Kama: The Riddle of Desire

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A RIVETING ACCOUNT OF LOVE AND DESIRE

‘This is an exquisite book, at once tender and profane, like desire itself’ Shashi Tharoor

‘With this book and others, Das has established himself as a truly modern Indian thinker’ Sanjaya Baru, The Week

‘Das has created this sense of enchantment . . . He is a poet-philosopher to be cherished’ The Hindu

‘Das’s unique success is to tell the Indian story of “desire” which is much beyond sexuality’ Indian Express

‘If you are someone who has ever loved, or lost, or dreamed of loving, or is frustrated by its paradoxes, this book is definitely for you’ Scroll.in

India is the only civilization to elevate kama-desire and pleasure-to a goal of life. Kama is both cosmic and human energy, which animates life and holds it in place. Gurcharan Das weaves a compelling narrative soaked in philosophical, historical and literary ideas in the third volume of his trilogy on life’s goals: India Unbound was the first, on artha, ‘material well-being’; and The Difficulty of Being Good was the second, on dharma, ‘moral well-being’. Here, in his magnificent prose, he examines how to cherish desire in order to live a rich, flourishing life, arguing that if dharma is a duty to another, kama is a duty to oneself. It sheds new light on love, marriage, family, adultery and jealousy as it wrestles with questions such as these: How to nurture desire without harming others or oneself? Are the erotic and the ascetic two aspects of our same human nature? What is the relationship between romantic love and bhakti, the love of god?