Kamadeva: An Exploration by Two Students

The following is not meant as an exhaustive treatise on Kamadeva, but rather as an outline of certain ideas, from which students may find starting-points for their own studies.

I.
Desire First Arose In It

“Kama is the first conscious, all embracing desire for universal good, love, and for all that lives and feels, needs help and kindness, the first feeling of infinite tender compassion and mercy that arose in the consciousness of the creative ONE FORCE, as soon as it came into life and being as a ray from the ABSOLUTE.”—Theosophical Glossary, H.P. Blavatsky.

The first amorous encounter we could possibly know of is that of Divine Love or Divine Desire, Indra’s music, Kamadeva. Kama is the first light out of the darkness, the first impulse to arise within the ‘One.’ Kama is the one who stands next to the Limitless One, which exists in every creature and which pervades every existent condition.

“Gloom, hid in gloom, existed first—one sea, eluding view.
That One, a void in chaos wrapt, by inward fervour grew.
Within it first arose desire, the primal germ of mind,
Which nothing with existence links, as sages searching find.”
~Rig Veda: Hymn of Creation~

“Kâma was born at first; him neither the gods,
nor the Fathers, nor men have equalled.
To these art thou superior, and ever great . . .
As great as are the heavens and earth in extent,
as far as the waters have swept, as far as fire;
to these art thou superior, and ever great . . .
Great as are the directions (of space)
and the intermediate direction on either side,
great as are the regions and the vistas of the sky;
to these art thou superior, and ever great . . .”
~Atharva Veda, IX, 2. Prayer to Kâma~

But what can we say about that which IS before the onset of manifestation, that which, itself, provides the very impulse to manifest?

“Now Kama (the Makara-ketu) is “Aja” (the unborn), and “Atma-bhu” (the self-existent), and Aja is the LOGOS in the Rig-Veda, as he is shown therein to be the first manifestation of the ONE.”—Secret Doctrine, II:578

Kamadeva was, is and will always be. It IS, even when Pralaya reigns. And though such pralaya seems, to us, to be complete non-being, complete inactivity, yet still Kamadeva provides an impulse that brings pralaya to a close and manvantara to a new beginning. There is thus a kind of everlasting “desire” within the ALL: a meta-desire, absolutely universal, absolutely eternal. From the stirring of such a desire the beginning of “creation”, of manifestation is brought about.

“He was the first movement that stirred the ONE, after its manifestation from the purely abstract principle, to create . . .”—Secret Doctrine, II:176

“Manvantaric impulse commences with the re-awakening of Cosmic Ideation (the “Universal Mind”) concurrently with, and parallel to the primary emergence of Cosmic Substance . . .”—Secret Doctrine, I:328

So we have Desire (Kamadeva), the “germ of mind”, arising in IT and providing the “Manvantaric impulse” which awakens “Universal Mind” and sets in motion the course of manifestation. This Desire is all-embracing, it is universal, it is Love itself. This Universal Love is truly everywhere, in everything, the fountain-source and driver of all things. Without Kama, without this boundless love, no ‘thing’ would come to be; no manifestation would periodically arise or subside: the Great Breath would cease its perpetual motion.

II.
Binding & Connecting

“[Desire] was the primal germ of mind, . . . which Sages, searching with their intellect, have discovered in their heart to be the bond which connects Entity with non-Entity”, or Manas with pure Atma-Buddhi.”—Theosophical Glossary, H.P. Blavatsky.

In considering the Hymn of Creation from the Rig Veda it may be healthier to view ‘nothing’ as ‘no-thing’, so we may grasp the idea of that bond between no-thing—or non-being—and being, between the unmanifest and the manifest. The Manifest is never truly separate from the Eternally Unmanifest—it is its ray or radiation. Atman is itself ever-unmanifest; it stands above as the “power to perceive”. But working through substance (Buddhi) Atma is able to shine forth as Manas, Mind. The One Unmanifest awakes from its slumber, and, taking cognisance of itself, of its own substance, begins to operate as Universal Mind—as Spirit working through a Vehicle—and from this operation all manifestation arises. That power which connects the Unmanifest Spirit to its own Substance, which allows for Universal Mind to awaken as conscious Force and Life, which allows Substance to be imbued with the power of Spirit, that power is Kamadeva in action.

