Songs of Lust and Love

The book explores intimacy of human love as expressed through sexual attraction between man and woman. The poems explore the breath-taking depths of erotic intimacy through the five senses of sight, sound, touch, taste and smell.

For the poet marriage is the sacred union of two souls on the path of God realisation. Romantic attraction prepares the human heart for ultimate God communion. The Creator has split Himself into Man and Woman for cosmic play. By seeing one's mirror image in one another, a couple in love can retrace their path back to the divine origin. Hence sexual intimacy should be seen as a worship of God, and erotic art as a celebration of spiritual life.

Underneath the sexual imagery there is an intense yearning for God realisation. The poems provide a penetrative new interpretation of the universal truths expounded in the scriptures of all world religions - e.g. Veda, Bible, Gita and Quran.

Lalitha Iyer is a pseudonym of Hemangi Sharma, the mystic poet-scholar from Kashmir. The book has been edited by the poet Dr Tapan Kumar Pradhan, who has also written its foreword and introduction. Dr Tapan is well known for his award winning poem collection "Kalahandi". In this book he has revealed snippets of his relationship with Hemangi Sharma (Lalitha Iyer) whom he addressed as "Lolita".