Jagat

After a discussion on Facebook, I posted two articles I wrote on "Sex and Bhakti Yoga" ( Part I and Part II )  Prisni responded by saying "The biggest problem is not sex, but the identification of love with sex, and the inability to feel love except through sex. Men want sex, then its over, and they can go on doing whatever they really want. Fixing cars, fighting with swords, or playing football, or becoming a celebrated scientist." This led to the following response: You have correctly described the material situation for sex. This is why the appropriate practice is to retain the semen. Nobody in the world learns this technique and so all the anarthas related to sex arise. It is not that retaining the semen on its own solves the problem, but it is an important ingredient in the solution. When orgasm ceases to be the goal of sex, then one's mind is freed to enter into other dimensions of meditation and awareness. I hope you will understand that this is ...

In response to my discussion of asana-siddhi , it was suggested that this was intended to impress others rather than to be a value in itself. Of course this is not about impressing anyone, except for impressing on them the importance of physical culture, deha-sādhana . I cannot possibly agree with those devotees who think that proper care of this human body is irrelevant to the pursuit of bhakti. Who think that exploring the potential of the human body has no relation to the culture of Krishna prema . śarīram ādyaṁ khalu dharma-sādhanam The body is the beginning point of all spiritual culture. The shastra glorifies the human body as the vehicle to spiritual realization, but we think it is only talking about the human brain and we ignore the rest of the possibilities and glories of this body. Dattatreya says the human body is the 25th guru. In other words, of all the "natural" gurus, the human body is the best. Yet we think that listening to and learning from this mir...

If you don’t know your instrument, then how will you play any music? Knowing the body is knowing the instrument of spiritual perfection, the god-given gift, the human body. The gross body is the outermost layer. That is the one we identify with in the lowest stage of consciousness. That does not mean it is rejected. Indeed, our first encounter with the miraculous is to see this body with the mind. ṣaṭ-cakraṁ ṣoḍaśādhāraṁ tri-lakṣyaṁ vyoma-pañcakam | sva-dehe ye na jānanti kathaṁ siddhyanti yoginaḥ || eka-stambhaṁ nava-dvāraṁ gṛhaṁ pañcādhidaivatam | sva-dehe ye na jānanti kathaṁ siddhyanti yoginaḥ ||14|| 1.13 How can those yogis succeed who do not know the six wheels ( cakras ), the sixteen containers ( ādhāra ), the three targets ( lakṣya ) and the five skies ( vyoma ) in their own body? 1.14. How can those yogis who do not know the home, which has a single pillar, nine doors and five divinities ( adhidaivata ), which is present in their own body, ever attain success...

I linked three articles from the blog to Facebook recently and received numerous responses, comments and questions. The blog set records for pages read over the past few days, so clearly the subject elicits interest from a substantial section of the spiritually inclined, as it should. So I am elaborating on some of the answers I gave in the Facebook comments and posting them here. Will not associating sexuality with spirituality lead to promiscuity? I am ambivalent about the sahaja sadhana you advocate, maybe it will be possible for the very advanced, but not everyone. The possibility of deviation from any prescribed path is always present. Sadhana is about attaining a high level of spiritual purity and it is easy to be misled by thinking you have become very advanced. This then inevitably leads to trouble. But try to understand. What I am proposing is not merely about physical sex. That is why I think I will stop using the term "sex desire" and call it "love des...

In the conclusion to the previous article ( Part I ), I summarized my objectives there, which was to show that since any activity engaged in with expertise is yoga, or sādhanā , therefore there was no reason to think that sex could not be a part of that. I will continue on the same theme, and in so doing, will counter one or two of Abhaya Mudra's points. First of all, let me remind everyone that we have, after great good fortune, attained the human form of life, which is the plavaṁ sukalpaṁ , the most suitable boat for crossing the ocean of saṁsāra . The guru will do the steering, and the Lord will blow the winds of grace. Why would you not take this opportunity to attain the experience of prema, the summum bonum of human life? nṛ-deham ādyaṁ sulabhaṁ sudurlabhaṁ plavaṁ sukalpaṁ guru-karṇa-dhāram| mayānukūlena nabhasvateritaṁ pumān bhavābdhiṁ na taret sa ātma-hā|| This human body is the original form [for it is God's own svarūpa , and the human being was made in God...

Part I. All in all, on reading this book I expected to come to some more earth-shattering conclusions about celibacy or discover some new facts that might make me adjust my opinions. Rather to my surprise, after reading through more than 400 pages of historical information, I felt rather less enlightened than more. Nevertheless, Abbott's summary of modern developments, celibate movements in the current environment, did resonate with me. She describes, as I occasionally have also on these pages, the malaise in today's society that has grown out of the commodification of sexuality and its use as a tool for commercialization. (Indeed, the growth of sexual liberty seems to be an integral part of the consumer culture.) I also described in an earlier post my horror at the kind of sexual escalation that has developed in youth culture, to a great extent the result of easy accessibility of pornography . Obsessions with the body, bodily appearance, the idealization of sexuality itsel...