Acharya Mahaprajna
The Art & Science Of Living
Chapter 3.
Truth Of Life
20
Sublimation Of Sexual Power
[Sexual power is fully developed during 21 to 30 years of age in human beings. It is essential to teach sexual restraint along with sexual education. It is important to know the harms of excessive and untimely sexual indulgence. One's health will be good only when food and sex restraint are practised.
Free sex or excessive indulgence in sex is responsible for the loss of our power and vitality, which in turn is causing depression. The practice of Prekshadhyana awakens and strengthens our consciousness to accept only the righteous demands of the senses and deny the unrighteous demands of the senses, thereby illuminating our life.]
Life undergoes an orderly development. Even a child has high potential powers but his development is not complete. As and when he matures gradually, the powers keep developing. In the first state of life, i.e., childhood (1-10 yrs.), many powers remain unmanifested. In the second state (11-20 yrs.), some powers like the power of sports is fully developed. In the third state (21-30 yrs.) the sexual power is fully developed and then man is able to enjoy the sensual pleasures and sexual bliss.
In Vedic tradition, the hundred years of one's life have been divided into four phases. Each phase (ashrama) has been allotted a twenty-five year span as given below:
1
Brahmocharya ashrama
celibacy
25 years
2
Grahastashrama
householder
25 years
3
Vanaprasthashrama
hermit or recluse
25 years
4
Sanyasashram
renunciation
25 years
In Jainism, the hundred years of life have been divided into ten parts, each part has a duration of ten years.
In the third state of life (21-30 years), the development of sexual power takes place. It means that till the first twenty years of age, strict celibacy has to be observed. Till the age of twenty years, the sexual power is not fully developed. This state is immature for sensual enjoyment. In this immature state, if somebody gets misled and indulges in sexual enjoyment then he does not do justice to his life since the power of life gets exhausted. It is analogous to a fruit, which becomes enjoyable only when it is ripe.
It is important to know why celibacy should be observed till the age of twenty years. It is possible that our youngsters may indulge in sensual pleasures without understanding sexual power properly, thereby exhausting their vitality and then repenting.
Nowadays there is a controversy on the subject - whether to impart sexual education to children or not. Some people support it and others oppose it. Both have their own logic and conviction. I do accept that everyone should be imparted education for sexual restraint. It is sheer stupidity, if man does not know about the merits and demerits of eating bread. Everybody must know the virtues and vices of his activities. On acquiring the knowledge of the act, he can choose decisively and protect himself against harmful effects. It is not harmful to impart sexual education; rather it can result in preventing unethical conduct and the havoc associated with that. It is better to practise sexual restraint along with sexual education. Few people are aware of the harms of excessive and untimely sexual indulgence.
There is a proper time, place, region and age for sexual indulgence. A person who does not know it rapidly loses his power and vitality of life. He becomes mentally decayed and attains the state, where revenge, jealousy, reaction and revolutionary tendencies flourish. Freud declared that sexual power remains active from birth till death in the life of a man. Man is involved in sexual indulgence throughout his life and craves for perpetual sexual indulgence. That is why, Freud forcefully stressed that sexual desires should not be suppressed. This doctrine has some truth yet it has also contributed to some misconceptions. In the wake of these misconceptions, free and unrestrained sexual indulgence and delinquency thrive in our society. Lustfulness flourishes in such a way that its dreadful and hazardous results have perplexed the whole society and compelled it to look for immediate solutions. This unrestrained sexual indulgence has given birth to many contagious diseases. AIDS (Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome) is also one of the outcomes of free sex. It is a life-threatening, deadly disease. Today, innumerable people are suffering from this globally. It is caused by homosexual and unnatural sexual indulgence. Today it has created such fear that man has become more afraid of it than of cancer. Doctors are not afraid and hesitant to treat cancer patients but they definitely are scared of treating an AIDS patient.
In case, it is known that a particular student is suffering from AIDS, then that student is expelled from school instantly. Whosoever gets affected by AIDS dies a miserable death. Today in countries such as America, Britain, etc., this disease is spreading fast and its remedial measures are being explored. The media is also apprising people of its deadly consequences and seeking preventive measures against it.
Kipank (a poisonous fruit which is very attractive in appearance and tasty) is very beautiful, captivating and fascinating in its colour and form. Its juice is also sweet but the effect of tasting this fruit is not good. Anyone who tastes it even once goes into a deep slumber and dies. Similarly, initially, one becomes curious and crazy to indulge in sex excessively but ultimately it proves to be detrimental.
In the age group 11-20 years, every boy and girl should be made familiar with his or her sexual power, taught about the uses of sexual restraint and the harms of unrestrained sexual indulgence. If all these facts are fully made known to them then it may be possible to protect them from being misled and avoid suffering. It is natural that each of our senses puts forth its demands continuously. In fact, our senses are instinctively meant to demand continuously. If man goes on accepting and fulfilling every demand then he will probably be ruined. Man has a natural power of discretionary consciousness. The discretionary consciousness is to rationalise and accept the righteous demands of the senses. This is a crucial point of meditation.
