RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL PRACTICES

Is Control of Sexual Energy Necessary?

Sexual energy has a tremendous power, not only for creating new life but for bringing about a higher stage of evolution in humanity, for facilitating an inner or spiritual rebirth. For this reason, as also for ordinary ethical and hygienic reasons, Yoga advocates control of sexual energy.

Yet sex is not a sin or evil. It is a force of nature, like fire, that can be used in constructive or destructive ways. Sex is the ultimate energy reserve of the physical body, the subtle essence of all our bodily tissues, upon which its entire stamina and endurance depends. Unless some portion of that energy is preserved and directed inwardly, we will lack the power to develop a higher consciousness, just as a car, however well made, cannot take us very far without adequate gasoline to run it. For health, creativity and spirituality we must preserve a portion of our sexual energy so that we have the power to accomplish these goals.

This does not mean that we should fight with sex or regard it as evil but that we must recognize the limitation of our energies in life and decide what we really want to do with them. If we truly aspire to the higher life, we must set aside the proper energy to approach it or we are only deluding ourselves by thinking we are spiritual. Control of sexual energy must be aligned with yogic practices to transmute, however. It is not a question of suppressing the energy but of orienting it in another direction.

[ Back ] [ David Frawley ] [ Up ] [ Next ]