Sex and Salvation

Salvation is the dewstination. Love is the way. However, sex provides three interesting detours – procreation, recreation and cfreation – on the path for one who wants to be God.

Recebtkt a swami from south India was caught on camera in what the media calls a ‘compromising position; with a couple of women. There was a public uproar and he has since been arested. The swami, in his earlyu thirties, would have gotten away with what is perhaps the result of a hormonal surge had he not vowed to be, well a swami. Literally, a swami is someone who is a ‘master of his senses’. Popular culture tends look up to a saint or swami as some kind of divine entity.

Strangely but true, ther is very little room for sexual adventure on the path of salvation. Yet, Nature whole heartedly designs a 30-odd-years-old man’s body for what Nature needs to do; propagation of the species.Nature puts forth several smart promotional schemes to get this job done through its species. The physical and physiological pleasure associated with the sex surge is the soft packaging for the hard nuts and bolts reality of giving birth to a baby. It is difficult not be seduced by this pleasure when all our senses converge to draw us to it. Leonardo da Vinci puts this procreation and the members smployed there in are so repulsive, that if it were not for the beauty of the faces and the adornments of the actors and the pent-up impulse, Nature would lose the human species.”

When the contraceptive pill arrived, sex evolved from the basic need of procreation to sex for recreation. The inventive human mind was apparently able to checkmate Nature’s ploy of painful procreation by recreating the pleasure of sex without producing a result. This is somewhat like sniffing around in a pastry shop with the intent to do just window shopping. Nature made sure that the residue of recreational sex remains as sensory impressions in the mind in the form of vasanas – burning embers waiting for the next gust of passion to flare up. These vasanas arew potential desires tha incarnated themselves at the opportune moment.

The real challenge for human evolution was then to put out the embers odf vasanas that transported sex in the head from where it actually belongs. This challenge of transforming sex for procreation into sex for recreation has been productively met by saints, explorers, artists, writers, inventors, innovators and wealth creators. They lifted the sexual energy from their thoughts and emotions and expressed them in their creative works. While saints like Buddha, Krishna, and Christ created new maps of human consciousness; explorers like Galileo and Columbus redrew maps of our physical world.

On the path of salvation celibacy is not a prerequisite but a consequence – an effortless by product of creativity. Celib acy is a kind of flowering of consciousness and not a moral given, as most sermons would have us believe. It is easier to cover a raging fire with a piece of cloth than to contain libido with sermons. A celibate is like an auster tree in winter that to flowering and stands to rejoice as an enthralled witness in having completed the cyclee of creation. The human consciousness scripts the whole journy from being the cteatures of sex to the Creator Herself. The “fallen” swami, like any one of us, is somewhere on the path. I would just let him be.

Golden Egg Technique

When you purify your centre, you become receptive to higher vibrations. Creativity happens in this space. Carnatic music composer Thy agaraja discovered a new ranga by listening to a bee. A monk observing a snake and a crane fighting discovered the martial art, Tai Chi

When your centre is full of impurities, your perspective and understanding are confused. This confusion tends to act as blockages and so there is no scope for the blossoming of creative ideas. Hence there is the need to set about clearing the obfuscation.

When purification happens, higher vibrations flow in. New ideas become understandable. We should thus insulate ourselves from negativity and keep our centres pure and receptive, so that the higher states of consciousness can guide us.

There’s a technique called the golden egg technique: Imagine that there is an egg and in it there exists gold. The gold is hidden inside the egg. Treat every problem you encounter as one such egg. Imagine that there is a golden opportunity hidden inside every problem. Whenever you are faced with a problem don’t lose hope. Instead of getting disheartened, try to understand that it is only an egg with precious gold tucked away deep inside. Delve deep into the problems and recognize golden opportunity. This attitude will invoke creativity in you.

There are many more ways of dealing positively with problems. Try this, when you come face to face with a problem, think of at least 20 ways of dealing with it. Play a game. Write down all the possible solutions. OK, now that you’ve written down 20 options, choose five out of the 20 and begin working on the,. With those five kinds of solutions find 20 ways of fulfilling them. Ask your friends to give ideas. The mother of creativity is the attempt to generate ideas. Play with it.

