|
IN CONTINUATION OF THE ARTICLE IN THE FEBRUARY ISSUE,
JON ENGLE EXPLORES THE CASE FOR
CHASTITY FROM A SOMEWHAT DIFFERENT ANGLE. We who have been brought up with materially inclined
natures have generally had great misconceptions on the nature of chastity. As
of late it is more often than not associated with repression, religious
fanaticism, etc, and the notion that it is a source of great calm and strength
( of both mind and body) as well as a tremendous joy within itself is all too
quickly discarded. This misconception ides stems largely as reaction to those
who knew (or may be only preached) “physical chastity” but never attempted
control over their minds. All of the Masters and great men who emphasized
chastity meant something far beyond outward behavior when they spoke of it. In the Gurmat Siddhant, the great Master defines
chastity as being: “… the purity of mind, word, and deed. It does not
simply mean control of sex organs. It comprises control over all sense
organs….. This continence cannot be practiced
by control of the body. Continence should therefore be observed with
mind, speech and action. If one controls the body but thinks of sensual pleasures, it is harmful for the
mind pushes the body in that direction, it is harmful for the mind pushes the
body in that direction… continence does not mean that one should merely control
his lust and sensual passions. It means actually to withdraw oneself from all
sense desire.” With the understanding the chastity is more than just
a control over the physical body, it may be taken in the same lines as the
purity of which Teilhard Chardin speaks in the divine milieu when he says that
three things are essential for drawing one toward “the limitless concentration
of the divine in the lives.” Purity, faith and fidelity. Concerning purity he
says: “Purity, in the wide sense of the word, is not merely
the abstaining from wrong (that is only a negative aspect of purity) nor even
(physical) chastity (which is only a remarkable special instances of it). It is
the rectitude and the impulse introduced into our lives by the Love of God
sought in and above every thing. “He is spiritually impure when lingering in pleasure
or shut up selfishness, introduces, within himself and around himself, a
principles of slowing –down and division in the unification of the universe in
God. “He is pure, on the other hand who, in accord with his
place in the world, seeks to give Christ’s desire to consummate all things
precedence over his over immediate and momentary advantage. Still purer and more pure in him, who attracted by
God, succeeds by giving that movement
and impulses of Christ’s an ever greater continuity, intensity and reality –
whether his vocation calls him to move always in the material zones of the
world (though more and more spiritually), or whether as is more often the case,
he has access to regions where the divine gradually replaces for him all other
earthly nourishments. “Thus understood, the purity of beings is measured by
the degree of the attraction that draws them towards the divine center, or what
comes to the same thing, by their proximity to the center.” Soren Kierkegaard, the great Danish philosopher,
writes that “purity of heart is to will one thing” adding that “he who in truth
wills only one thing can will only the Good.” Finally, we will turn back to the Master Kirpal Singh,
who says that purity consists simply in “respectful and humble attitude toward
God free from all cares and attitudes of the world.” With the hope that these few examples better define
what chastity and purity are, let us continue with another quote of the Masters
from the crown of life: “The way for transcending desire, he will know, is not
through repressing it, but meeting it squarely and overcoming it. To him,
sanyasa is not a matter of outer evasion or escapism.” This point of repression may require special attention
for all too often a person who practices (physical ) chastity does so at the
outward level only and thus it is at the expense of his purity. This
misunderstanding has caused many to believe that the best means to freeing the
mind is through sexual freedom. However, repression is only these same sense
thoughts, attacking from a different angle. In this context, Gautama Buddha,
who himself laid every emphasis on overcoming lusts and desires, warns in the
Dhammapada that: “Asceticism wrongly practices leads to the downward path.” And
Lord Krishna, in the Bhagvad Gita, supports this with the words: “Attraction and repulsion for the objects of sense are
seated in the sense are seated in the senses. Let no one come under control of
these two; they are his enemies.” What is the way beyond “repulsion and attraction?