We can thus see Kamadeva as the foremost of all Gods, beings and sentient life. As manifestation arises, Kama acts as the binder, bringing together all forms and igniting within them Cosmic Energy, or Fohat, ‘which is LIFE’¹ the first impulse, good and pure: the essence of ‘things.’ For love is neither first nor last but essential to all, the very animator of all; love is dynamic, ever in motion. So Kama is the one nature that actively moves within the hearts of both Suras and Asuras. Love in action is Force, and in action Kamadeva can be seen as the propeller of ‘creation’ and procreation. It both drives creation—drawing Spirit in and through Substance and so propelling that substance into motion, into ceaseless change and transformation—and maintains it—ever-binding, ever-connecting Spirit to Substance, ever maintaining the Life within every form—it both impels the rise of the Many from the One, and sustains the Many as One.

“The all-devouring God whom men call Kama,
he whom they call the giver and receiver.”
—Atharva Veda, 3:21:4.

Manifestation is driven by a threefold process: creation, preservation, destruction. These are but the modes of transformation or change and these three work together, incessantly: that which is devoured gives rise to a new creation and that which is created is preserved for a time, then it too is devoured and a new creation arises in its stead. The process is only possible if there is a uniting force underlying the three processes, that which maintains the continuum as a single unity throughout all changes, a thread that runs through all. That unifying force is at the heart of Kamadeva. All is forever bound in One Dynamic Unity.

“Love holds together the worlds in space, it clothes the earth in bright and beautiful colours, it guides the instincts of animals and links together the hearts of human beings.”—Emanuel²

III.
In Myth and Lore

Kamadeva comes in many forms (names), strewn about through most cosmogonies and the mainstreams of life. Yet one poetic notion can say a considerable amount:

TO LOVE

I call, great Love, the source of sweet delight,
Holy and pure, and charming to the sight;
Darting, and wing’d, impetuous fierce desire,
With Gods and mortals playing, wand’ring fire:
Agile and twofold, keeper of the keys
Of heav’n and earth, the air, and spreading seas;
Of all that Ceres’ fertile realms contains,
By which th’all parent Goddess life sustains,
Or dismal Tartarus is doom’d to keep,
Widely extended, or the sounding deep;
For thee all Nature’s various realms obey,
Who rul’st alone, with universal sway.
Come, blessed pow’r, regard these mystic fires,
And far avert unlawful mad desires.
~Orpheus: Hymn to Love~

From the Mystic Hymns of Orpheus to his cosmogony of Protogonus, or Phanes, concerning the intelligible Gods.

TO PROTOGONUS

“O mighty first-begotten, hear my pray’r,
Twofold, egg-born, and wand’ring thro’ the air;
Bull-roarer, glorying in thy golden wings,
From whom the race of Gods and mortal springs.
Ericapaeus, celebrated pow’r,
Ineffable, occult, all-shining flow’r.
Tis thine from darksome mists to purge the sight,
All-spreading splendour, pure and holy light;
Hence, Phanes, call’d the glory of the sky,
On waving pinions thro’ the world you fly.
Priapus, dark-ey’d splendour, thee I sing,
Genial, all-prudent, ever blessed king.
With joyful aspect on these rites divine
And holy Telite propitious shine.”
~Orpheus: Hymn to Protogonus~

Protoguonus is considered the driving force, the first born, Bull-roarer (Taurus), the Hebrew Aleph, behind reproduction in the early cosmos. The cosmogony also shows Protogonus bursting forth into light from the formless plane, becoming visible, thereafter denominated Phanes and propelling creation into action in the world of forms. Phanes or Kama in this sense represents intelligible intellect, or manifested logos.

From Hesoid’s Theogony we hear:

“Eros (Love), fairest among the deathless gods,
who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and
wise counsels of all gods and all men within them.”

From the Egyptian Pantheon we have Heru, Hor or Har (Horus, Mind, according to Hermes), who’s name meaning is “the distant one” or “the one on high/above.”

“Mind, my son Tat, is of the very substance of God, if indeed there is a substance of God; and of what nature that substance is, God alone precisely knows. Mind then is not severed from the substantiality of God, but is, so to speak, spread everywhere from that source, as the light of the Sun is spread far and wide.”
—Corpus Hermeticum, Libellus XII, 1.

