The Sex-Impulse and the Spiritual Sadhana

In his book, The Mother, Sri Aurobindo describes sex as one of the three forces, “power, wealth, sex — that have the strongest attraction for the human ego and the Asura and are most generally misheld and misused by those who retain them.”

The force of the sex-impulse is one that impacts not just a specific individual, but social interactions, and spiritual sadhana. From a general perspective, the sex-impulse arises in the animal kingdom and acts as a means for ensuring the continuity of the race and as a means of creating intimate human bonding, while also being used as a form of control and domination. It provides a strong vital-physical response that is experienced as highly pleasurable, and thus, something that people (and animals) seek after and try to repeat.

The sex-impulse is so powerful, and potentially disruptive to social bonds, that it has been surrounded by numerous and widespread taboos, has been stigmatized by many as something ‘sinful’ or ‘dirty’ and at the same time, treated as a strong allurement and motivating force. In the modern world, sexualization begins even with young children, who are frequently dressed in such a way as to entice and provoke, and thus treated as an object of desire by individuals who are unable to manage this force effectively. Meanwhile entertainment and even the sale of goods is contextualized with sexual innuendo, sexual content and overt forms of sexual enticement. The sexual energy can drive an individual to extreme lengths, and has been an underlying force that leads to lust, jealousy and other forms of disruptive behaviour, both for the individual and for the society. Laws are developed to try to regulate the disruptive power of sex. These laws however have little impact on an individual under the influence of the unrestrained sexual-impulse. As a result, human society confronts this issue with mixed results. Laws, taboos and customs arise to hold the sexual-impulse under some form of control, while meanwhile the society itself fixates on sex as a central theme, motive and force to be desired and developed in the life, and when that is not possible, there are widespread occurrences of rape, weaponizing of sexual violence in the context of war or attempted domination, pedophilia and the proliferation of sexual images.

The role of the sex-impulse in life and the complexity surrounding it takes on a new aspect when a spiritual seeker attempts to understand and deal with it in a way that furthers his spiritual development. This, too, has an individual as well as a social aspect, especially if the individual has joined a community centered around spiritual development, such as a monastery, ashram, cloister, or other form of close-kint community. In such instances, the sexual energy can become an extremely disruptive force in the community and can lead to far-reaching negative consequences for the group. In most cases, this issue is addresed by segregating male and female members, yet this does not solve the issue — witness the widespread occurrence of homosexuality or pedophilia in various religious groups that suppress sexuality with vows of celibacy without solving the underlying force of the vital animal drive itself. Eventually, the underlying force itself must be understood, addressed and transformed.

Due to the complexity and widespread role of sex in all of human life, a step by step review will be required, and in the coming days we propose to take up these issues. Since our primary focus is on the development of a new, transformative stage of conscious evolution, we appreciate the eventual need to overcome the lower-vital-physical nature of this force and use the energy liberated from sex to develop the new higher consciousness. What this implies, and how this can be done, must be the focus of our forthcoming comprehensive review of the subject. This requires breaking through all of the moral and social rules and laws surrounding sex and seeing the vital-physical drive for what it is, not sinful, not dirty, but a basic force of evolution centered in the physical-vital nature, and thus being able to understand, overcome and master this first chakra energy. As with any power, there are both positive and negative aspects in the most general sense. And there is the evolutionary trend that requires harnessing the raw first chakra energy and redirecting it towards spiritual fulfillment.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “The sadhak has to turn away entirely from the invasion of the vital and the physical by the sex-impulse — for, if he does not conquer the sex-impulse there can be no settling in the body of the divine consciousness and the divine Ananda.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 4, Desire — Food — Sex, pg.
68

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