Why Does Kama Vasana Appear Only After Puberty?

Don’t think that creation means just the creation of the physical world. Everything has to be created. At the beginning, there is nothing. So languages, speech, anger, greed, patience, all kinds of emotions, intelligence, diseases, cures, ideas – everything has to be created. Even rules, laws, everything. Nothing is there, you see, at the beginning. A lot of things have to evolve as situations demand.

One such legend is related to Sandhya Devi, the goddess of twilight – morning and evening sandhyas, twilights. She is different from Usha Devi. Usha Devi is the goddess of dawn, before sunrise. Sandhya Devi is the manasa putri of Brahma, meaning she doesn’t have a mother. She was born out of merely the wish of Brahma. Brahma wished, and she manifested.

We should come out of this straightjacket thinking. A child means there should be a father and a mother. Not necessary. Divinity can do anything. This Sandhya Devi’s rebirth was Arundhati, the pativrata ratnam, wife of Vasishta Maharshi.

When Brahma saw Sandhya Devi, his own daughter, kama vasana came into his mind. There are no rules or morals in place. They have to come. It is the beginning of creation. Kama vasana came into the mind of Sandhya also. She felt ashamed of this, spontaneously, not because it is written somewhere or someone has told her that. For the first time ever, Sandhya felt ashamed that, no, this should not be there, this is not right. Father towards daughter or daughter towards father, this is not right.

There is a similar situation elsewhere. Yama’s sister Yami proposes to him, saying, ‘Why don’t we get married? We will be the best couple.’ Then Yama explains why it should not happen. It is known as Yama Yami Samvada. This is how moral values come into place. A reason should be there.

So, Sandhya Devi felt ashamed of what was happening. She said, ‘I have to do prayaschitta for this. I will offer my body in agni.’ This is not suicide. What do we do in a havan? We offer materials to gods. She wanted to offer her own body, made up of pancha bhutas, to gods. The kama vasana came in the body, so this is the best purification, by offering the body itself to gods.

Then she also said, ‘I will also put a rule in place that kama vasana should not come as soon as a child is born. It should come after a few years from birth, when there is maturity, when there is power to control oneself, when the time is right for procreation. Kama has to be there. Otherwise, there won’t be procreation. But it should come only at the appropriate age.’

Our scriptures are not stories or myths. Every aspect of existence is dealt with in them. But to put a rule or system like this in place is not easy. It needs a lot of power, force, and effort. We know when a government tries to implement a new rule, how difficult it is. The collective effort of so many people is required. Here, Sandhya is the only one. She wants to do this all by herself. She has to, because she is the only one who felt ashamed of this.

Where will this power come from? From tapas. Tapas means putting in effort, channelizing effort to achieve something, creating a big pool of energy stored within yourself, with which you can do what you want. Sandhya Devi decided to do tapas. She had to create energy and then use it for what she wanted to achieve.

Sandhya Devi went to a mountain called Chandra Bhaga and started tapas. Some time went by. Sage Vasishta came to that mountain once and found Sandhya there. He was surprised. ‘Who are you? What are you doing all alone here in this mountain? What are you trying to achieve? What is it that you desire?’ Sandhya told everything to the sage, and also that even though she had decided to do tapas, she didn’t know how to do tapas. She was worried about this.

Vasishta Maharshi gave her mantra deeksha. The mantra was ओं नमो वासुदेवाय ओं. He said, ‘Meditate upon Shri Hari Paramatma himself.’ The sage taught her all that was involved in doing tapas. She did tapas through four yugas – Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dwapara Yuga, and Kali Yuga. Bhagawan appeared before her in the exact form that she was meditating upon. Sandhya said a stotra in praise of Bhagawan.

Bhagawan asked her, ‘What is your desire? What do you want?’ Sandhya said, ‘Across all living beings, kama vasana should appear only at the appropriate time, not as soon as they are born. I want to be known as the highest pativrata in the whole world. I should never deviate from the vow of fidelity towards my husband.’

Bhagawan said, ‘There are stages of growth of a child. First comes shaishava, then comes kumara, and then yauvana. By the merit of your tapas, I hereby declare that kama vasana will appear only at the onset of yauvana, and in a few cases, towards the end of kaumara. And you will be the most celebrated pativrata in the whole universe.’ Sandhya was reborn as Arundhati, the daughter of Medhatithi.

Ramaswamy Sastry and Vighnesh Ghanapaathi