I want to say that those who lead us away from the truths of life are the enemies of mankind. Those who tell you never to think about sex are your enemies; they have not allowed you to think about it, to reflect on it. Otherwise, how is it possible that we have not yet developed a rational attitude towards the subject?

Furthermore, the people who say that sex has no relation to religion are entirely incorrect, because it is the energy of sex, in a transformed and sublimated form, that enters the realm of religion. The sublimation of this vital energy lifts man to realms about which we know very little. The transformation of his sex energy raises man to a world where there is no death, no sorrow, to a world where there is nothing but joy, pure joy. And anyone who possesses that energy, that life- force, can uplift himself to that realm of joyous, truthful consciousness, to SatChitAnand.

But we have been wasting this energy. We are like buckets with holes in the bottom, and we are using these buckets to draw water from the well. But all the water drains out in the process and what we end up with is an empty bucket. We are like boats with holes in the bottom: we row only to sink. Such a boat can never reach the other shore; it is destined to sink in midstream. All this leaking is due to the wrong diversion of the flow of sex energy.

Those who show nude photos, write obscene books and produce sexy films are not responsible for these leakages of energy. The responsibility for these kinds of perversions lies with those who have put barriers in the way of our understanding of sex. It is because of these people that naked pictures are in demand, that pornographic books are on sale, that nude films are made, and we see the sordid and absurd results every day.  The ones who are responsible are those we call saintly and ascetic. But if you look deeply into it, you will see that they are the real advertising agents for obscenity.

A tiny tale, and I will finish…

A certain priest was going to conduct a service in the church of a nearby village. He was almost running in order to get there on time. Crossing a field on his way, he saw a wounded man sprawled in a nearby ditch. A knife protruded from the man’s chest and he was bleeding. The priest considered lifting him up and attending to him, but on second thought, he felt it might delay his arrival at the church. He had chosen” Love” as the subject of his sermon; he had decided to elaborate on Christ’s famous maxim,” Love is God.” He had been mentally preparing his comments as he hurried on his way.

But the wounded man opened his eyes and shouted,” Father, I know that you are going to the church to deliver a sermon on the subject of love. I was to attend the church too, but bandits have stabbed me and thrown me here. Listen, if I survive, I will tell people that a man was dying by the roadside and that, instead of saving him, you ran away to deliver a sermon on love. I warn you, don’t ignore me.”

This frightened the priest a bit. He realized that if this man were to survive and relate the incident, the people of the village would say that his sermons were all humbug. The priest was not worried about the dying man, but about public opinion, so he approached the man unwillingly. As he came nearer, he saw the man’s face more clearly: it seemed somewhat familiar. He said,” My son, it appears I have seen you somewhere before.”

The injured man said,” You must have. I am Satan, and I have very old relations with priests and religious leaders. If I am not familiar to you, then who else would be?”

The priest then remembered him clearly; he had seen a picture of him in the church. He drew back. He said,” I cannot save you. It is better you die. You are Satan.  We are always wishing you dead and it is good you are dying. Why should I try to save you? It is a sin even to touch you. I am going on my way.”

Satan laughed loudly and said,” Listen, the day I die you will be out of business; you cannot exist without me. You are who you are because I am alive; I am the basis of your profession. You had better save me, because if I die all the priests and ministers will be out of work. They will become extinct; there won’t be any need for them anymore.”

The priest thought this over for a second and saw the truth in it.  Immediately, he lifted the dying man onto his shoulders and said,” My dear Satan, do not worry. I am taking you to the hospital for treatment. Please get well quickly. Do not die, for God’s sake, you are right; if you die, we will be out of work.”

Perhaps you cannot conceive that Satan is at the root of the priest and that the priest is behind the work of Satan, but Satan is very busy in the exploitation of sex and the exploitation of sex is at the root of everything. Through the fog, we cannot see that the priests are behind all this commotion, that sex has become more and more attractive because of its degradation by the priests, that man has become more and more lustful because of the continuous slandering of sex by the priests. The more the priests strive to annihilate one’s thoughts about sex, the more mysterious it becomes, the more curiosity it arouses.

Man is helpless; man is a slave to sex, and this helplessness is to be despised. We want knowledge, not ignorance. Knowledge on its own is power, and the knowledge of sex is an even greater power.  It is dangerous to continue to live in ignorance about sex.

It is possible we may not reach the moon. There is no real need to reach the moon.  Mankind may not profit much if we reach the moon, nor is the world going to come to an end if we cannot reach a depth of five miles in the Pacific Ocean, where the sun’s rays cannot penetrate. Achieving these things is not going to benefit mankind much. It also isn’t terribly important whether we split the atom or not. But in order to succeed in producing a new man, it is a question of ultimate concern and a matter of dire necessity that we accept sex, that we come to know sex fully, that we understand it and that we transcend it.

Your questions should be put forth honestly; the attitude with which you have been asking about the soul and God will not do. This is a question of living, of life, and only if your inquiries are direct and honest can we delve deeper into the subject. The truth is always ready to be discovered; we require only a true, honest and conscientious curiosity to come to know it. But, unfortunately, that we lack.