16 Jun 2015
[Shri Anil asked: Padanamaskaram Swami, Kindly answer the following questions
1. How to overcome lust practically?
2. You said that ejection of sperm by hand practice is not a sin in the case of saints. But, is not a sin?
3. In day to day worldly issues, for achieving some goals, during the performance of the duty to achieve that goal, tension comes due to the thought of failure of achievement of the goal. How to handle such situations.
4) Dr. Nikhil asked about the sin in family planning in such context.
At the lotus feet of Swami
-anil antony]
Swami replied: [reply of 1&2] Hunger, thirst and lust are the needs of the biological body, which are created by God for certain purposes based on His will. The hunger and thirst indicate the necessity of food and water required for the body so that the present human generation is sustained. The lust created by the hormonal chemistry indicates the requirement of production of the future human generation. Hence, these three are based on the will of God and hence are not sins. The will of God also directs you not to violate the divine justice in any process, which was established by God. Hunger and thrist become sins if you steal the food and water of some other person. Both these are not sins if you enjoy the food and water earned by you. Similarly, lust concentrated on your wife or husband to extend the human race is not sin. But, the same lust extended to other ladies or husbands is the sin. The Gita says that the lust confined in the path of justice is divine (Dharmaaviruddhah...). The Veda says that you should extend the human race (Prajaatantum...). Marriage is only for extension of human race (Prajaayai gruha medhinam…). Hence, if you are wasting the sperm or ovum by ejection through hand practice, you are a sinner since you are not obeying the divine will. But, if you are involved in divine work by the order of God, if possible, you can avoid the marriage since wife and children hinder the work. Very serious involvement requires such path as in the case of Shankara. Normal involvement in the divine work does not require such a serious path. In such case, your total concentration on God does not generate lust since lust is the mental aspect. The leakage of sperm takes place periodically by itself, which is not even noticed. Such wastage of sperm is not a sin because even though divine will is not followed, the divine work, which is more serious, is accomplished. It is said that there was leakage of sperm even in the case of Shankara, who in repentance performed a special sacrifice called Gardabheshti, which is generally misunderstood as killing a donkey in the ritual. That is totally wrong. You should kill the lust, which has the nature of animal like donkey (Manyuh pashuh— Veda). Mind and body are interlinked to each other even as per the medical science. Hence, if your mind is totally absorbed in God, the sperm is not generated from blood and such state is called as ‘Uurthavaretah’ meaning that the sperm does not fall. Such a stage is very much impossible in the case of human beings and the story of Shankakra stands to indicate such impossibility. Shankara entered the body of king Amaruka and enjoyed the ladies in order to get the knowledge of sex (Kama Shastra) for the sake of debate and here there is no sin since the body involved was not of Shankara.
Thus, the leakage of sperm is a sin, but that is very very negligible (0.1%) since it is almost unnoticed. The leakage of sperm by hand practice imagining opposite sex is a greater sin, but still is negligible (1%). The female saints are not exempted here, due to mention of sperm, since the hormonal chemistry exists in every biological body and hence usage of fingers by them also comes under hand practice. In view of the merit (99.9 or 99%) of the divine work, which is the propagation of divine knowledge, this sin is neglected and can be treated as almost perfection. All this is related to the individual souls and God cannot be brought in to this topic of Pravrutti. Lord Krishna dancing with ladies and girls cannot be brought into the boundary of this topic. God is beyond lust. He acted as if He was bound by lust to test the devotees to see whether they vote for Him even against the justice. This is Nivrutti in which both God and individual souls stand. Pravrutti is totally different in which only individual souls stand and these should vote for the justice against the injustice. Confusion between these two fields must be avoided.
3) The tension comes only due to your attachment to the issues and items of this world as said in the Gita (Samgat Samjayatee...). The attachment to this world must be destroyed so that you can get permanent relief from the stress. But the mind cannot exist in the detached state for long time. The mind should be attached to something, which is other than the world. There are only two things: 1) The creator or God and 2) The creation or the world. Therefore, you have to attach your mind to God and such diversion satisfies the nature of mind i.e., constant attachment to something. Since God is more attractive than the world, the mind does not return at all to the world because mind has another characteristic that it is attached to more attractive thing. Even in the case of same item, it is attracted to the item having more attraction. The food item of one hotel attracts your mind more than the same of another hotel so that you always go to the first hotel only. God is totally different (being unimaginable) from the world (imaginable) and is possessing highest attraction. In the beginning, effort for initial taste of the other item of higher attraction is inevitable. There is no need of any effort for the detachment of the mind from the world since it is a consequential sequence of attachment to God. You need not try for the detachment from coffee if you have tasted the divine nectar. Once you tasted the divine nectar, you will not go for coffee and this is a normal tendency.
4) Family planning means to get controlled number of children. The scripture criticizes the concept of one child because if anything happens to that child, the original problem comes. Hence, two children are always recommended. Therefore, the concept of family planning was always focussed in view of controlled population. In several stories, one good child is voted against several bad children. Avoiding the union of sperm and ovum is not a sin but destroying the fertilized ovum is a sin. Hence, the family planning employing such means to avoid the fertilization of ovum is not sinful. Abortion is a serious sin. This is a basic concept of ethics irrespective of any religion.