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In spite of this, one must avoid seeing a contradiction or paradox where the Hindu merely sees an opposition in the Indian sense – correlative opposites that act as interchangeable identities in essential relationships. The contrast between the erotic and the ascetic tradition in the character and mythology of Śiva is not the kind of 'conjunction of opposites' with which it has so often been confused. Tapas (asceticism) and kāma (desire) are not diametrically opposed like black and white, or heat and cold, where the complete presence of one automatically implies the absence of the other. They are in fact two forms of heat, tapas being the potentially destructive or creative fire that the ascetic generates within himself, kāma the heat of desire. Thus they are closely related in human terms, opposed in the sense that love and hate are opposed, but not mutually exclusive. (it) |