Again from Krishna we have: “The sense objects fall off from a man practicing
abstinence but not the taste for them. but even this taste (for) the man of
steady wisdom ceases when he sees the supreme.” Again he says: “But of all I could name, verily love
is the highest, love and devotion that makes one forgetful of everything else,
love that unites the lover with me. What ineffable joy does one find through
love of me, the blissful self! Once that love is realized, all earthly
pleasures fade into nothingness.” Similarly it is written in the Granth Sahib: O Satguru, when I came to thy feet These five strange aliens came under my control. He was pleased and I was blessed with his grace. Now they cannot revolt or raise their heads. And again: All the work has been resolved the mind’s hunger
satisfied, What else can I desire form you but you? All else is misery upon misery. Give the Naam which renders all fulfilled And takes away the
hunger of the mind; I have abandoned everything and I am a true servant of
the Lord. In the creative intuition in Art and Poetry, Jacques
Maritan states that the creative and higher impulses in man do not come from
instinctive urges but are born of a transcendent or spiritual unconscious: “My contention then, is that everything depends, in
the issue we are discussing, on the recognition of the existence of a spiritual
unconscious or rather, preconscious of which plato and the ancient wise men
were well aware, and the disregard of which in favor of the Freudian
unconscious alone is a sign of the dullness of our times. There are two kinds
of unconscious, two great domains of psychological activity screened from the
grasp of consciousness: the preconscious of the spirit in its living strings
and the unconscious of blood and flesh, instincts, tendencies, complexes,
repressed images and desires, traumatic memories, as constitution a closed or
autonomous dynamic whole, I would like to designate the first kind of
unconscious by the name of spiritual or for the sake of Plato, musical
unconscious or preconscious; and the second by the name of automatic unconscious
or deaf unconscious – deaf to the intellect, and structured into a world of its
own apart from the intellect; we might also say, in quite a general sense
leaving a side any particular theory Freduian unconsciousness. These two life of unconscious life are at work at the same time in
concrete existence their respective impacts on conscious activities ordinarily
intermingle in greater or less degree and I think never respect in some never
rare instances of supreme spiritual
purification does the spiritual
unconsciousness operate without the other being involved. Be it to a
very small existent, but they are essentially distinct and thoroughly different
nature.” One draws to Heaven and to
earth, the other, One is the soul, one living in
the sense, Drawing its bow on what is
base and vile. MICHELAN Very similarly, from the pen of great German poet Johann WolfGonvon Goethe is written: Two souls are dwelling in the
breast, And one is striving to forsake
its brother. Unto the world in grossly love
zest With clinging tendrils, one
adhere The other rises forcibly in a
quest Of rarified ancestral spheres. In a later work, Goethe writes of surrendering of
one’s lower natural attain to the highest: “the individual will gladly perish if he can find himself again in boundless infinity, where all vexations dissolve; where instead of passionate wishes and wild desires, irksome demands and stern obligations, the self will delight in self-surrender.” In man the unknown, Alexis Carrel supports the case for chastity from a slightly different point of view: “Mental activities evidently depend on physiological activities. Organic modifications are observed to correspond to the succession of the states of consciousness. Inversely, psychological phenomena are determined by certain functional states of the organs. The whole consisting of body and consciousness is modifiable by organic as well as by mental factors. Mind and organism commune in man, like form and marble. The brain is supposed to be the seat of the psychological functions, because its lesions are followed by immediate and profound disorders of consciousness. It is probably by means of the cerebral cells that mind inserts itself in matter. Brain and intelligence develop simultaneously in children. When senile atrophy occurs, intelligence decreases. The presence of the spirochetes of syphilis around the pyramidal cells brings about delusions of grandeur. When the virus of lethargic encephalitis attacks the brain substances, profound disturbances of personality appear. Mental activity suffers temporary changes under the influence of alcohol carried by blood from the stomach to the nervous system. The fall of blood pressure due to the hemorrhage suppresses al manifestations of consciousness. In short, mental life is observed to depend on the state of the cerebrum. “these observations do not suffice to demonstrate that the brain alone is the organ of consciousness. In fact, the cerebral centers are not composed exclusively of nervous matter. They also consist of fluids in which the cells are immersed and whose composition is regulated by blood serum. And blood serum contains the gland and tissue secretions that diffuse through the entire body. Every organ is present in the cerebral cortex by the agency of blood and lymph. Therefore, our states of consciousness are linked to the chemical constitution of the humors of the brain as much as to the structural state of its cells. When the organic medium is deprived of the secretions of the suprarenal glands, the patient falls into the profound depression. He resembles a cold-blooded animal. The functional disorders of thyroid gland bring about either nervous and mental excitation or apathy. Moral idiots, feeble minded, and criminals are found in the families where lesions of this gland are hereditary. Everyone knows how human personality is modified by diseases of the liver, the stomach, and the intestines. Obviously the cells of the organs discharge into the bodily fluids certain substances that react upon our mental and spiritual functions. “The testicle, more than any other gland, exerts a profound influence upon the strength and quality of the mind… the removal of the genital glands, even in adult individuals, produces some modifications of the mental state…….. Inspiration seems to depend on a certain condition of the sexual glands. Love stimulates mind when it does not attain its object. If Beatrice had been the mistress had been the mistress of Dante, there would perhaps be no divine comedy. The great mystics often used the expression of Solomon’s song. It seems that their unassuaged sexual appetites urged them more forcibly along the path of renouncement and complete sacrifice. A workman’s wife can request the services of her husband everyday. But the wife of an artist or a philosopher has not the right to do so as often. It is well known that sexual excesses impede intellectual activity. In order to reach its full power, intelligence seems to require both the presence of well-developed sexual glands and the temporary repression of the sexual appetite. Freud has rightly emphasized the capital importance of sexual impulses in the activities of consciousness. However, his observations refer chiefly to sick people. His conclusions should not be generalized to include normal individual, especially those who are endowed with a strong nervous system and mastery over themselves. While the weak the nervous and the unbalanced become more abnormal when their sexual appetites are repressed, the strong are rendered still stronger by practicing such a form of asceticism. He that is able, let him arise and follow into this
inner sanctuary, nor look back towards those bodily splendors which he formerly
admired. For when we behold the beauties of the body we must not hurl over
selves at them, but know them for images, vestiges and shadows flee to that of
which they are reflections…. How truly might someone exhort us – Let us then,
fly to our dear country. Cut away that which is superfluous, straighten that
which is crooked, purify that which is obscure labor to make all bright, and
never cease to fashion your statue until there shall shine out upon you the
godly splendor of virtue, until you have the temperance established in purity
in the holy shrine. If you have become this, and have beheld it, and dwell
within yourself in purity.. there is now nothing which prevents you from thus
becoming one, when you have nothing foreign mingled with your interior never
but your whole self is true light and all alone….. for he that beholds, must before
he comes to this vision, be truly formed into its likeness. Never could the eye
have looked upon the sun that did not become sun-like and never can the soul
see Beauty unless she has become beautiful. Let each man first become God-like
and each man beautiful if he would behold Beauty and God. PLOTINUS. |