Kama

Pleasure — the pursuit of sensory and emotional enjoyment as a worldly aim.

Overview

Kama literally means pleasure. It is the first of the three worldly purushartha through which people initially seek happiness. Swami’s examples are deliberately small: eating a cookie, meeting a friend. Small bursts of pleasure that feel, in the moment, like the answer to the underlying search for happiness.

Kama is not condemned in this framework — it is acknowledged as one of the legitimate aims. But the Gita’s point is that pursuing pleasure outside oneself cannot produce permanent happiness. The lasting answer is moksha.

Related concepts

• One of the purushartha
• Sits alongside artha and dharma as a worldly aim
• Transcended by moksha

Lecture evidence

• Ep. 1 [04:14]: Kama literally means pleasure; first small attempt at happiness.