ANIMAL, MAN AND GODMAN
We have to remember that we are householders, live a householder’s life, and have a family. Sexuality is only the outward expression of an inner welling up. I am not talking about lust, which is animalism. Every man contains three things within himself – the animal- because he has passed through that stage in evolution. In his memory, there are still implanted impressions of animal life. Man has within himself what man should really be, and thirdly, man has within himself the godman.
Within every human being, there are three things: animal, man, and God. It depends upon us to which we give greater emphasis. Lust comes about because the greater focus is given to the animal side, which lives mostly by instinct and bodily needs. The only thing distinguishing man from animals is that man has thinking power. He has reached a stage higher in his evolution. Having the thinking power and the power of discrimination, he has also developed the power to subdue or overcome animal instincts and live as a man who should not have animal instincts.
That very man stands in the middle between animals and God. Between animal and Divinity. Because of this power of thinking, he can lean either way because of this power of discrimination. He can be pulled to the animal side or the God side. But that does not make him cease to remain as a man. Man can stay on this earth and yet live as a godman.
When man lives as a godman, the act of copulation can be sublimated into something extraordinary. I would never tell any householder to abstain from sex. If you are a householder, you are there to bring up your family, to procreate; it is the nature of man – that must not be stopped.
CELIBACY?
I had a couple coming to me in South Africa. Before they came to me, some swami had visited South Africa, and they went to the swami, and they went to his lectures and had a private interview; the swami, who was a monk, would think like a monk. He was an ascetic. He tells this couple that to find maximum spiritual growth, you have to become celibates, and by becoming celibate, you will find maximum spiritual growth and reach God.
So, this couple took the word of the swami. Two weeks went by, three weeks, four weeks, and two months went by, and a terrible amount of irritation and irritability started developing between them, formerly loving each other. With the irritability, a lot of quarrels began. The wife was nearly on the verge of a nervous breakdown with the quarrels. So, they heard about me, came to listen to some of my talks, and made an appointment for a private interview. Then I started talking to them, and when you speak to someone, you like to find out the causes of things, so I asked them, “What have you been doing, and what has happened?”
So, they told me that swami so and so came, and he said that we must become celibates, and we have become celibates. I was very wild. I said, “The two of you go to bed tonight in the same bedroom.”
I saw them again a few weeks later, and they were back to their usual selves. The concept of celibacy is fine for an ascetic, for a yogi, who has reached a level where he can take the sexual energies and sublimate them into spiritual force. But that is not the dharma of a householder. When I say a householder must indulge in the relationship, I do not mean excesses. Of course, that is something else. But normal according to need. That is how a person lives every day.
SEXUALITY
When it comes to sexuality, in Victorian times or in olden times, the word could not even be spoken. It was a sin even to utter the word “sex.” But we have come a long way from that. We have come a long way from the inhibitions implanted in young children’s minds. But after coming a long way, we have gone to the other extreme, so instead of inhibitions, we have developed permissiveness, and anything when it comes to extremes is always wrong. We choose the middle road according to the station in our life. If we are householders, we do the things which householders do. If we are ascetics and live in Himalayan caves, we do what should be done in Himalayan caves.
Sexuality is the togetherness between partners, and I emphasise partners, not just permissiveness. The togetherness, the copulation between partners, can itself become a meditation.
Why do we get together? A force is involved, expressed in a physical act, but the physical act is not the force. There is an inner Force that wants them to merge into each other.
You-ness and I-ness must cease. There should be us-ness. This inner force wants him or her to become one with their partner, which makes us indulge in the physical act. Although the physical act, too, has a specific power of its own, in actual copulation, which is not lust, it is the inner force of wanting to penetrate within the beloved’s soul where the two souls can join in union.
THERE HAS TO BE A TOTAL NATURAL FLOW
There is no differentiation at all; there is no duality. But being embodied and having a limited mind, we think my wife and I are separate. Yet, within, a force wants to bring us together. There is a mental togetherness. The mental togetherness arouses or demands a physical togetherness. All this is engendered because of the oneness of spirit between man and woman, who also would like to see and express that oneness through the mind and the body. That is why men and women copulate. That is apart from creating children. That is a different aspect of it.
The very sexual act can be sublimated into something so beautiful. It could be a meditation in itself.
I told some people in a talk that men and women do not function in totality. Even in the sexual act, they are only using their minds and bodies. And to stimulate their bodies, they conjure up pictures in their minds for physical stimulation. That is not making love. The sexual act has to be a natural flow, not because of a need but because of a pressure that is forever pulling the two together. The magnet does not need to draw the iron filings to itself. The nature of the magnetism created pulls the magnet and the iron filings together. That should be the relationship between husband and wife.
THE REAL FLOWER OF LOVE
How does this take place? If man and woman can function as a totality, and by totality, we mean mind and body and the Spiritual Self of man and woman. When these three factors are combined in the sexual act, you are functioning as a total being, and when you function as a total being, you get lost in your beloved. You get lost in your beloved, even in the act, where even in love-making, the body is forgotten, the mind is forgotten, and some divine force takes over, and you melt away.
Having stimulated the mind and the body, it would express itself in an orgasm. It cannot carry on and on, but when this totality is found, this merging away in love becomes so profound, becomes so, so profound that the initial sexual stimulation is even lost. And what would exist in the close embrace of man and woman would be that luminosity of love. The actual flower of love is now fully bloomed, and the mind and the body just helped it to bloom. It could be something very, very beautiful.
THE SPIRITUAL PATH HAS TO BE APPROACHED INDIVIDUALLY
Today, people are so removed from Divinity, and we see it every day, where churches become emptier and emptier and night clubs and what have you become fuller and fuller. People have moved away from the Divinity within themselves, which is why there is such great necessity for spiritual movements today to bring about this regeneration. Because one is ignorant of the spiritual qualities of man, there is still this force. Because this force is not recognised and walls are built around it, people express themselves in absolute grossness, which is the underlying factor of the permissiveness we see around us today. But it can be righted very, very beautifully.
There is no stopping. However, on the spiritual path, one has to approach it individually. There is no such thing as an age of enlightenment for the entire world. Go back into ancient history. Rama lived 9000 years ago, and today’s world is none better than it was. He was a great spiritual master – Buddha was a great spiritual master, as were Krishna and Christ. They, too, worked hard and brought this divine message of love to the world. Yet, the people who lived in those times are the same as people living in these times. But one thing could happen, and that is why we insist upon the personal touch in the foundation of our movement. Reformers have come and gone, and this world remains unreformed. We see it all around us. Technological progress does not mean evolution; the unfoldment of the Heart, that is, evolution. That is evolution. Therefore, in our foundation, the emphasis is on the individual because the units compose the whole.
INDIVIDUALLY, EVERY PERSON HAS THE POTENTIAL TO REACH DIVINITY
Individually, every person has the potential to reach that greatness, to reach Divinity. In practice and in theory, we try to teach how every individual can reach that state of Bliss. Its effect would be felt in the environment to a certain extent, but the dream, or the teaching that this world is reaching enlightenment, is not valid. Christ did not do it, and neither did Buddha nor Krishna.
I want to tell you of a great man who lived at the turn of the century, Sri Ramakrishna. He said, “If I could lead only one person to self-realisation, my life mission has been fulfilled.
… Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang US 1977 – 08