All these methods can be applied provided you remember not to view a problem as a pain. If you do so, then your hurt body will increase and you will pass on your pain to your children. Are you distressed that your son is lazy? Apply the golden egg technique. In the problem of your lazy son, there is gold hidden…. An opportunity hidden. Treat it as a why he is lazy. Be an anthropologist and study the causes of his laziness. By doing this you are in a proactive state and this state of your being will motivate your son.

Next apply the second method. See 20 ways to make your son active. Take help from friends, as this will help in expanding your ideas. Creativity opens up when there are ideas. Include your son in the game plan and make him your teammate. You will observe the inspiring energy that you create and as a result your family will have a meaningful goal. Use empowering language. There are no winners in an argument. Hence use words wisely. Try and understand others’ points of view instead of branding and labeling them as something or other. The moment you brand them, you will see only the labels. As a result you miss seeing the person.

Stop treating differences as conflicts. View them as points of view. Learn t appreciate variety. Appreciate differences rather than viewing them as pain. The moment you relate to differences as pain, you will experience them as pain. View differences as creative versions and you will feel positive energy flow through you.

Cherish Your ‘Aloneness’

Billion of people live on earth. Every second as many thoughts take birth and dissolve, even as beings come and go. There is a process in life; to come and to go. Have you seen any wave in the ocean that stays still? No, it comes and goes. Thoughts also come and go, reactions come and go, everything comes and goes.

Considering the transitory nature of life, it makes senses to not cling to things. And why are we so serious? Perhaps we are so serious because we have so much negativity. Even if something happens that helps us, and we refuse it. We are unable to see the difference between a diamond and mere stone.

What causes you pain often turns out to be the most beautiful blessing of your life. If any source gives you pain, feel gratitude for that. For suffering creates the opportunity for change. Sometimes we need pressure and pain to make us change for the better.

When sculptor takes a stone, he removes all the unwanted parts and discovers the figure in that stone. Pain and pressure in life are processes that help remove all unwanted substances from our lives and realize our true self.

Aurobindo said that pain is a hammer in the hands of the Divine. Divinity is trying to make a true figure. He is removing all the unwanted substances very slowly, and all around you, for some it could also be their near and dear.

Keep alive your aloneness. We came from One and we have to become One. One is alone; alone means One. The highest possibilities of life come in aloneness. When you are two, nothing comes to you, two is a pastime. If our life is happy, if it is full of the divine blessings, blessed by divine grace, it is because life gives us the fruit of aloneness. Only the Divine is alone. The Divine is one, He’s not two.

We should feel gratitude if something or someone gives us the experience of aloneness. Only when we are alone, are we able to understand ourselves, to know who we are, to become aware of ourselves, to be alone, to be single, we want to become two, and two takes you out from you. Becoming one is a process of life.

When I say, “I do Yoga,” what does yoga mean? To become One. You are two and now you want to become one. Yoga means to become One and One is God. One is the highest source of possibilities. If you want only a pastime you can become two, three or four.

If we feel alone, we should try to live with this aloneness for a long. And the tree that comes from the seed of aloneness gives us love, peace, harmony, joy, bliss, everything.

But we have to hold this aloneness with all the patience. Remember that we are blessed with divine grace if aloneness comes into our life, because this comes to very few people. This world is so strange that it always keeps us involved, always busy. So keep alive your aloneness and play the game of life with that

Problems as Driving Force

We often complain about problems in life. However, if problems did not exist, the challenge and charm of life will be gone. Necessity is the mother of invention; problems shows us new pathway, taking us closer to truth. The circumstantial complexities make us more curious and inquisitive and then the thirst for knowledge makes us keen to understand the truth.