In the Bhagavata Purana, Canto 5: The Creative Impetus, We hear of Lakshmi’s devotion to Kamadeva, avatar of Vishnu.

“In the tract of land called Ketumāla-varṣa, Lord Viṣṇu lives in the form of Kāmadeva, only for the satisfaction of His devotees. These include Lakṣmījī [the goddess of fortune], the Prajāpati Saḿvatsara and all of Saḿvatsara’s sons and daughters. The daughters of Prajāpati are considered the controlling deities of the nights, and his sons are considered the controllers of the days. The Prajāpati’s offspring number 36,000, one for each day and each night in the lifetime of a human being. At the end of each year, the Prajāpati’s daughters become very agitated upon seeing the extremely effulgent disc of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and thus they all suffer miscarriages.³

In Ketumāla-varṣa, Lord Kāmadeva [Pradyumna] moves very graciously. His mild smile is very beautiful, and when He increases the beauty of His face by slightly raising His eyebrows and glancing playfully, He pleases the goddess of fortune. Thus He enjoys His transcendental senses.⁴

Accompanied during the daytime by the sons of the Prajāpati [the predominating deities of the days] and accompanied at night by his daughters [the deities of the nights], Lakṣmīdevī worships the Lord during the period known as the Saḿvatsara in His most merciful form as Kāmadeva. Fully absorbed in devotional service, she chants the following mantras.⁵

Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Hṛṣīkeśa, the controller of all my senses and the origin of everything. As the supreme master of all bodily, mental and intellectual activities, He is the only enjoyer of their results. The five sense objects and eleven senses, including the mind, are His partial manifestations. He supplies all the necessities of life, which are His energy and thus nondifferent from Him, and He is the cause of everyone’s bodily and mental prowess, which is also nondifferent from Him. Indeed, He is the husband and provider of necessities for all living entities. The purpose of all the Vedas is to worship Him. Therefore let us all offer Him our respectful obeisances. May He always be favorable toward us in this life and the next.”⁶

We can see Kamadeva interchangeable with Eros, Protogonus, Vishnu, Horus or that, simply of Love. Love being the fairest of all attributes and the noblest of devotion from Lakshmi, whom is always at Vishnu’s side in whatever avatar the story unfolds. Lakshmi being the Goddess of Fortune, or Karma, and Vishnu as the noblest being of Love. Both of them as Mother/Father, wife/husband, and daughter/son, Purusha and Prakriti, both creator and resultants.

Kamadeva has the ensign of Makara adorning his flag and his mount is a parrot or sparrow, emblematic of lubricity. To some it could be viewed as lewdness, or we can think of it as a condition of being lubricious or of fluidity, in the sense of being continuous and able to move freely around, or through all things, a changeable quality that has the tendency to assume the shape of its container. Love even acts in our astrological calculations.

In the Brahmanical zodiac the 8th sign Vrischika, corresponding to Scorpio and its deity is Kama⁷, the 10th sign Makara corresponds to Capricornus, the sea goat representing both the microcosm and the macrocosm, objectively. Before the addition of Tula (Libra), that separated Kanya (Virgo), which represents Sakti, and Vrischika (Scorpio), Makara was in the 8th position⁸. Now, Vrischika is perfectly placed opposite Taurus, the first born, the Bull-roarer.

“Vrischika is properly placed opposite of Rishabham (Taurus), or Pranava (Aum). Analysis from Pranava downwards leads to the Universe of Thought, and synthesis from the latter upwards leads to Pranava (Aum). We have now arrived at the ideal state of the universe previous to its coming into material existence.”
—“The Twelve Signs of the Zodiac,” T. Subba Row

IV.
Kama in the Macrocosm

“When the “Divine Son” breaks forth, then Fohat becomes the propelling force, the active Power which causes the One to become Two and Three—on the Cosmic plane of manifestation.”—Secret Doctrine, I:109 (c)

Earlier we saw Kamadeva giving the impulse towards manifestation, and when this occurs we see the rise of Fohat, or Cosmic Energy.

