What is Sex For?

Truth Dig published an interesting excerpt from a book by Robert Jensen called “The End of Patriarchy: Radical Feminism for Men," [dead link] which begins with the question of sexual equality and prostitution. "How can a society achieve a meaningful level of justice if people from one sex/gender class could be routinely bought and sold for sexual services by people from another sex/gender class?" This of course leads to questions about the meaning of sexuality itself, and these significant questions are at the basis of the theory and practice of Sahaja.

The excerpted piece ends with the following reflection,
More than two decades ago, when I first started thinking about this question, I kept coming back to the phrase to describe an argument that is intense but which doesn’t really advance our understanding — we say that such a debate ‘produced more heat than light’. Much of the talk about sexuality in contemporary culture is in terms of heat: Is the sex you are having hot?

What if our discussions about sexual activity — our embodied connections to another person — were less about heat and more about light? What if instead of desperately seeking hot sex, we searched for a way to produce light when we touch? What if such touch were about finding a way to create light between people so that we could see ourselves and each other better? If the goal is knowing ourselves and each other like that, then what we need is not really heat but light to illuminate the path. How do we touch and talk to each other to shine that light?

Though there is no sexual instruction manual to tell us how to generate that light, I do not hesitate to suggest that the sexual-exploitation industries leave us in the dark.
Jensen sees the problem and the direction in which to look for a solution. In our view, there is no solution without an understanding of and faith in the inherent sacred character of sexuality and the appropriate practice that heightens consciousness of this sacredness. Though sexuality is given to almost everyone, very few realize its material potential, what to speak of the spiritual.

The Sahaja idea is that Radha represents feminine sexuality and Krishna the male. The purpose of sex is thus love and it is the highest love. Thus it is clear that the erroneous conception of sex is that its purpose is either procreation or mere pleasure.

Pleasure and love are synonymous for those who are spiritually evolved, for those who are not, pleasure is restricted to orgasm alone and is ultimately a process of self-debasement.

This latter truth is very poorly understood even by those who promote abstinence.

For those who are yogis and bhaktas, sexuality is the primary force that pushes the awareness or consciousness to its highest regions of bliss.

This is true whether one is celibate or engaged in Yugala-sādhana with a partner.

The essence of sādhana, for all, is one-pointedness to the Deity, but in the sādhana practice of sahaja, the partner must -- like the Guru -- also be the object of one-pointedness. The partner is him/herself the sādhana. The sādhana is the creation of a Yugal through embodying the Divine Couple. Such a Yugal is the Divine Couple on Earth.

For the yogi, the goal may be symbolically represented by the preferences of whatever tradition he or she follows.

But generally speaking it is any Hindu or Buddhist deity, all of whom are accompanied by their shakti. Nearly all are Duals, or Syzygies, representing, as the yogis are wont to say, the union of the Sun and the Moon.

For the bhaktas embedded in madhura Radha-Krishna consciousness and the glories of Radha Shyama Nam, this state propels the experience of Radha and Krishna forward to all planes of psycho-somatic existence, through every kośa, through every chakra, through every stage of mental and social evolution, through the entire tangled morass of past saṁskāras, individual and collective, so that it becomes the only Reality.

And for the Sahaja bhakta, that is compounded by ekāgratā in the sādhaka-deha to the Love Object, which is none other than Radha and Krishna together at once.

And for anybody who wishes to dispute this, I say that this is the true core and meaning of Gaudiya Vaishnava philosophy, though hidden like Krishna in the Veda.

And anyone who thinks that this would lead to promiscuity, I say that such a thing would be impossible if young men and women had been properly trained in brahmacharya.

This is almost completely absent from not something that can be enforced in our day, and indeed we should be wary of enforcing it even where there is social acceptance of the principle of abstinence.

Rather we should try to encourage young men and women to be aware of the spiritual purpose of sexuality. To become aware of its deep sacredness.

When it is seen as yoga, then as in any yoga, its purpose is to facilitate ekāgratā or single-pointed awareness.

Thus the selection of a partner is of utmost importance.

The preparatory process in character building -- the yamas and niyamas -- for someone who is intent on becoming a sādhaka of Yugala Rasa is of utmost importance.

