YAYATI COMPLEX

YAYATI COMPLEX : 

In India what we find is Yayati complex, the opposite of the Oedipus complex. The story of Yayati goes thus: Yayati was cursed to become old and impotent. To stay young, he begged his sons to suffer the curse on his behalf. The eldest son, Yadu, refused. He believed that the father should respect the march of time. The youngest son agreed and suffered old age while his father enjoyed youth, like a parasite. Years later, having had his fill of youth, Yayati took back the curse of old age from his son. He then made a decision: the younger obedient Puru would be his heir, not the elder disobedient Yadu. What Yayati celebrates here is obedience; he completely ignores the march of time. Puru is the ancestor of the Kauravas and the Pandavas; Yadu is the ancestor of the Yadavas, hence Krishna. This theme recurs in the story of Bhisma, descendent of Puru, who gives up all conjugal rights so that his old father, Shantanu, can marry a fisher woman called Satyavati, whom he has fallen in love with. The son sacrifices himself for the pleasure of the father and for this he is glorified as a hero. Thus, the Yayati complex is about the younger generation submitting to the older generation. It is about the shame that the younger generation feels when it challenges the older generation.

Om Namah Shivay.

source : FB