“Fohat is one thing in the yet unmanifested Universe and another in the phenomenal and Cosmic World”—Secret Doctrine, I:109

So in the Unmanifest, we find Kamadeva, and therein Fohat is latent, is but “an abstract philosophical idea”.⁹ From a perspective within Manifestation, however, we find Kamadeva to be the abstraction, the ever-unreachable principle connecting being to non-being, and we find Fohat no longer latent but ever-active, as the electric vital-power that unites all forms.

Fohat is the active male potency of the female reproductive power, Sakti.¹⁰ As Universal Mind first emerges simultaneously with Cosmic Substance, so here we find a male and female side of the One Force: Fohat and Sakti. These two, which are really one, reach across all manifested planes: Spirit riding Substance and thus manifesting Force. As there are seven planes and seven principles, this force is sevenfold, consisting of six Saktis, six primal forces, or six distinct modes of the One Force; with the seventh as their unison, their synthesis, which is Daiviprakriti, the Light of the Logos¹¹, the light of Kamadeva. This sevenfold unity (the six and their synthesis) represents the sevenfold hierarchy of creative powers, the Dhyan Chohans, who together represent the fifth Principle of Cosmic Nature, Mahat or Universal Mind.

Thus Kamadeva may be considered as the mind or cosmic intelligence underlying all force—or as the Entity that stands at the head of the One Force, just as each Sakti has an entity at its head—thus he represents this One Force undifferentiated, which harmonizes and balances the three in one (the systhesis, and the dual male-female sides). So that which binds non-being to being, entity to non-entity, becomes in manifestation Fohat/Sakti, which bind Mind and Matter, ever sustaining the unity within the duality, ever bridging the divide between spirit and substance.

“Fohat, then, is the personified electric vital power, the transcendental binding Unity of all Cosmic Energies, on the unseen as on the manifested planes . . . Fohat is not only the living Symbol and Container of that Force, but is looked upon by the Occultists as an Entity—the forces he acts upon being cosmic, human and terrestrial, and exercising their influence on all those planes respectively.”
—Secret Doctrine, I:111

V.
Kama in the Microcosm

“He [Fohat] is One and Seven, and on the Cosmic plane is behind all such manifestations as light, heat, sound, adhesion, etc., etc., and is the “spirit” of ELECTRICITY, which is the LIFE of the Universe.”—Secret Doctrine, I:139

The Rig Veda states that Desire is “the primal seed and germ of Mind.” Thus with Mind and Matter we have a feminine and a masculine side of manifestation, in Man: Purusha and Prakriti, In the manifested world, light, heat, magnetism, electricity and gravity, etc., are not final causes of the visible phenomena, but are themselves the secondary effects of other causes from the unmanifested world of force. Electricity, therefore, is not just substance, but also an emanation from an Entity, from Kamadeva manifesting as Fohat. This force, or emanation, is the propeller of action and the driving essence of all, interacting on cosmic, human, and terrestrial planes, accordingly.

“So, of a truth, they said of old: ‘Man [purusha], verily, is formed of desire; as his desire is, so is his will; as his will is, so he works; and whatsoever work he does, in the likeness of that he grows.”—Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad, IV:4:5.

Behind Will stands Desire. However strong or weak that Will may be, desire is what propels it to action. And desire may be imagined as an offshoot of Mind¹², or as a twin-principle with Mind in Man. It’s the spark to the flame, so to speak, a sustaining power from the One Life that is inherent in every atom of matter¹³. As Kama works above, so it works below as the “Soul of Things.” It is that bond which brings all things together and unites them. One way to imagine this is from the Greek drama, “Birds” by Aristophanes:

“That of the Immortals did not exist until Eros had brought together all the ingredients of the world, and from their marriage Heaven, Ocean, Earth and the imperishable race of blessed gods sprang into being. Thus our origin is very much older than that of the dwellers in Olympus. We are the offspring of Eros; there are a thousand proofs to show it. We have wings and we lead assistance to lovers.”

Kama, or Desire, is fundamental in bringing together the ingredients used to form Man. Kama is the middle principle, the binder and the conciliator and with its force, pushes all to activity and drives our individual and collective lives. Kamadeva then could be seen, cosmically, as the ‘engine’ of the Great Breath, so to speak, manifesting in Man as Kama, the ‘engine’ of the cyclic activity of his successive incarnations. And Kamadeva’s vehicle, the Makara, is “connected with the fifth group of the hierarchy of creative powers, and with the microcosmic pentagram—the five-pointed star representing man”¹⁴ Thus we see the symbolism underlying Kamadeva and Makara: the Universal One Force connecting Spirit with Substance (Kamadeva riding on Makara), thus giving rise to Universal Mind and all subsequent manifestation. The same occurs microcosmically, with our Desire riding upon Will and hence manifesting, through Mind, all our individual manifestations.