Problems make us more compassionate. They help us mature, and make us more resistant and at the same time create sensitivity in us. For example if you accumulate wealth and face no problem then you could be rude and unreasonable. Problems make you realize the transient nature of your possessions and bring you closer to a person who has nothing. Death is the ultimate equalizer, had death not been there, life would have been a series of endless torture and exploitation of one by the other. If we have experienced the pinch of poverty we can easily feel the agony of a hungry soul. In the face of problems we learn to surrender ourselves to a greater reality, thus helping us empty our mind. In the Mahabharata, Kunti request Krishna to give her more problems so that she would be impelled to remember him more frequently and intensely.

If life were a bed of roses the mind would not have developed any awareness or sharpness to understand reality. If one does not get an opportunity to deal with complicated and difficult persons in life several facilities of the mind would not develop and the brain would not grow strong. As such in our entire life, we are not able to utilize more than a very small part of the brain.

What about individuals who create problems in our life? We often despise them. Instead we should be thankful to them. Indirectly they contribute to our productivity. Keeping them in view we try to be on our toes and enhance our sincerity. Once a devotee asked Ramakrishna, “Why has God created bad people who cause problems for the good ones?” Ramakrishna promptly replied, if bad would not exist what would be the importance of good then? The darker shade makes light really bright. On being asked what kind of treatment should be given to the b ad, Ramakrishna suggested to avoid them – to remain at a safe distance from them. At the same time wish them no harm. At the most one may be careful so that there is minimum or no damage. To the snake the guru advised not to bite anyone as the snake had turned into a devoted soul. But that does not mean that it should stop hissing. Else, others kill it. Similarly, in self-defense one may have to put on a hard exterior despite being a great devotee. But at heart there should not be any ill feeling against anyone.

Without problems would one be better off? No, for we will then start thinking in a negative manner, causing harm to each other. And the destructive power of the mind is much stronger than its constructive capacity. What takes decades to build can be smashed within a second. When we struggle, our efforts have a specific direction and objective. The mind concentrates and this enhances the ability of the mind to continue the journey.

Remember that from dirt emerges the beautiful lotus, from the scorching heat comes the shower of relief and from the depth of pain springs joy.

Family: Frame of Reference

Our life id full of connections. Through them we understand the negative and positive aspects of life. So we have to be circumspect about availing of the opportunities afforded by the natural connections or relationships which are formed in the course of our existence.

For example, you family is your first frame of reference. You spend your days and nights with them. You share experiences with them, sweet and bitter. In this sense, your family is the most important part of your social environment.

You should avail of every kind of lesson that you receive from your family. If you find that certain happenings in your family are undesirable, you have to show understanding. You have to appreciate that if even your family is not the ideal one, it is still family. For you are going to find life very difficult outside the family when you enter the outside world and encounter all kinds of unpleasant situations.

Accept that unpleasant experiences are a part of life and that there is no escaping from them. Your family is not just your family: It is also a source of training for you. In this sense, your family is springboard for your future. Your school is a source of formal education for you and your family is a source of informal education. And both are equally important.

For example, if you receive a negative experience from a member of your family, take it as a first training lesson which is very necessary, because you are destined one day to go out of your home and live in society. And every day in society you will receive the same kind of negative experience.

Try to accept and tolerate negative experiences in family life, so that you will be able to live and adjust in society. In this sense, your family is a blessing for you. The family seeds you our into society as a prepared person or a mature person

Everyone knows that formal education is very important for the future. Without a good formal education, it is not possible to get a good job. But a better quality of life you need something more and that is informal education. For everyone, the family is the centre of informal education. To gain admission into this institution, you don’t need to pay any kind of admission fee. It is destined by nature and by birth – a fact of which everyone is well aware. You should therefore make certain to avail of whatever your family offers you in terms of informal education.

As a unit, the family is like a miniature society. It is training ground to enable you to face the big world outside. One who fails to live a good life in his family will fail to live a good life in society.

For example, adjustment, a principle of life is what makes all social life run smoothly. If you enter social life without first having learned to make adjustments within the framework of the family, you will have only two options; either learn to make immediate adjustments – not an easy matter – or be hypocritical and then live in a state of severe tension at all times.