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12. LOVING AND ATTACHMENT
0. Maithuna Samjñā and Veda
The primordial drives are not only essential aids for the survival of the individual organism but also for the reproduction of the species. Next to the hunger drive, (ähāra samjña) discussed in 8th chapter, is the maithuna samjñā, that is, the primal drive for sex and reproduction. Just as the former is the impetus for taking nourishment, the latter produces the drive mechanism for mating and reproduction and no living being is without it. In higher animals and humans, reproduction and sexual activity is also associated with attachment, loving and caring for the partners and progeny. Thus our discussion of sexuality includes loving, caring and attachment.
While the physical aspects of sexuality are determined by three aghāti karman -- body-making (nāma), life-span-determining (āyusya) and feeling-producing (vedaniya) — the psychological aspects are determined by one of the ghāti karman — the deluding (mohniya) karman, through its three subspecies called 'veda' (urge for sexual behavior). These are -
(i) Puruşu veda or desire for female. (ii) Stri veda or desire for male. (ii) Napumsaka veda or desire for both male and female.
It is this deluding karman which is again responsible for the production of attachments also. The powerful possessive instinct (parigraha samjñā) is intinzately associated with maithuna samjñā and both are determined largely by the deluding karman. Transcendentally, each soul has to transmigrate through innumerable cycles of life and death and in each life it forms attachments with organisms of its species in that life. The attachment in the present life is, therefore, purely empirical and has no ultimate significance whatsoever. Its duration is only for one life-span. Thus, the ultimate truth is the solitariness of the soul. But the life-long attachments are important empirical facts of the
