ABSTRACT
As people mature, their experience of longing deepens and generalizes, so that eros can be experienced in relation to the world or the divine. In traditional Hindu ethics, there are four purposes of human life: kama (pleasure), artha (material goods), dharma (duty), and moksha (enlightenment). A first reading of these would arrange them in a hierarchy, and it is fair to say that there are distinctions in status between them in the tradition (for example, they are related to the caste system). The primary Sanskrit term for beauty, however, is "sundara." The idea that the worship of God and the experience of earthly beauty could be actually the same thing is indeed profound. Indeed, “devotion” denotes both the attitude of the worshiper and that of the crafter, and is a way of showing that these two functions were the same in Shaker communities.
