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[sridatta]

Sex - Homo Sexuality- Spirituality

First of all, one should know that the concept of sex should not be magnified and should not be given over attention. Sex is a biological need of the body like hunger and thirst. It is a biological issue at physical level because, when the food is taken, a part of it is supplied to the reproductive system, by which, it gives signals in the form of sexual desire for the growth of human race on this earth. It is created by God for this purpose so that the souls come down to the earth through the bodies created by sexual union. Thus, sex is a factor involved in the divine mission, which functions in a circular way by bringing down the souls to the earth and taking them away from the earth.

Disease is another biological need for the body to disintegrate and liberate the soul for its journey to the upper world. This is the cycle of creation called as �karma chakra�, which involves of taking the souls to the upper world for treatment and bringing down the souls after treatment. Birth is a vehicle in one direction running with the petrol called sex. Death is the same vehicle running in reverse direction with the petrol called illness. Petrol is one and the same and therefore sex is a type of illness, which is in the divine service of God and should not be looked down or aversed. Sex is divine and its deity is �Manmadha� or �kama deva�, who is the son of Lord Narayana only. He is doing the divine duty following the path of Pravritti or justice. In the Gita, Lord said that He is kama, following justice (Dharmaaviruddhah...). There is no need of shy in feeling hungry, thirsty, sleepy, spitting, urination, excretion etc. which are just simple biological, universal and routine activities. Sex is also in the same list, about which you should not think so much.

If you have understood the divine purpose of sex, there is no meaning in the homosexuality. It can be taken as a peculiar type of the biological need, which has no divine purpose. Satisfaction of hunger by eating food is not the divine aim. To maintain the body for doing Sadhana is the divine purpose and hunger is a signal indicating the same point. Without knowing this aim, some people say, �What is this eating, sleeping, living etc?� It shows their ignorance about the main aim of the human life. According to many, the aim of the human life is to enjoy the life with the family and get name and fame in the society as a rich man or as a scholar or as a capable person etc. Many feel that they have lifted the Govardhana hill by earning money and by bringing up their children. They feel that their lives are fulfilled when the circle of their friends and relatives appreciate him as a great disciplined person by uplifting his children. He wants appreciation from the friends and relatives by words like �How much educated and rich he is! Yet see his humbleness, humility and simplicity!� The poor fellow become unconscious by this hypnotic drug and helps them, whose aim is only the help from him. When the help is over, their suppressed jealousy comes out who will be abusing him. Thus, his life is neither fulfilled in this world, nor in the upper world.

The sages saw Rama and liked to embrace Him. Is it not homosexuality? No. They will not have such feeling, which is unjust and unnatural also. It is unjust because, it does not serve the purpose of reproduction, which is the divine justice. It is also not a natural path of satisfying the sex hunger. They had beautiful wives and reproduced children, thus serving the divine mission of the Lord. Moreover, they did not like to embrace Him in the same forms as males. They liked to embrace Him after transforming into females. This does not come under Pravritti, because they have wives and children already. This comes under nivritti in which the climax of love towards God called as devotion, which crosses all the limits of nature and justice. It is infinite love towards God, which is unimaginable. The context of such feeling is neither reproduction, which is divine mission nor the pacification of sex-hunger, which is a biological need. It is the unimaginable attraction of the heart of the devotee towards the Lord. This attraction is not simply based on the physical beauty of the Lord, which is meaningless, if analysed. It is the attraction of the heart of the devotee towards the total personality of the Lord. There is no distinction of male and female in nivritti. It is the point between God and soul. The same soul can exist in a body of male or female. The attraction between the soul and God cannot be compared to the attraction between two souls. Thus, there is a fundamental difference irrespective of the biological sex, which is related to the bodies. �Pumsaam mohna rupaaya� means that the sages are attracted by the divine personality. Moha means attraction and not sex. Kama is sex.

The husband wants that his wife should not be attracted by other males, but he is attracted by other females. Similar is the case with wife. Shri Rajaneesh attacked this issue in this way and such approach is only partial. What about the case in which one is attracted to the side while the other remains chaste? You cannot generalise the case of some people to all. Here is a person, who is very loyal to his wife and she is attracted by somebody else. Shri Rajneesh liberalized the concept by finding fault with the other side also. In general, he may be correct. But, what about a specific case? Ofcourse, this case may be otherwise, because tomorrow I may get a problem from a chaste wife complaining about her husband for his side attraction. Therefore, one should not misunderstand Me siding only chaste wives or only chaste husbands. The issue is if one side is chaste and the other side is not chaste, what should be the solution? The solution for this is again multi-dimensional and multi-stepped. First of all, I should question whether the marriage took place by the full consent of both boy and girl. Sometimes the consent is given by boy or girl as a �no objection certificate�. But that is not sufficient for a marriage. It should have a positive certificate of intensive attraction towards each other. The attraction becomes permanent and real if it is based on the total personality. Mere physical appearance is only one factor. If the physical appearance alone is the basis, the love should reduce as the old age comes or if the appearance is spoiled by some illness or accident in life. Buddha was attracted to Amrapali in her old age to serve her.

