This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
Saint Paul
In 1921 when Mahatma Gandhiji laid down a programme for the attainment of India’s independence from British rule in one year, a condition was that the whole country should observe complete celibacy during that year. Commenting on that condition, Rabindranath Tagore said that if GandhiJi insisted on the whole nation observing celibacy even for a single day, India would have to wait for independence till the end of time. Such is the power of sexual desire.
Lust is an insidious and dangerous form of egotism, as Kabir frequently pointed out. Why it that in olden days kings and princes had richly equipped harems? Why is it that until only recently, in many a country the social status of a man depended on the number of women he kept?
Why is it that even today when monogamy is a prime value for many in civilized society, other still boast of their conquests on the battlefield of sex? The saint teach that that this is how the ego works; men and women feel that they gain power through their sexual conquests.
Teachings of Kabir and all other great saints advocate the sublimation of sex by attaching the mind to the divine music and fascinating light of the Word or holy spirit, which give such great pleasures that they make sex indulgence seem insipid.
Saints do not advocate universal celibacy but outside marital relations, they tolerate no sexual relationship. Promiscuous sex indulgence is condemned by all saints and all scriptures. Guru Nanak Says, ” He who is a slave to sensuality is false to himself and suffers such agony.”
And Baba Farid declares:
“Care not for the passion away of beauty-let it go. But let not affection for the lord diminish a whit. Do you not see how many beautiful faces Lie underneath the earth?”
The Bible also condemns sex indulgence. Proverb says, “Can a man take fire in his blossom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals , and his feet not be burned? So he that goeth in to his neighbor’s wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent ..But whose commottetch adultery..destroy his own Soul”
Maharaj Charan Singh Ji Says,”One must be chaste both in mind and body. For a husband , womanhood ends with his wife, and for a while her husband represents that entire manhood. Both of them stand on a rock-like and unshakeable foundation of this moral principle.”
Holy book of all religions give many examples that shows how sex indulgence has brought about the downfall of the great and mighty, including even Gods, goddesses and Sages who have not gone beyond the level of mind. Stories of their downfalls are recorded in the Purans and considered to be fantastic, unbelievable and are laughed at by the intellectual classes of today.