“Archaic philosophy, recognizing neither Good nor Evil as a fundamental or independent power, but starting from the Absolute All (Universal Perfection eternally), traced both through the course of natural evolution to pure Light condensing gradually into form, hence becoming Matter or Evil.”
—Secret Doctrine, I:173

When Man incarnates into Matter, propelled by the force of Desire inherent in his constitution, the high initial “all embracing desire for universal good, love”, the “divine desire of creating happiness and love” becomes crystalized and materialized into a lower force, directed selfishly towards the gratification of personal desires for sensory stimulation.

The Romans drew from the Greek myths and reinterpreted Eros into Cupid, from the slender winged youth to the chubby little boy (descending more into matter, personification), for their own art and literature. Their Mythographers would interpret the myths morally into vices and virtues for Christian use¹⁵. Kamadeva or Eros were ‘Romanized’ or degenerated into the identity that of Theodulfus’s¹⁶ malicious ‘Cupid,’ or the gods of lust and temptation, Mara. Yet Mara has a hidden meaning as well, “the unconscious quickener of the birth of the Spiritual.”¹⁷ And cupid was viewed as being that of a heavenly love or a sinful earthly love.

Kama is a ray from the One, the true nature ever existing either hidden or revealed according to our own perception. Just as the Bible commentaries convey that the Angels ‘fell’ because of their carnal desires, so does Kama descend to become our 4th principle, and so becomes a “downward pointing” principle of selfish desire. Yet it remains, in its highest aspects, that impersonal desire for love and goodness. So Man has access to both: his desire can be directed downwards selfishly or upwards unselfishly.

VI.
The Division Within

“[Kama says:] No creature is able to destroy me without resorting to the proper methods (viz., subjugating of all desires and practice of Yoga etc.) If a man knowing my power, strive to destroy me by muttering prayers etc., I prevail over him by deluding him with the belief that I am the subjective ego within him. If he wish to destroy me by means of sacrifices with many presents, I deceive him by appearing in his mind as a most virtuous creature amongst the mobile creation, and if he wish to annihilate me by mastering the Vedas and Vedangas, I over reach him by seeming to his mind to be the soul of virtue amongst the immobile creation. And if the man whose strength lies in truth, desire to overcome me by patience, I appear to him as his mind, and thus he does not perceive my existence, and if the man of austere religious practices, desire to destroy me by means of asceticism, I appear in the guise of asceticism in his mind, and thus he is prevented from knowing me, and the man of learning, who with the object of attaining salvation desires to destroy me, I frolic and laugh in the face of such a man intent on salvation. I am the everlasting one without a compeer, whom no creature can kill or destroy. For this reason thou too, O prince, divert thy desires (Kama) to Virtue, so that, by this means, thou mayst attain what is well for thee.”—“Kamagita Gathas”, Mahabharata.

Kama, as our fourth principle, where our desires are preserved, becomes the seat of emotion and the seat of thought in the terrestrial plane. It’s where Spirit and Matter meet in Man, the middle ground, the binder and activator. There is no escaping it; it is not to be destroyed, but rather transmuted. It is with right intention and right thoughts that we can change our desires into Virtues, as the old alchemists transmuted lead into gold. This force comes in many forms, under many disguises. We can see our re-action to Kama and perhaps become more aware of whether our re-actions are instinctual, from the lower kamic desires of our animal soul—basic survival responses and so on—or intuitional, that of true love. We can ask ourselves: are we acting on behalf of Cupid or Eros? Are we living up to the true nature of Kamadeva or acting only on the lowest plane of its emanation?

“SEERSHIP is of the Self; actor-ship, of the powers. For, as the great King, even without being engaged himself, becomes the warrior, through his army as instrument, simply through sending them, by his command; so the steadfast Spirit, through seeing and other powers, becomes the beholder, the speaker, the willer, and takes on other powers like these, by being near only, by unison, by sending them forth, by a strong attraction, like that of the iron-loving lodestone, strong without exertion.”—Sankya Aphorisms of Kapila, Book ii, 29, with the Commentary of Vijnana Acharya.

