[MillionPaths] Be As You Are - Life in the world, (9)

[Guest guest]

Thanks Vicki for these gems! I will pass it on to HS. Please feel free

to post there. I love reading Bhagavan's dialogues with devotees. Do

you know that Talks will now be available as a pdf file?

Harsha

viorica weissman wrote:

 

Q: Do you approve of sexual continence?

A: A true brahmachari [celibate] is one who dwells in Brahman. Then

there is no question of desires any more.

Q: At Sri Aurobindo's ashram there is a rigid rule that married couples

are permitted to live there on condition that they have no sexual

intercourse.

A: What is the use of that ? If it exists in the mind, what use is it

to force people to abstain ?

Q: Is marriage a bar to spiritual progress?

A: The householder's life is not a bar, but the householder must do his

utmost to practise self-control. If a man has a strong desire for the

higher life then the sex tendency will subside. When the mind is

destroyed, the other desires are destroyed also.

Q: I have committed sexual sin.

A: Even if you have, it does not matter so long as you do not think

afterwards that you have done so. The Self is not aware of any sin and

renunciation of sex is internal, not merely of the body alone.

Q: I am carried away by the sight of the breasts of a young woman

neighbor and I am often tempted to commit adultery with her. What

should I do?

A: You are always pure. It is your senses and body which tempt you and

which you confuse with your real Self. So first know who is tempted and

who is there to tempt. But even if you do commit adultery, do not think

about it afterwards, because you are yourself always pure. You are not

the sinner.

Q: How do we root out our sex idea?

A: By rooting out the false idea of the body being the Self. There is

no sex in the Self. Be the Self and then you will have no sex troubles.

Q: Can fasting cure sexual desire?

A: Yes, but it is temporary. Mental fast is the real aid. Fasting is

not an end in itself. There must be spiritual development side by side.

Complete fasting makes the mind too weak. The spiritual quest must be

kept up right through a fast if it is to benefit spiritually.

 

Be As You Are, The Teaching of Sri Ramana Maharshi

edited bty David Godman