Posted on: 11 May 2021
[A question by friend of Śrī Kishore Ram]
Swāmi replied:- Lust, anger and greediness are in the ascending order of importance from left to right (Kāmaḥ Krodhaḥ tathā Lobhaḥ... Gītā). Lust makes the self happy and the other soul also happy if the case is not a forced rape. Of course, illegitimate sex is a sin, but not very serious sin since the second soul is not affected in negative way. But, through illegitimate sex, a third person is negatively affected, it becomes a sin especially when the third person is a good person. Sin means harming a good person and merit means pleasing a good person (Paropakāraḥ...). If the second person is happy, it is least sin if the third good person is not affected. In the case of anger, the second person is negatively affected if the first person beats the second good person. But, such negative effect is temporary. In the case of greed, if you steal the money of a good person through corruption, such good person is negatively affected for a long time. Hence, greed is the highest sin, anger is the higher sin and lust is the high sin.
Expelling sperm by such stupid practice is harming the health of the body. If the sperm is expelled in dream without your intention, such dream is lesser sin than expelling the sperm by one’s own efforts. However, expelling the sperm can’t be counted as merit, but, comes under sin only since the health of the body is affected. Harming self is also a sin. In order to come out of these sins, one must be engaged in the devotion to God. God will also help the soul to come out of this least sin also. If one controls the expulsion of sperm, the body will be very healthy and will be useful in attaining success in spiritual efforts. Keep Śaṇkara as the ideal to avoid this least sin also. Some people say that in the case of Śaṇkara also, once in His entire life the sperm leaked and He performed a sacrifice called Gardabheṣṭi (a sacrifice in which the donkey nature of the soul is killed). All this preaches that the leakage of sperm must be controlled as far as possible.
A bachelor in real sense is said to be the most deserving person in spiritual effort. Minimisation of sin as far as possible leads to total success on one day or other. The best advice in this line is to marry a suitable female and get rid of this sin. Such arrangement is made by God. You may question that why God has created this lust? The answer is that God created this lust to produce children and extend the humanity. Even after producing children or even if children are not born, one shall get rid of this problem by continuing sex with his legitimate wife (Dharmāviruddhaḥ kāmo'smi... Gītā). Of course, there are special contexts to remarry for the sake of children, which are out of the context of this topic asked in the question. Even in such special contexts the first life partner must give full consent without any force or cheating and this topic is elaborately explained by Me already. I have explained this topic in elaborate manner because this topic is very important in the context of present times. One must not do the higher and highest sins and must also at least try to control the high sin.
Every clever human being brings the example of God Kṛṣṇa and Gopikās, which is out of context because the case is about God and sages born as Gopikās. Neither the human being is God nor the sage. The context of Kṛṣṇa and Gopikās is quite different because it is the test of God to see how far the sages conquered the worldly fascinations like bond with money, bond with issues and bond with life partner. That topic comes under the climax stage of Nivṛtti only and in Pravṛtti, every human being must remember that God dislikes the sin only. Applying an exceptional example to the normal routine rule (Pravr̥tti) is over-intelligence leading to misinterpretation and exploitation of a special deserving case. I saw a cinema (a social picture only) in which a human hero is singing a song on the human heroine (not Kṛṣṇa as Hero and Radhā as heroine) and the song is “you are Radhā and I am Kṛṣṇa”! Here, the song may be taken in right sense also, which is that I am like Kṛṣṇa and you are like Radhā (sense of a simile or metaphor) and it will be wrong sense if the human hero feels that he is the actual Krishna and the human heroine is the actual Radhā. Who is Radhā? Radhā is the incarnation of Sage Durvāsa, who Himself was the incarnation of God Śiva. Who is Kṛṣṇa? He is incarnation of God Viṣṇu.
Simile and metaphor shall not be taken in the actual sense. Awareness is compared to God and the body is compared to the world. The commonality in this simile is that awareness is eternal like God and body is perishable like world. But, there is difference also, which is that God has no birth and death whereas the awareness has no death (that too by the will of God only) but, has birth since it was created by God in the sequence of creation (Annāt puruṣaḥ—Veda). The Veda is also poetry of God using figures of speech. By this, we shall not take simile or metaphor in the actual sense.