History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c18.10.6

v2.c18.10.6

*Kāma* is the lowest of all and only fools regard it as the only end.¹⁸ The Mahābhārata says: 'A wise man tries to secure all three, but if all three cannot be attained, he secures dharma and artha or only dharma if he has a choice of only one from among the three. A man of middling discipline prefers artha to the other two; dharma is the source of both artha and kāma.' The dharmaśāstra writers did not condemn kāma altogether, they recognise that kāma has a place as a motive urging men to be active but they assigned it a low place. They recognised that a man shares with lower beings the impulses and emotions of sex, but that the satisfaction of these impulses is of lower values than the moral and spiritual ends proper for a developed human personality and therefore insist that it should be subordinated to *artha* and *dharma*. Gautama (IX. 46-47) says 'one should not allow the morning, midday and evening to remain fruitless so far as dharma, artha and kāma are concerned. But among these three one should attach most importance to dharma.' Yāj. I. 115 says practically the same thing. Āp. Dh. S. (II. 8. 20. 22-23) declares that 'a man should enjoy all such pleasures as are not opposed to dharma. In this way one secures both worlds'.¹⁹ In the Bhagavadgītā (VII. 11) Kṛṣṇa identifies himself with *kāma* that is not opposed to dharma.