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Perspective
Sexuality and
Spirituality
by
A. Rishi
Sexuality and spirituality are two components of human mind. Lower
organisms have instinct to survive and procreate. Higher organisms have
a little reason to cope with the larger arena of life. Only the humans
have spirituality besides advanced reasoning and intuition. Ironically
the most endowed Homo sapiens or wise men are the unhappy too.
Spirituality is awakening of soul-consciousness. It is no secret that
abstract ideas fall prey to definitions, interpretations and
perceptions. Still, defining a term for better understanding is a
necessary evil.
Awareness of souls is seen in some other species too, such as elephants,
monkeys and whales. But what exactly are soul and its awareness? This is
a slippery ground. Soul or Spirit is denied by materialism and idealism
denies matter.
People in love feel soul, first in the object of love then gradually in
other humans and lastly in all forms of life. Of course, it is rare and
invaluable. Saints and poets who touched the lives of many belong to
this class. Lower down the order we have artists, lovers and kids. Lust
is guided by instinct while love is intuitive. Let us say that soul or
spirit animates the body for a while. And the awareness that we are all
same and unique is soul consciousness. Likewise, body consciousness is
sexuality. And each human life is a saga of individual struggle between
these two components or forces. All other animals are at peace with
their sexuality and so are the aborigines who have been spared by the
civilization. At their extreme ends people are sex objects or souls in
transit on the spaceship called earth.
Though souls enter the human life with spiritual inclination, the body
and brain it gets to reside in are more like animals with another subtle
difference that animals have seasonal libido. In other words, the humans
have all season sexuality with some spiritual sense or urge as a
counterpoint. With the gift of the cranium, the top layer of brain,
peculiar to us, we are required to transcend the lower reptilian brain
and the middle mammalian brain. To minimize the conflict one needs to
accept sexuality so that one can grow in spirituality. The benevolence
of nature has insured that each soul attains it slowly over many lives.
Now acceptance of sexuality does not mean license to hedonistic
indulgences nor forced abstinence. If I accept my own sexuality fairness
demands that I extend the same acceptance for others too. Playing fair
and by one rule for all is spirituality. Definitions may change with
context. Finally, spirituality is active love for mankind and other
lives. Without this vital acceptance sexuality is a drag on
spirituality. Acceptance facilitates transcendence of sexuality. The
celibate monks and nuns are its good examples. Metaphorically it is like
the metamorphosis of cater pillar into a butterfly.
Establishment in spirituality reveals many secrets hidden by the
conventional wisdom. For a starter, it removes the blinkers of
prejudices. And at its best spirituality leads one to the most important
fact about life and Cosmos that natural laws, both material as well as
moral, take care of everything. There is no divine entity sitting on the
controls to respond to our wish and prayer. This fact precludes god’s
intervention in human affairs through revelation or incarnation.
It is unfortunate for humanity that a majority of people are engaged in
pleasing god through a plethora of rituals and competition with other
religions and sects. It is relevant here to quote a very instructive
story about religions.
Satan was taking a walk with a friend. A man walking ahead of them
stopped and picked something up from the ground and moved on. Satan’s
friend was perplexed and asked him what did the man pick? Satan replied
with a smile that the man picked up a piece of truth just now. His
friend, then, enquired whether it upset him or not. The Satan smiled and
said that it did not bother him because he will make the man start a new
religion.
Coming back to our theme, human life is meant for the transcendence of
sexuality and establishment of spirituality. Spiritual advancement,
therefore, should be the aim of human society. All aspects of its
affairs, economical, social or political must be guided by the spiritual
aim and objective.
It is astonishing that the oldest books of man, the Vedas, exhort the
same spiritual vision and ask us to embrace Love, Truth, Justice and
Compassion for the maximum good of maximum number of lives.
February 8, 2009
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