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Part V : Traditional attitude to sex
I am firmly against the traditional teachings of enmity for, and
suppression of, sex. It is because of the old teachings that sexuality
has not only grown in man but has also become perverted. What
is the remedy? Is there no other alternative? super03
I want to draw your attention to the fact that sex is the aspect
of life that is the most responsible for immorality. It has always
been the most basic and influential cause of perversion, debauchery
and dullness in man. And so religious leaders never want to talk
about it. super05
When old traditional sannyasins come to me they always say, "What
to do with sex? It goes on hammering in the mind, and it hammers
more than before. And we have renounced, so what to do now?"
The more you renounce, without understanding, just by the willpower,
the more you will be in trouble. Understanding is needed; will
is not needed. Will is part of the ego.
And if you try to will something, you are already divided in
two - you start fighting. If you say,"I will not be interested
in women," why are you saying it? If you are not really interested
- finished. What is the point of saying it? Why do you go in public
to take a vow in some temple before some guru in a public ceremony?
What is the point? If you are no longer interested you are no
longer interested. Finished. Why make a show of it? Why be an
exhibitionist? No, the need is different. You are not finished
yet; in fact, you are deeply attracted. yoga609
Whenever I meet prostitutes, they never speak of sex. They inquire
about the soul, and about God. I also meet many ascetics and monks,
and whenever we are alone they ask about nothing but sex. I was
surprised to learn that ascetics, who are always preaching against
sex, seem to be captivated by it. They are curious about it and
disturbed by it; they have this mental complex about it, yet they
sermonize about religion and about the animal instincts in man.
And sex is so natural. super02
I was, by mistake, invited to attend a sadhu convention, in Delhi.
The subject was 'Protest against vulgar posters'. I told them
that they were mahatmas and should not bother about those posters.
Why do they search, notice and look at those vulgar posters at
all? The question is not why bad posters are exhibited, but the
problem is why do people like to see such posters. I told them
they were responsible for the posters. By repressive, unnatural
strictures they had made people more conscious about sex. The
law of reverse effect was being brought into operation. You teach
people to run away from women and they will look at them with
squinted eyes. They will read obscene literature between the covers
of Geeta. It is inevitable because of the extremist teachings.
You might have read that recently a foreign actress was called
to perform a naked belly dance in Sydney. But only two persons
came to the show out of the population of two million. The organisers
were in trouble; probably the girl caught cold because of the
empty theatre.... You arrange such a show in Bombay, and do you
think only two people will attend it? Not even two men will stay
at home. And do not think that only bad people will come for the
show. It is possible that bad people may not come but some must.
Only the difference may be that the bad people will come by the
front door whereas the good will arrange with the manager to come
by the back door.... Do you follow? gandhi01
This is my observation: that out of a hundred persons, almost
ninety-nine persons die thinking of sex. In fact when death comes,
the idea of sex becomes very strong. Because death and sex are
opposite each other; they are the polar opposites. Sex is birth
and death is the end of the same energy that birth released. So
while dying, a person becomes obsessively interested in sex. And
that becomes the beginning of another birth.
To die without thinking about sex is a great experience. Then
something of tremendous import has happened to you. If you can
die without thinking of sex at all, no lurking shadows of sex
in your mind, of lust for life, you are dying as one should die.
Only one percent of people die that way.
These are the people Buddha calls srotapanna - those who have
entered into the stream, those who have become sannyasins, those
who have taken a step towards understanding what is real and what
is unreal, those who have become discriminating of what is dream
and what is true. trans201
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