Guest guest Posted November 27, 2001 Report Share Posted November 27, 2001 Further to the relevant posting on Celibacy by Sri Ma Trust.... " But there is a great facility in the family life. One may have physical relation with the wife when it is specially needed. (Smiling) Why are you laughing M.? " M. (to himself) - Since that worldly people at once cannot renounce fully, Thakur is allowing this much. Isn't a hundred percent brahmacharya (celibacy) totally impossible while living in the family? ~~~What wonderful quote of Sri Ramakrishna. Humour too!~~~ Tulsidas said something like: " If you live in truth and look on all women (apart from your wife) as your mother and yet cannot find God come and slap Tulsi... " Sri Ramakrishna renews this ideal but takes it a stage further. He has said something like: " After the birth of one or two children a couple should live as spiritual companions, and should not use marriage as licence for lust. " The most rational explanation about importance of celibacy came via teachings of Ashokananda. Anything that imposes a limit on our true nature which is spiritual is his definition of 'impurity'. The idea that we are the body becomes strongly manifested in the process of sex act - hence it is considered to be impure. It makes us relate to the body in the strongest sense! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Comments by Sue and Swami Yogeshananda are very interesting. We hear of God men like Guru Nanak leading a family life...what would be their frame of mind? ~ This is beyond me. But I tend to agree with Swami Yogeshananda that a person who is in constant God-conscious state will have problem with sex act. How can he bring himself to that level. We see an even more subtle tussle in the life of Sri Ramakrishna. He has problem maintaining God consciousness and just keep a body going (let alone bother with sex act). He had to drag himself down constantly to the body level by asking for something trivial like: I will drink some water etc. We see this tussle all through his life. The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna is the most wonderful account giving such fascinating details about a God man trying to operate between the absolute and relative planes. It is a pity we do not have such detailed accounts of the lives of other God men. jay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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