Purging and Preventing Sexual Thoughts

Hello John,

Trust this finds you keeping well. Coming to the answers,

A1: It is impossible to reason, rationalize, analyze or convert sexual thoughts into pure thoughts. Just as the nature of water is moistness, the nature of a sexual thought is desire, lust and agitation. There is no other way but to be very strict in not letting sexual thoughts grow bigger when they arise. A Brahmachari must try his level best to always prevent getting involved in any kind of a situation that will let sexual thoughts flower. If watching certain kinds of programs in the T.V, internet a magazine or a book seem to be stirring up these thoughts, one will have to ruthlessly prevent oneself from further indulgence in such activity. The smallest indulgence in such activity or continuing it whilst being stirred sexually will eventually take one deeper and deeper down the slippery slope. This is the mistake most people make while practicing Brahmacharya. They try to convince themselves that a little deviation won't hurt. They fool themselves with an auto suggestion that they will draw a line and not cross it. What is the basis of demarcation? Lust is lust in all forms, however minute, insignificant and petty. The act of looking at a fully clothed woman with a sexual intention even in an apparently innocent T.V program will always lead to the next step -- fantasy followed by imagination at a more intimate level. This act of sexual contemplation automatically results in 'new sexual karma' resulting in 'new Vâsanâs' or tendencies within the causal body. These newly formed tendencies add to the already existing tendencies that the Brahmachari is struggling hard to remove making his task that much tougher. Within a short span of time, such Vâsanâs reach a level where there will be a voluntary or involuntary loss and Brahmacharya is broken in totality. It is not the woman or the act of looking at the woman that is wrong. What is wrong is one's own perspective in the look. It is the sexual intent behind the look that is wrong. Hence till one reaches a state where one is capable of looking at a lady without the slightest trace of sexuality but only as a soul, one should stay clear of all unnecessary contact through sight or talk. Such a state becomes available only to one who is self-realized and is beyond the fetters of sexuality forever.

If sexual thoughts are intensifying in spite of efforts, it is an indication that there is much suppression or repression. Brahmacharya cannot succeed through suppression. One should always remind oneself of the falsity behind the apparent physical beauty of a woman. If the sight or thought of a woman is troubling, let one think of how the same woman will look under her skin. Minus the hair and minus skin the human body has the very disagreeable smell of raw blood and flesh. It appears exactly like the cut up carcass of an animal at the butchers. Human skin and hair add a 'desirable' dimension to a body which is very similar to the texture of the body of a goat or a lamb. This is the work of 'Mâya' the illusive power of creation. This is a body that is filled with foul smelling excrement, urine, blood, pus, phlegm and other secretions which one would shun away from at all occasions. Even the flesh under the skin smells bad. Try smelling an open wound or cut on the body, the smell of blood and flesh is very repulsive. A man who is fantasizing on the body of a woman is fantasizing on nothing but a flesh bag filled with excreta, urine, pus and phlegm. A man imagining physical intimacy with a woman is getting intimate with a bag full of such waste. And a man wasting his divine and precious vital fluid on a woman is wasting all the strength, greatness, glory and power that nature has bestowed on him and that which he has built with great effort over many births on this bag of waste products. On this well disguised, well covered bag of evil smelling flesh stuffed with stool.

Where is the beauty when a woman wakes up in the morning with bad breath? Where did the beauty of a girl in her teens vanish soon after she bore a child or two? Why do people wishing to impress the opposite sex smear themselves with fragrant cosmetics, perfumes and sprays? Where is the beauty in a woman down with an incurable disease that has resulted in her flesh drying up to the bone and loss of hair? Where is the beauty once she gets old with wrinkled skin, scant hair and flesh bereft of luster? The answer to all these questions is one and the same. There is no beauty in the real and true sense right from the start in this thing called a body. The whole thing is an illusion. If the body was true, real and filled with beauty, it would never give out foul smelling breath or saliva. If the body was true and real, it would never age in spite of bearing children. It would need no external cosmetic application. The sweat, odor, excrement and secretions emanating from this body are a give away of the fact that it is anything but beautiful on the inside in terms of beauty. A woman wishing to impress a man and impress herself applies a heavy dose of mouth and body sprays for this very purpose...To hide the reality behind the foul smelling body and fool him, her included with an opposite impression of beauty.

