Love and Vasna  -Anant Sri

Love and Vasna  -Anant Sri

Basically, there is no difference between Love and वासना. There is no contradiction in life, life is multi-layered, and these are different layers. It is just that they are different stations of the same journey giving different experiences. In this long journey of life, we go through several experiences all contributing in their own way to our life and thereby taking it forward.

When we talk of love and वासना, we have a sense of offensiveness towards वासना because we have not understood it as a primary station in the journey. Before we try to understand वासना, we have to get rid of this condemnation towards it, and approach it with sensitivity. We need to redefine our understanding of वासना.

वासना is an expansion of our desires. It is the process of taking life ahead and developing it in all directions. No वासना no life. वासना is commonly associated with काम वासना because काम is the primary वासना that gives birth to life. काम is the initial desire to take life ahead. If no काम is there then the urge to continue and develop will not be there. The desire to continue living and not get destroyed is the inherent urge in man and it is this fundamental वासना, and  काम is responsible for it.

वासना is like a germinating seed, the initial sprout that has the potential of developing into the tree of love. वासना is disorganized collection of our desires and if we can somehow manage to harmonize our desires then it can propel us towards deeper levels of experience. The problem arises when the sprout itself is taken to be the tree.

Since वासना is the initial stage, it is vulnerable and needs protection. Initially protection becomes a necessity, and you want to hold on to everything and therefore there is pain in वासना. You want to be secure and if something comes in the way, you go into attack. But soon one has to grow out of this stage, but if the struggle for security and attack continue then वासना gets polluted and diseased. This disease comes in the form of possession and control, turning live beings into objects.

Today love is only in words, only in dialogue. Love is actually missing, it is just a desire, and therefore in this love there is impulsiveness, there is attack, there is restlessness. This is not love, it is वासना only and so there is fear and insecurity. And as a result, the need for security comes in and along with that the evil of possession and control creep in giving rise to attack and violence.

For the development of life, one has to have acceptance of insecurities and uncertainties and pay attention to the energy of life and then whatever sprout is there, it will develop. Every sprout has a journey inherent in it and accordingly they develop, and the entire existence cooperates. But in our anxiety to protect ourselves we are not able to see this cooperation of the existence, and then we continue with our struggles for security and making things certain and our life energy ebbs away making us less alive. Need for security shows that there is diminished liveliness. As your need for security drops your aliveness grows.

When people are initially in love, they feel the bliss for then there is in a way an acceptance of uncertainty and insecurity, but soon they want to secure it and make it certain and all efforts to turn the person in an object begins. They want to hold and possess and that is only possible with an object, therefore, to so have a control over the person you treat them as objects. Life becomes mechanical and takes you away from life. All these efforts indicate that love is lacking.

If we accept our insecurities and uncertainties, then we can move ahead and develop. In love even objects become alive. Love at its peak is devotion where stone becomes alive and without love even live people become objects. But when in devotion, the liveliness is seen in terms of our projections giving a frame as per our liking, then again it is turning aliveness into  objectification. That is not devotion, it is again वासना. The greater the love, lesser is the objectification and greater is the aliveness. In love even the gross body becomes so alive and radiant with illumination that even the surroundings get illumined in its presence. On the other hand, when there is no love life becomes duller and dimmer.

In काम वासना also there is a glimpse of love and that is why there is attraction or else it is mechanical, but people fail to see it in their anxiety for security, and then begins the evil of converting people into objects. In काम वासना also the ingredients of love are present. Firstly, you become identity-less, the pseudo identity takes a back seat. Then you are insecure, you are helpless, you are vulnerable in full surrender with another. Any harm can come to you either bodily or mentally or emotionally. Then with this complete surrender and in your egoless state, you go beyond time in the timeless zone. And all these give you a glimpse of love and bliss. If you are wakeful, you can see your vulnerability, your insecurity, your egoless-ness, your surrender and if you allow these to develop, there is transformation into love. Your fears transform into love.

In वासना fear is natural, you don’t have to fight with it that it should not be there, and you try to suppress it, because then it will surface in many forms like jealousy, enmity and result in violence. Instead, you should accept the fear and proceed with it. Being together gives us an opportunity to transform fear. Having trust in existence when you proceed, your fear in aloneness and your fear in togetherness, both dissolve and with that you realize that fear is just a station in the journey of life. As fear dissolves it transforms into love. Love is life giving.