The husband or wife gets attracted by a better �total personality� of opposite sex, whenever met in life. Mental attraction is hidden by several people by controlling their words. Words and actions of body are inert and do not participate in the sin. When this body, which spoke or did some wrong activity is left over here, the soul is taken to hell in some other energetic body and is punished. If the body is a participant of the sin, it should be directly taken to hell and should be punished. Therefore, in the hell, the mind is punished through another new body. Therefore, the sin is in the mind and not in the body. Once the mental attraction is there, the sin is recorded. The words and actions of body are works of inert energy and have no sin. When Sita was carried by Ravana, the body of Sita was fully touched by Ravana by force as per Valmiki Ramayana. This was referred by Sita, herself, (yadyaham gatra samsparsam�). But such attraction was not in her mind and therefore she was declared pure by fire God (Agni). Renuka got mental attraction towards a king on the banks of Narmada river and she did not touch him even by finger. But she was declared as sinner and her head was cut by her son, Parasurama. Therefore, after marriage, to get attracted by another person is a sin and the soul is punished in the hell. If the other side is also not chaste, will the sin get mutually cancelled and so no punishment to any one? No. Both will be punished in the hell. Therefore, the philosophy of Shri Rajneesh in this point does not save the soul in any way.

To get rid of such sin and the consequent hell, the control of mind cannot be the true path, which is impossible. Some control food, but it is not a permanent solution because such feelings (samskaras) are precipitated from several millions of births. You cannot control the mind through the body, when the mind (samskara) is controlling your body. Such precipitated samskara, called as prakruti or nature acquired from millions of births decides the course of action finally as said in the Gita (prakrutistvaam niyokshyati�). The only permanent and real solution for this is to realize the real aim of the human life and turn to God. The attraction towards God is like a mega-tsunami in which the side attraction towards another personality disappears like a flood of river. No other side attraction can exist, when the divine personality of God appears. This attraction is totally different since it is the bond between God and soul and not a bond between souls. There is no aspect of male or female here. Rama went for golden deer, even though Lakshmana tried to stop him. Here it appears as if Rama is more attracted by the female devotee compared to a male devotee. No. It is the climax of His love on the soul of Sita only and not on her body. The same Rama said to stop the war and was prepared to leave the life when Lakshmana became unconscious in the war. Here Rama neglected Sita before Lakshmana. This context shows the love of the Lord on the soul of Lakshmana, irrespective of the external body. In such tsunami of love on Lord, both justice and injustice disappear. If one realises this divine knowledge he attains the Lord and crosses both good and bad (Buddhiyogam tam yenamaaam, Buddhyaa yukto, Buddhiyukto jahatiha ubhe �the Gita). Both the hell and heaven are thrown out when you approach the divine Lord as said in the Veda (Punyapaape vidhuya�).

The divine knowledge will make you realize that though this world is real for the soul, the bonds between souls are unreal and dramatic. The sage Astavakra preaches the King Janaka through �Astavakra Samhita�, in which, the sage says that the mother and son in this life are becoming husband and wife in the next life! It is a hero and heroine acting two different roles in different pictures. We have two pictures running side by side in two theatres in which the same couple of actors acting as husband and wife in one picture and acting as mother and son in another picture! This bond did not exist in the past birth and will not exist in the future birth. That which was unreal in the past and will be unreal in the future is also unreal in the present according to Shankara. It is just a dramatic bond. Realize the main aim of human life and concentrate on that. You are unnecessarily worried in the side activity, which is just a change for recreation. Let her or him go to hell. Do not bother about it. There should be no tension in a game for a student. Game is just a recreation arranged for change. Do not be jealous on a classmate in a game. Be jealous in studies on the same classmate, because study is the main aim of your college life. Attractions are spontaneous, which can neither be created nor suppressed by force. A forced attraction by fear is not real and what is the use of such faith and love? In spiritual path also, the attraction to God should be spontaneous and natural without fear or force. Fulfilling the desires is the force. Fear is for the hell. Gopikas were prepared to go to hell in the love of the Lord and no force on the earth could deviate them from it. The attraction should be spontaneously generated in a free atmosphere without any attraction to boons and without any fear for the hell. In the human incarnation, the human form masks the real nature of the Lord so that a free atmosphere is created without fear and fulfilment of desires by using His super powers. Such love is really sweet. God created this Universe to taste such real sweet love of His devotees. When the Lord showed His mega energetic form (Viswarupam), Arjuna shivered with high tension. In such state can you even think of love? The love of Prahlada to Vishnu was spontaneous. His father tried to resist it and divert to Lord Shiva. The resistance increased the devotion more and more. Therefore, the realization of the main aim of human life, the realization of the family life as a side activity for recreation of the soul, the realization of unreal dramatic bonds of family will remove all the tensions. The ignorance of the real aim of this life and the ignorance of the unreality of these bonds are responsible for these high tensions. A realized soul will laugh at such problems (karma bandham prahasyasi �the Gita).

[Anuradha Chepur]

Hinduism is not against homosexuality as far as I know. In fact, Ayyappan is said to be Hari-Hara putra. (Hari = Vishnu, Hara = Shiva, putra = son). So there is a hint of homosexual relation.

Brain mapping studies of homosexuals have shown patterns similar to the brain of the opposite sex, which is why they get attracted to the same sex.

In any case, homosexuality is a phenomenon for the scientists to study. It is outside the domain of religion.

[seishirou]