Sex - The word spells taboo for some and immediately creates a "Let's not talk about it" scenario. What is Sex? And why do we shy away from this subject the moment it crops up? Indiayogi attempts to go over the perplexing ground of this aspect of the life spiritual. The entire issue is intrinsically controversial, and nothing makes people more easily adversarial. We will not attempt to resolve anything, nor will we seek the one right approach. Nevertheless, mankind has had another view of sexuality, one that has been buried in the relatively recent historical trend of Puritanism. And that is the view that sex is a vital part of life and like all other aspects of life, it can be harnessed to the service of expanding the consciousness.

Sex and religious impulses seem incongruous when spoken of in the same breath. After all, most of the major world religions have devoted an enormous amount of time to combating the sexual impulse. Even the world famous Khajuraho temples situated in Central India have developed an erotic entity to it over the years. These temple complexes of Khajuraho have become world famous - and for all the wrong reasons. Just like the Kamasutra, one aspect of their multifaceted reality has dominated the public consciousness. All this has only resulted in stealing the thunder from the truly breathtaking magnificence of the Khajuraho sculptures. In this edition we take a look at how sex plays a role in our spiritual life, as our panelist, Rohit Arya shares his views through an article on 'Personality and spiritual sexuality'.

(The ideas expressed in this short reflective essay are those of the author musing aloud. They are in no sense definitive and are intended to stimulate debate so that we can all learn together. Please write into us feedback@indiayogi.com)

Nowadays you do not have to defend the role of sex in spirituality. You have to defend its absence. Everybody seems convinced that you can have an active sexual life and continue to ascend the planes of spiritual growth. This is an apparent revolution in human consciousness, but this new acceptance of sex may merely be a reflection of personality styles rather than any fresh breakthrough in thinking.

Let us put in a good word for celibacy and continence and brahmacharya and chastity and all those other words from the past. The old spiritual masters were neither repressed nor fools when they urged the total shutdown of the sexual function if you wanted to be more spiritual. The simple reason for this is that it works and works very well. Freud was so impressed by the plain evidence of how distracting his sexuality had been that he even formulated the theory of sublimation. All creative output is fundamentally energy borrowed from the sexual drive and if you can consciously so sublimate yourself the better for you. Fundamentally, with some minor differences, most yogis and Daoists would agree. The kundalini manifests itself in daily life as the sexual energy and all creativity is a function of the rising kundalini.

However, tamping down the sexual drive is neither a necessary or sufficient condition for the reaching of the spiritual states. It can be done, it is being done, and without sacrificing what a great many people think is the most important thing in life. Again I would caution that the history of the great religious and spiritual figures would seem to indicate very few people with an active sex life. I suspect the answer is a matter of physiology, not religious necessity.

In some cases the natural energies are so high and the levels of self-control and detachment are so developed that an active sex life is no impediment whatsoever. In most cases that is not so. Sex begins to set its own agenda, and it very soon overwhelms the spiritual agenda you had. There is also another reason. In most cases sex tires you out!

Perhaps the idea you hold about the role of sex in a spiritual life becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you think that your life will not be fulfilled without sex of course it will not be. And perhaps you are also unnecessarily restricting yourself by insisting as a dogma that sex has to have a place in your spiritual life. Maybe if you demoted it from its all-pervasive importance, something extraordinary could happen? I make the suggestion that all of the above are valid, because all of the above reflect personality styles.

Some people seem to have more natural animal energy, and their active sexual life does them no harm and even boosts their spiritual life. In other cases it is just the opposite. Personally speaking, in terms of intellectual output I can testify that an active sex life is a disaster. The mind needs a little tension to function well, and that will not happen when you are too relaxed, or even worse exhausted, from your sex life. There are enough people today however who can still validate the edge that celibacy, conscious or enforced, provides them. For others that is just not so. And they are both right and all of us are wrong.

A part of Sex has been a part of life spiritual since time immemorial. In fact even the epic Ramayana was not without its share of this divisive subject. It is a source of trouble in the Ramayana that has not been much commented upon - the role of sex as a disruptive force. It is the unacknowledged leitmotif of the epic, all the crises in the story occur because of the sexual impulse turning uncontrollable. Check out our article on Sex as a hidden villain of Ramayana.

The perception of Sex is that of an act of pleasure, something to be performed only for enjoyment. But it is usually connected with the body consciousness, so the maximum pleasure of sex is obtained through body consciousness. "Sex, actually complements Spirituality, if one uses Sexuality as a medium of creative expression, of creation itself: otherwise it remains a horizontal act! The greatness of Sexuality lies in the fact that it helps a man transcend the vertical limits of Spirituality!" Get an insight into Justice M.L. Dudhat's views on how sex and spirituality combines to form a very important gift to the Being. Click here.

Send in your views, thoughts and contributions on the subject to feedback@indiayogi.com and you could find it posted on our site in our Sex and Spirituality section.