Celebration and restraint SADHANA TATTVA ( A repost )

[Guest guest]

merrlynnwiz wrote:

>Celibacy? I'm confused. What happened to joyfully celebrating the

>body? I'm probably taking this out of context. Is it a particular

>discipline of Shaktism, or is this advice given to all?

 

Hello Lynn,

 

I don't blame you for being confused.

 

There have been, and are, diverse attitudes to the life of the body within

India's broad culture of Goddess worship (Shaktism). There are teachings

which joyfully celebrate, and teachings which prescribe self-discipline and

restraint.

 

Some saints have been celibates, such as Swami Sivananda (whose teaching

was quoted in the post you were responding to) and Sri Ramakrishna and

Sarada Devi.

 

Others have been householders, i.e. married people with children, such as

Ramprasad Sen, the great poet of Kali.

 

Some have lived in ways which went against social custom, such as the poet

Chandidas, a respectable priest who fell in love with a woman called Rami

who was of much lower social status.

 

It is said that when Chandidas founding himself falling in love with Rami,

he prayed to his temple deity, the goddess Basholi, and asked her for

guidance. Basholi replied: "You must love this woman, no deity can offer

you what this woman is able to."

 

(Ajit Mookerjee mentions the story of Chandidas and Rami in his books _The

Tantric Way_ and _Kali the Feminine Force_.)

 

Blessings,

Colin.