CELIBACY

[egodust]

Chelluri wrote:
>                                              MATRENAMAH
>
> NAMASKARAMS!
>
> I feel celibacy is essential to practice what is learned.   We can learn what
> and how to practice from the biographies of present and past saints.   Any
> comments?
>
> Regards
>                                                                        Nagy


If we think about it, sex isn't different--except in magnitude--from any
other sensual act, such as eating, listening to music, skydiving, etc.
It's the sensationalism surrounding it that gives rise to the popular
focus on the need for "celibacy."

Brahmacharya is more accurate a focus.  And brahmacharya is affected by
the sanyas of the karta (elimination of the attachment to being the doer),
as Giri pointed out with his excellent quote of Guru Bhagavan RM.  (Which
quote, by the way, illustrates the effectiveness--in terms of language/idea
nuances--of the words of a *modern* sage, insofar as their capacity to
effectively delineate the intent of advaita [in a way that we can understand].
Such sruti seems compellingly more authoritative than any of the written
sastras.)

In my view, a muktha who is yet functioning in the full role of a grihastha,
does so out of vasanas thriving in the stuhla sarira (gross body sheath),
representing unfolding prarabdha.  This brand of vasana isn't deleterious.
This also applies to the pakva in the course of his sadhana.  So long as he
watches such play of body-desire as a witness and not its victim, vairagya
can be successfully cultivated.

namaste.