who teaches the newborn fish to swim, or just being born infant to breathe through nose even before the umbilical cord is cut? what makes the eyelids to close in the dusty wind?

nature of nature is ingrained in the state of being of every element. so what made vaassyaayana concoct kaamasutra, the guide to the kaama, the love-making? who was he? whom did he write for? now the book itself has only about 1/5 of the treaties on the physical aspects of the art of "equal partaking of the kaama". and as a whole, the book advises the reader to become the wholesome person in the first place, for in order to experience anything at all, the person must be an undivided whole to be able to receive and give. so it is the art of a wholesome act that the kamasutra was all about. it even has the "six limbs of painting" (distinction of forms, proportion expression, grace, likeness, and varied brush work are the characteristics of the art of painting) that the artists who painted the frescos of ajanta caves and the indian miniatures depicted.

this still does not justify the reason for vaatsyaayana to write a guide book on how to perform the various acts of life including the love making. he was an urban sage as much a pope or any archbishop is, except, that the vedic sages did not disdain the female of the human species, nor did they glorify the artificial poverty, even when some of them were the forest dwellers. it was the jain sage who first abandoned the notion of possession, material and mental; and the male female relationship of the vedic india, which was built upon the idea of ownership. urban women folks were wholly dependent upon men, and men's existence in the society was based on their capital worth.

the kamasutra was written in sanskrit, the language of the courtesan, and not the mothertongue of the ordinary people, as much the same as is english today in india. though it is a second state language and also a compulsory language for the school going children, most college graduates cannot effectively communicate in english beyond "good morning", "how are you?" in what is called the "hinglish." so obviously kamasutra was written for the royalties and courtesans. the 'sanskrit' (refined, cultured) person was one who fit the definition and description. the literate people of the times past had the same mindset that the educated people have today. it makes it easy for the authority to govern with the lettered input, and for the commercial conglomerates to promote their wares.

as of now, in the times past, too, there was a practically amicable relationship between the authority figures and the elite. so whatever was not harmful to the throne was an acceptable form of income for the elite. but it was not necessarily nature's design to lay dormant any of the limbs and organs of a living being. one of the consequences of the lack of the physical movements among the people who are thus made dull limbed and dull witted is that they feel inadequate in doing anything that they have not been taught to do, including "performing" in bed. the motion that kamasutra describes as "kama sambhoga" is not at all a performance which can be one person's act. the word sama (same, equal) + bhoga (partaking) is a wholesome interaction between a female and male, a motion that is mutually concerned partaking of kama.

just as today, in the past, too, the kamasutra was not the only source of information on any subject. there were the vaamamaarg (the left path), the chinese taoist sages' form of sex, and in order not to be left out as the path of liberation for only the celebates, there sprang up the tantric buddhism taking hint from the shiva-shakti discourse on the male female intercourse, which in the left path was called a state of being as "the sibling of the cosmic joy", the "brahmaananda sahodara."

those royalties and elite of india had the guides and guidebooks to perform well in bed, much the same as there are the sex therapists and counselors and lotions and potions for the modern men of means. it was a business then as it is now. and a business needs to not just to advertise its product, but also requires evoking a sense of lack or inadequacy in the thinking of the informed living of people.

even a simple handshake requires the two persons willing to join hands. conjugal sex is very much as the word defines: com(with) + jugal (join, yoke). yugal means a couple in sanskrit. yoga is thus a process of connecting wholesomely whatever one is actively pursuing. but the very format of the capitalist existence is such that one cannot live wholesomely because of the distinction between what one naturally is and what one is trained to be. so any interaction between a person and another or a thing would be like a performance between two actors brought together not on their own mutual volition, but by the director of the play; on stage, each one is acting out one's script that is synchronized, but not in the mutually experienced state of bliss. in yoga samadhi, the ultimate state of experiencing is the brahmananda, the cosmic joy, and the left path calls the climax of the sexual intercourse the state of orgasm as the sibling of the cosmic joy. and yet, no matter how much realistic a performance of love on stage, the pair of male and female actors experience no bond with each other beyond their contractual acting. it is just as that old japanese saying: "two people who share the same bed do not share the same dream." the 30 to 50% divorce rate in the u.s. does not include those who cohabit and separate.

the dysfunctional interaction of people with things, beings, and thoughts is the aim of the commerce sector to thrive on. in politics, it transforms a simple problem to be viewed with wearing as many coloured glasses as sold by the number of contenders vying for the monopoly of the description of the problem and its remedy; in medicine it is the newest drug for the old ailment; in nutrition it is the fruit or grain the competitors in the food industry has imported from abroad; and in health it is that form of yoga asana that a shapely model is demonstrating on tv. the sanskrit poet kalidas had observed of the arranged marriage thus: "the virgin girl marries the physical form of the groom, the mother of the girl marries his character, the father the practical qualities, and the guests the lavish feast." it is not so much different now in the disjointed process of selection, whether in looking for a spouse, or in conversion of faith or political party, or a car model or a restaurant to dine at. in every which way there is the advertising industry to mold people's perception of what they should want that would compensate their sense of lack.

the lack, or inadequacy in anything, whether real or induced, is a product of the corralling of the people in socio-economic identities. once confined in a frame of reference all one's limbs and organs follow the cue from a given norm as defined by the authority figure, the teacher, preacher, or the politician.

and anyone with a designated (from design) designed role to play does not communicate with a fellow actor even while performing unless prompted by cue. so as in real life, so, too, in actors' community people off the work are too busy looking for the most recent cue from the professional guides to perform their identity enhancing tasks in every walk of life.

then, vaatsyaayana cautions: "the senses can be dangerous: 'Just as a horse in full gallop, blinded by the energy of his own speed, pays no attention to any post or hole or ditch on the path, so two lovers, blinded by passion, in the friction of sexual battle, are caught up in their fierce energy and pay no attention to danger."

however, vaatsyaayana, being an urban seer did not, in all likelihood observe the motions of life, including sexual encounters of horses in the wild. and his modern day counterparts have ignored his caution, and have extended the sexual kamsutra so far and wide in the advertising industry, that even as solidly metallic object like cars requires sensually poised females to show the new car models.

does the turtle shop for a new shell
or bear for fur-spray to groom well?
do birds invite bids to build them the nest
or fish for an aquarium to swim and rest?

does the fox hunt fowls only to hold
in deep freeze for other foxes until sold;
or the tiger going for the deer-round-up
to sell to other tigers the deer-meat ground-up?

do birds in a flock race
as commuters do to avoid the face
of the fellow worker, for the fear
that it extends the time of the suit they wear?

do creatures seek god and pray
for a juicy prey or to make their rivals sway
or for a good hunting ground they never found,
offering a fish or fowl to the almighty hound?

the answer to all that, we do know, is: no.
what we don't, is where else may we go
to live as it comes, here and now,
without the plethora of guides telling us how.