This is the pravartaka stage, and only a serious practitioner on the pravartaka stage can expect to become a sādhaka of Yugala Rasa.
pravarta nā hate siddhi sādhaka je hoy
bidhi biḍambana tāra jānibe niścaya
kabhu se bhajane tāra siddhi nāhi habe
bicalita haye rati narake se rab
e

You should know for certain that whoever takes up this sādhana who has not perfected the pravarta stage is disrupting the proper sequence of the practice. He will never attain success in this practice. When engaged in the love act, he will be disturbed and remain in a hellish condition. He is like an unbaked clay pot trying to hold water.
The pravartaka stage may also be called vidhi-bhakti. If you fail at Yugala Rasa, in other words, if you fail to be ekāgra, then you should double your efforts in vidhi-bhakti, but continue to understand the psychology, the subtle desires and forces that misdirect you from understanding the Yugala Rasa.



Comments

Anonymous said…

The beginning and the middle of the path:

https://youtu.be/yUQi49u19ZI?t=6m48s
Anonymous said…

Have just watched your YouTube talks "The beginning and middle of the path" - Parts I and II again.

Your heart-to-heart talks never cease to make my person smile.

One finds my person visiting your blog more frequently to read your thoughts.

Yours in the love of truth,

M.N.
Anonymous said…
What is sex for?

In spirit - to light the divine spark or seed from the spiritual union (yoga) of ones own [united] self), see:

Yoga Vasistha Volume 2, Part I (Yoga-vāsiṣṭha-mahārāmāyaṇa)

18. The quintessential mind next becomes as a spark of fire (of itself), and remains as a dim star—a nebula, in the midst of the vacuity of the yet unborn universe.

(The nebulae are the primary formations of heavenly bodies, called Brahmāndas or mundane eggs).

19. The mind takes the form of a spark of fire by thinking on its essence, which gradually develops itself like the germ of a seed, in the form of the mundane egg by its internal force.

Continue reading at:

http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/yoga-vasistha-volume-2-part-i/d/doc118122.html


Notes

Spirit - "Breath" (hint: blow on you hand... what do you feel?).

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/spirit
Prem Prakash said…
Jagadananda dass, great essay on a most important subject. I think it is important not only for the yogis and bhaktas, but for society as a whole Most people are lost in regards to sex, sensing the sacred but not knowing where to turn. I know this is true of virtually all of the college students I teach.
This brings me to the gentleman you quoted. I don't know him but he seems to embody the Western attitude towards the sacred. He has been thinking about the subject for two decades. Well, break out the champagne. He is still stuck in his societal paradigm of worshiping his own mind, the deity of the modern world.
Neither a yogi nor a bhakta, presumably, he states there is no instruction manual. His claim is really a boast; that because the Western intellect has not been able to birth such a creation, it cannot exist. Their subtle sense of superiority (racism?) prevents them from recognizing all that India has to contribute. Perhaps he and his colleagues should make their way to this blog, a window into a world where the instructions and direction are available.
Anonymous said…

This morning before and after the light of meditation my person was again thinking about your latest blog posting (What is sex for?); and its relation to the Vajrayāna Buddhist concept of Ösel (Tibetan: hod-gsal; 'od gsal'), the Yoga of the Clear Light (often translated as 'Radiant Light' - primordial, clear, bright - 'light') that occurs during deep sleep, union (both physical & meta-physical) and death.

If any readers are interested in pursuing this train of thought, a good place to begin to understand this is 'The Six Yogas of Naropa'.

Copy and paste the following URL into your web browser, it will take you to page 80 describing 'Dharmakaya':

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=JilmSURMXL4C&pg=PA80&lpg=PA80&dq=light+of+sleep+light+of+death+light+of+sex+light+of+yoga&source=bl&ots=O1nb6EvKSr&sig=TygXL10_uANgm41UKCWZDm8kxVc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjQhYWoh43TAhXqJ8AKHWPNBMEQ6AEINDAE#v=onepage&q=light%20of%20sleep%20light%20of%20death%20light%20of%20sex%20light%20of%20yoga&f=false
sharanam said…
Hindu marriage ceremonies are fundamentally based on this precept of uniting man and woman in a yugala sadhana: with the man shouldered with the responsibility of assisting the woman in the sadhana, considering the biological and psychological capabilities she is endowed with to carry on the social engineering for future generations.