We can recognize love by freedom: if it is attached to objects, persons or things, it is not free. Kama in the higher manas is comparable to the 4^th Sephiroth Hesed (which is also a Prajapati¹⁸). Hesed was translated to English in 1535 by Miles Coverdale as “Loving-Kindness or Mercy,” which could have been the easiest translation for it in English. Yet Hesed is also called El¹⁹, the Aleph, and meaning strength, power, first born. Hesed is the first of the emotive attributes of the sephiroth, action. So there is perhaps another translation which still means loving-kindness, mercy, yet includes those attributes of strength, a steadfast love that is more of interaction: a binder between two people, an attitude. The Targum seems to fit well with translating Hesed as “their strength”, when comparing with the book of Isaiah. The Targum says the prophet Isaiah is contrasting man’s frailty with God’s steadfast reliability. Isaiah says that all man’s steadfastness is like the wild flowers, here today and gone tomorrow, whilst the Word of the Lord is steady and sure, firm and reliable.²⁰

This higher love is there, within all interactions, steadfast, firm and consistent. It’s our dual expressions towards that love that sets personal karma in action. Whichever way we choose to act or react to what is in front of us, is not eliminating love, it has simply been disguised in a different form, waiting to again present to us the opportunity of right thoughts and actions under a different pretense. Choosing nobler expressions within ourselves would bring us closer to the freedom between all, bringing our mind (the seat of thought) and heart (the seat of emotion) together, however small or long our strides are, little by little raising the seed within us back up to the Divine by acting instead of re-acting. Every small step towards right thought and right intention is a small step towards becoming the conqueror within. As our thoughts Created these personal desires and passions, Kama stays Preserved in the middle of them, hidden, setting the action. How we re-act or act to it is the Destroyer either of our selves or of the desires.

This fourth principle [Kama] is the balance principle of the whole seven. It stands in the middle, and from it the ways go up or down. It is the basis of action and the mover of the will. As the old Hermetists say: “Behind will stands desire.” For whether we wish to do well or ill we have to first arouse within us the desire for either course. The good man who at last becomes even a sage had at one time in his many lives to arouse the desire for the company of holy men and to keep his desire for progress alive in order to continue on his way. Even a Buddha or a Jesus had first to make a vow, which is a desire, in some life, that he would save the world or some part of it, and to persevere with the desire alive in his heart through countless lives. And equally so, on the other hand, the bad man life after life took unto himself low, selfish, wicked desires, thus debasing instead of purifying this principle.
—Ocean of Theosophy, W.Q.Judge

We can see the role of Kama in our everyday lives. Within us, through us, stream cosmic forces, powers that drive our collective spiritual evolution. We may, through our choices and our actions or re-actions, determine the use to which these grand forces are put to work: we may direct our power towards ever-higher expressions of universal love and goodness, to the upliftment of our brothers and sisters and of ourselves; or we may direct our powers towards limited, ever more constricting and selfish goals. The forces are inherent in us, as they are inherent in every corner of the Cosmos. In our essence we are expressions of Kamadeva, we are expressions of Divine Love. We can allow that divine love to be debased into personal lusts and clinging thirsts, or we can direct that One Force through ourselves as the impersonal all-beneficent power it truly is in its essence.

Desire and Will are inseparable. If our Desire be an expression of Divine Love, and our Will be strong and well developed, there is no limit to the beauty, goodness and truth we might bring into our little world.

“Strength does not come from physical capacity.
It comes from an indomitable will.”—Mahatma Ghandi.

1. Secret Doctrine, I:137

2. Lucifer Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 5: 391 “Love With An Object”

3. Srimad Bhagavatam, 5:18:15

4. ibid, 5:18:16

5. ibid, 5:18:17

6. ibid, 5:18:18

7. Isis Unveiled, II:465 fn.

8. “12 signs of the Zodiac”, T. Subba Row (See Five Years of Theosophy, p.103)

9. Secret Doctrine, I:109

10. Theosophical Glossary, “Fohat”

11. Secret Doctrine, I:292-93