Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c5.402

v1.c5.402

² The enjoyment of women is, countless times in Indian literature, praised as the most glorious thing in heaven and on earth, as the one meaning and end of living, or anyhow of the years of youth. The ascetic, too, often sees the love of many and lovely women, shining before him as the goal and reward in the world beyond, or in a future incarnation. Even in grave, deeply ethical writings the like view breaks through. So, for instance, Uvāsagadasāo, § 246 with comment., praises bliss with women as the one happiness, the goal of asceticism; redemption (mokkho) without it is but a threefold captivity and only it is the Real in the empty world. Indeed, he that is melted together with his beloved in the spell of delight has come into Brahma, into Nirvana (cp. Kuṭṭananimatam, 558, and my Daçakumārac., pp. 3 and 356, where many further parallels could be given). Copulation, this