On Individual level , as so well articulated by you that sexuality is the primary force - the sādhana -that pushes the awareness or consciousness to its highest regions of bliss, and the partner is him/herself the sādhana.
The modern living styles ( market driven-consumerism) in the name of development , are driving the humanity to seek pleasure ( orgiastic pleasure cloaked in different styles) and ultimately ending with self-debasement of both men and women.
Anonymous said…

As Jagananda Das has said, it is about sublimating the procreative force into light-illuminating-essence, and taking it up to the bridal chamber (of the skull) and repeatedly firing the pot (body) in the fire of samādhi so that the fired-clay vessel (body) is able to hold (shakti), fill-up and overflow.
Anonymous said…
For those whom may be interested in reading "The Six Yogas of Naropa"

Tsongkhapa's commentary entitled 'A book of Three Inspirations': A Treatise on the Stage of Training in the Profound Path of Naro's Six Dharmas - commonly referred to as The Three Inspirations.

Download Adobe Pdf:

http://promienie.net/images/dharma/books/tsongkhapa-naropa_3-inspirations_6yon.pdf
Anonymous said…
My own person is currently reading a copy of Garma C. C. (Chen-Chi) Chang's translated and annotated book entitled "Six Yogas of Naropa & Teachings on Mahamudra".

Interested readers may also wish to get a nodding acquaintance with Glen Mullin's "Readings on The Six Yogas of Naropa", an English translated collection of short Tibetan commentaries on the Six Yogas of Naropa.

Which may also be found here:

http://promienie.net/images/dharma/books/naropa-mullin_readings-on-the-6-yogas.pdf
Anonymous said…

"There is in man a cerebral intelligence and also an innate intelligence called intelligence-of-the-heart. The latter comes into being through a fusion of the cosmic Cause which is contained in its materialization with the same Cause which is in us. This is possible because the nature of both Causes is identical."

René Adolphe Schwaller de Lubicz

Esoterism & Symbol

An interesting read for hungry minds, see:

www.chemtrails911.com/books/lubicz-esoterism.and.symbol.pdf
Prem Prakash said…
Thanks, Sri Anonymous. I really like the staff of wisdom or stick of the blind. I'll remember this.
pranams
Anonymous said…

Dearest Prem Prakash,

One will also elucidate three states which have not been spoken of in this blog; these are Hylic (from Ancient Greek "ὕλη" - those of the material world, those of the body), Psychic (from Ancient Greek ψυχή, "psukhḗ" - blood descendants of hidden identity; those of the mind) and pneumatic (from Ancient Greek πνευματικός, "pneumatikós" - those of the breath).

The ones capable of receiving the spiritual seed become Pneumatic, it is the pneumatic that reverses the flow of śákti upwards.

Food for thought...

Śrīmaccidānandanātha
Anonymous said…

The Staff of Wisdom

"Wisdom", from Proto-Indo-European "weyd" - "to see"

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/weyd-

One may remember the rather cryptic comment and Protagoras quote at:

http://jagadanandadas.blogspot.com/2016/11/bhakti-and-culture-of-body-deha-sadhana.html

reproduced here:

"Yes, you speak the truth Jagadananda Das, one agrees with all that you have said; although, there is so much more to the human body and its universal relationship that has so far eluded your dialogue in this post and on your blog.

M.N.

“πάντων χρημάτων μέτρον ἐστὶν ἄνθρωπος, τῶν μὲν ὄντων ὡς ἔστιν, τῶν δὲ οὐκ ὄντων ὡς οὐκ ἔστιν.”

“Of all things the measure is man, of the things that are, that [or “how”] they are, and of things that are not, that [or “how”] they are not."

Protagoras (490-420 BC)

From Homo-mensura (Man-measure) statement (DK80b1 – Diels-Kranz numbering system), quoted in the ‘Adversus Mathematicos VII 60’ by Sextus Empiricus (160 – 210 AD)."

- End of Quote -

My person recently watched the following YouTube videos made by a very sharp and talented researcher named Danny Wilten, which are highly recommended:

The vortex of the Pineal gland (Matthew 6:22):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5Hu-8jUNYU

and:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LKSNn-dVp0&feature=youtu.be&list=PLvuZUbaRL7B8S5K-CjOjsvCk2Zo4CB0dE

and:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59R8JtN9zB4

and:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0ltnWh2YC4

and:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFNd7PVNfWM
sarvo said…
To the degree one manages to go inward and upward rather than down and out, to that same degree they increase the likelihood they will realize light more than heat. This is good.

Popular posts from this blog

O Mind! Meditate on Radha's Breasts

Swami Vishwananda's Bhakti Marga and Parampara

Erotic sculptures on Jagannath temple