none at the expense of the other. Sex is certainly not thought of as something intrinsically sinful in the integrated Hindu-world view, rather it is a natural human impulse that corresponds to the cosmic impulse of expansion.
