The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1215 page)

 
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(Skt.,
kam
, ‘desire’). Love, sexual pleasure, personified as the Hindu god of love. K
ma, erotic and aesthetic expression, is the third Hindu end of life (
artha
), traditionally categorized as
preya
(pleasant) rather than
reya
(good); but in
Mah
bh
rata
12. 167, k
ma is the source of both artha and
dharma
, because without k
ma, humans do not strive for anything. See also
K
MA
STRA
.
In Buddhism, k
ma is a major obstacle to progress toward enlightenment. It belongs to the lowest of the three domains (triloka), the domain of desire (
k
maloka
). It is one of the five hindrances (
n
vara
as
) and one of the defilements,