35053668-Empire-of-the-Soul-Paul-William-Roberts

50
EMPIRE OF THE SOUL
overcome desire. No culture on earth ascribes such power to female
sexuality as the Indian. Countless myths and fables revolve around
men fighting over a woman; and that greatest of all Indian epics,
the Ramayana itself, unfolds from and around this theme.
In many tales the gods find themselves threatened by a mortal
who has seemingly mastered his desires and now progresses up
toward their immortal realm by a kind of point system of selfless
achievements. Usually, the solution to this cosmic social climber is
beaming down a heavenly nymph he cannot resist. Like Olympic
judges, the gods gleefully look on as some poor ascetic who’s spent
his life in a lonely cave eating weeds and meditating suddenly has
the equivalent of Uma Thurman in a gossamer sari draping herself
over his bony old body. Even the emission of a single drop of semen
is deemed a catastrophic failure, banishing him back into the
communal cesspit of carnal humanity.
More popular as subject matter than accounts of successful ascetics,
these tales of the noble male finally succumbing to lust include even
the Creator himself. In the Brahmavaivarta Purana, we read:
The heavenly nymph Mohini fell in love with the Lord of
creation, Brahma. After gaining the assistance of Kama, the god
of love, she went to Brahma and danced before him, revealing
her body to him in order to entice him, but Brahma remained
without passion. Then Kama struck Brahma with an arrow.
Brahma wavered and felt desire, but after a moment he gained
control. Brahma said to Mohini, ‘Go away, Mother, your efforts
are wasted here. I know your intention, and I am not suitable for
your work. The scripture says, ‘Ascetics must avoid all women,
especially prostitutes.’ I am incapable of doing anything that the
Vedas consider despicable.’ Mohini laughed and said to him, ‘A
man who refuses to make love to a woman who is tortured by
desire – he is a eunuch . . . Come now and make love to me in
some private place,’ and as she said this she pulled at Brahma’s
garment. Then the sages bowed to Brahma, ‘How is it that
Mohini, the best of all celestial prostitutes, is in your presence?’
Brahma said, to conceal his scheme, ‘She danced and sang for a
long time and then when she was tired she came here like a young