Indulging in a voluntary emission of semen causes a person to get back to square one. He will never be able to get over and rise above the sex temptation. He will forever be a slave to the master called desire. The reverse can never be achieved. In terms of spiritual evolution and getting free of the sex trap, the person cannot hope to proceed. Hence a Brahmachari should never, ever voluntarily masturbate. It crashes all of his karmic progress. The right way is to always keep the falsity of physical beauty as a bag of refuse in the mind and stay clear of letting thoughts grow bigger. One need not worry when a sexual thought surfaces. These thoughts surface every now and then till the past seeds of sexual karma exist and are not fully cleansed in the causal body. But one should immediately divert and take the mind away from such thoughts and not let them snowball into larger proportions. If the Brahmachari fails to do this by telling himself "Just a little bit will do no harm" then he has erred. He has made the first mistake. He has himself personally opened the door for the cheat called lust to step into his house despite knowing it to be a cheat. This mistake will prove to be costly in terms of robbing him of his months or years of efforts. A voluntary emission repletes the causal body with more karma and more Vâsanâs. The mind gets a shot in the arm in terms of past memory of sexual activity. The cycle becomes vicious and endless. He can never progress concretely.

A2: Saving and spending money works when a man is continuously earning, for his spending is proportional to the saving which is proportional to his earning. So a man can spend a part of his savings further to earning. But how will a Brahmachari get over and get independent of his sexual urges and attain enlightenment if he spends his entire life in expending his vital force, building it up again only to expend it repeatedly? His entire life gets spent in 'earning, saving and spending' his vital force. It becomes an endless cycle. Attaining the highest states of bliss, getting over the slavery of the sexual urge forever and attaining an immense sense of freedom through self-realization requires that the lower realms of sexuality are not revisited and vital force is instead conserved without loss. It is like the force required to put a satellite into orbit. Unless the speed of the launcher rocket is powerful enough to counter the gravitational pull of the earth, rise above the earths gravity and drop the satellite into space much beyond the earths orbit, the satellite will crash down. It can float in space only after it has crossed the earths orbital gravity. Then nothing can reverse its flotation. It will soar through the heavens without the slightest tendency to drop down back into earth, however strong be earth's gravity. It has reached the point of no return. Brahmacharya is like a launcher rocket carrying the satellite called the 'Jivâtma'(embodied soul) out of the gravitational pull of lust belonging to a planet called ignorance and destined for the heavens of self-realization. Even the slightest reduction in the speed and force of the rocket (Brahmacharya) through an emission will prevent it from escaping the gravitational pull (lust) and crashes it back to the planet (ignorance). Hence the money earning and saving analogy does not apply to Brahmacharya if one wants to sail above the gravity of lust and desire. A continuous and sustained progress with constant improvement is necessary.

One needn't loose heart even a little bit. If efforts at the waking state are honest, sincere and sustained with the required physical & mental activity, life of Yoga, God-meditation and an awareness of the falsity of sexual attraction, progress gradually ascertains itself. The time taken may wary from person to person. Let it be so...let one be patient and calm and anchored to the fact that improvement and grand success will always dawn further to consistent efforts in due course. Let one not get impatient, irritable or anxious that lust hasn't been overcome. Let the efforts from one's side be complete and total. The seeds of past actions have ingrained themselves over the course of many lifetimes and hence take some time to be negated. It is only when a person short-circuits his progress through voluntary sexuality born out of despair and temptation that the downturn begins. With persistent efforts and devotion to God, many have reached the shores of self-realization and many more will. Our purview ends at constant and honest efforts, the results are in God's purview and the all merciful and just Lord will bestow them unfailingly as we progress.

ॐ तत् सत्
(That Supreme being is the absolute truth)