Were ancient Indians against enjoyment?

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We were talking about the endless cycle of births and deaths that a soul goes through and the emphasis in all ancient schools of Indian thought on the liberation from that cycle.

But the birth does give us an opportunity to enjoy this world!. In that case, why were these schools against enjoyment?

Actually, before the advent of ideologies like Buddhism and Jainism, ancient India was never for complete shunning of enjoyment. In fact, ‘Kama’ or enjoyment was considered to be one of the four achievables (i.e. caturvidha purushartha) one should strive for in one’s life.

Not surprisingly, ancient India even had a complete treatise on Sex or Kama, namely the Vatsayana Kama Sutra.

Even the Upanishads often declared that one should aspire to live for full hundred years, enjoying the world.

But there is a catch. Enjoyment is not without strings attached. Any enjoyment has its own limitations and problems. Mainly, all worldly enjoyment is limited by its momentariness, inability to ever get fully satiated, craving for more, and the clinging caused by this craving.

Further, there are different kinds of enjoyment.

A kid may find enjoyment in eating or playing with toys. But as it grows into adolescence, it finds more enjoyment in the company of opposite sex. At a later stage, wealth, status, power mean enjoyment.

Intellectual satisfaction appears to be the greatest enjoyment as compared to bodily enjoyment as one evolves further. At a further level of evolution, even the intellect does not satisfy the need for enjoyment.

At that stage, one looks for enjoyment or bliss that one attains by restraining the mental activities. This is what happens when someone practices Yoga or Meditation. There is a further stage, where you don’t really experience bliss but become bliss itself. That is when you have reached the ultimate.

So there is gradation in enjoyment. At lower levels of enjoyment, there are higher costs to be paid and they are less permanent. As you move on to higher levels, you approach eternal and unbounded happiness.

Any person who is aware of these, would naturally choose the highest level or at least attempt to reach there.

As many Indian philosophies declare - the body is both capable of giving you temporary happiness that leads to bondage (Bandha), as well as eternal happiness that leads to liberation (Moksha).

The choice is yours.

Pre-Buddhist Indians struck a nice balance between these two conflicting goals – short term happiness vs eternal happiness.

They said that at some stage of your life you are free to indulge in worldly enjoyment in a controlled way, never transgressing the limits. But as you grow further, and the body becomes less and less capable, don’t keep clinging on to these pleasures, but make eternal happiness as your goal instead. That is when you turn to spirituality. Upanishads focus on this later stage of life.

But that does not mean that you should completely live as you like unrestrained. Moderation is always the key. Also, being aware of the limitations and right choices always helps. That is what Yama meant when he said

“There are two choices one comes across in one’s life – one that one wants to have, and the other that one should be wanting to have.”

Our smart kid Nachiketa chose the latter.

Supposing someone chose eternal happiness. What then? We will see that in the next episode.

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A story of Nachiketa from Katha Upanishad, which is part of Yajur Veda. Upanishads are concluding parts of ancient Indian Vedic scriptures believed to be at least 5000 years old. The interpretation is by Dr.King (Copyright © 2019 Dr. King).