Desire is the impulse that goads us to sin, even against our wishes. An individual becomes what he or she is according to the quality of his or her desires. The extent of our desire is circumscribed by the strength of our will from which follows the quality and extent of our actions or deeds. When a man becomes a slave to his senses or desires, and he goes on fulfilling his desires arbitrarily, then he renders his invaluable life dull and useless. His life becomes hollow.
Psychologist Adler has expressed views contradictory to Freud. He argues that the basic motivation in man is not sexual pleasure but the development of power. Man wants to develop and accumulate power. He wants to lead a life of power. Sexual pleasure renders life powerless like the life of insects. Man does not wish to live a powerless, hollow and wretched life. Life is only meaningful, when it has power. Only that man is successful who lives with his own power.
Popular scientist Hume has refuted both the psychologists Freud and Adler. He said that neither sexual pleasure nor development of power were the basic motivation of life but development of personalities. Every man keeps trying throughout his life to develop his personality. The whole effort and energy of man is concentrated on developing his personality. The man who desires success in his life primarily concentrates on the development of his personality without hurdles. Development of power and sexual indulgence are secondary for him.
There are many hurdles in the development of personality. There is hardly anyone who has a hurdle free life. In life, everybody faces some ups and downs. A person who does not squander his energy goes on continuously advancing towards development. He shatters the encumbrances and achieves success. Those who overspend and misuse their energy get stuck at every step. In due course, they develop cold feet and become weak. Life becomes powerless, useless and a curse for them. Hurdles can be crossed only by the energetic and vigorous. Vigour of energy is accumulated by sexual restraint. Indulgence in sexual pleasure results in decay of energy.
There are five sense organs and five motor organs. Every sense organ has its counterpart motor organ. The tongue is a sense organ, whose counterpart motor organ are the genitals. The tongue and genitals are deeply correlated. One who wants to control his sexual power has to control his tongue first. Nobody can directly control his sexual power without controlling the tongue. It is impossible to enjoy, relish heavy meals and simultaneously think of controlling sexual desires. Then it will be paradoxical thinking and self-contradictory.
A father told his son, "My son, I tell you an important experience of my life. I made a big mistake by marrying, so you should not marry by mistake also." The son said to him, Father, I shall heed your teaching. I shall never marry and I shall also teach my son the same lesson." What a self-contradiction this is! We shall have to design a definite system for our life without these paradoxes. A person who wants to control his sexual pleasures will have to control his diet also. Diet control is an important part of personality development but it is ironical that man is totally indifferent towards it. Health and food intake are profoundly related.
During the monsoons of 1984, we were in Jodhpur. We used to go for our morning ablutions to a far-flung hill. We were crossing a valley, while returning, Acharyashree halted for a while and said, "Mahapragyaji, had we been cautious about our diet earlier, we could live for a full hundred years." Previously we did not pay attention to it because we did not have full knowledge about this subject. When Acharyashree was thirty-eight or forty years of age, I was thirty-four or thirty-five years, only then we started paying attention to our food. Still it has benefited us a lot. Had we not been cautious even then, several powers of life would have been exhausted by now. Whatever we have contributed so far or are giving still, would have never happened.
The power will either be used by the stomach or it will be used by the mind. The whole energy of a glutton is spent on digesting the food, whereas the man, who meditates and eats less, has his powers working for the development of his mind.
The two issues of health and sexual restraint are deeply correlated. Health is related to the sense organ and sexual restraint is related to the motor organ. We can control our motor organ only when we have control over our sense organs. Today scientists and ancient tantrics (who practise occult sciences) have rationalised this subject and unfolded wonderful mysteries. That can be grasped by only a few. Mahavira proposed the practice of food restraint before celibacy. In the thirty second chapter of Uttradhyayan Agam (a Jain canonical text), this has been discussed at length. He says, "Heavy and tasty food generate passion and provoke lust." In Acharang Agam (a Jain canonical text), there is a directive for Brahmacharya which recommends simple and plain food. Today what is known as a balanced diet or nourishing food, is one which is just sufficient for sustaining one.
Nowadays people take lot of interest in studies, think a lot and understand much. But they think very little about their life and health. In order to lead a healthy life, they will have to exercise control over food and lust.
The chief result of uncontrolled sex is the weakening of the nervous system and loss of body resistance. Nervous weakness and depression are the major diseases at present. These are caused by excessive sexual indulgence. People in general have learnt not to suppress their desires. It may be wrong to suppress sexual desires but one has to learn to calm these desires. In other words, our conscience has to be fully awakened so that it is able to accept only the legitimate demands of the senses and reject the unrighteous demands.
Practice of Prekshadhyana is quite instrumental in awakening our conscience and thereby calming undue sensual desires thus glorifying the path and the faith of our life with lustre and illumination.