Seed of life?

1. Brahmacharya has always been advocated as the natural and default state of lifestyle for both man and woman from times immemorial. Women derive equal benefits from the practice of Brahmacharya on par with men and can reach the highest states of Kundalini awakening. If a man and his wife limit the purpose of the sexual act only to progeny of a child or two with each other and remain strict Brahmacharis for the rest of the time, doesn't it follow that both man and wife are in a natural state of Brahmacharya and on an equal footing? Such a man is a Brahmachari and his wife a Brahmacharini. This is the correct mode of life that helps man reach the purpose of the human existence - Self-realization.

2. The tendency of a man to spread his sperm far and wide is a carry over of male tendencies from past animal births. In animals, the male cohabits with various females to produce maximum number of offspring. This is required, as the chances of survival of offspring is very bleak in animals. Out of a litter of 10-12 lion cubs, less than 2 or three will reach adulthood. Some will die of disease, some are eaten by rival males and some are born with some deformity or the other and incapable of reaching adulthood.  This is not so in the case of man. Human babies are not eaten by their neighbors! The survival rate of the average human child into adulthood is more than 85%.

A man wishing spiritual progress is required to marry one woman, have one or two offspring from this very woman and then divert his vital energies towards the attainment of self-realization. A man who behaves like an animal and reverts to spreading his sperm far and wide among many women beyond the holy precincts of matrimony is not a man but worse than a beast. He is not yet fit to tread the path of Brahmacharya and self-realization. He will have to spend many human births working out his animal Vâsanâs (tendencies), suffer the consequences and finally reach a birth where he becomes fit for the practice of Brahmacharya after undoing his beastly tendencies.

3. The state of Brahmacharya applies equally to both man and woman. What is man? What is woman? There is no man and there is no woman. Everyone is only the Âtman (pure soul) in terms of reality and the Âtman has no gender. There is nothing called a male Âtman or a female Âtman. The Âtman is beyond these petty limitations and is infinite, formless, shapeless, colorless and universal. So all the tenets of Brahmacharya that apply to men apply equally to women. In man, the vital seed is in the fluid called veerya (semen). In women, their vital seed or the egg is in a fluid called Raja-veerya. Women suffer an equal drain of energy through recreational sexuality and on the opposite, attain to equally high spiritual states further to true Brahmacharya. A man cannot create life merely with his sperm or seed. An equal contribution occurs from the Raja-veerya or the vital fluid of woman. So this concept of man and woman is only the means for ensuring creation and propagation of the specie and nothing more. A soul with the body of a man in this birth may be born as a woman in the next birth. Be it a man or woman, Brahmacharya applies on an equal note to both and acts as the means for liberation. See past answers: 'Celibacy and women Dt: 11th January 2011.

4. The seed of life in a man through his semen or in a woman through her egg is only the carrier of Prâna (vital energy) and nothing more. The seed or egg by themselves in the physical form are of no value. It is the tremendous surcharge of Prâna (vital energy) into the seed and the egg, that make them capable of acting as a medium for the transference of a soul into the womb and then develop it into an embryo and finally the child. Kundalini awakening occurs and finally reaches the highest state when the net sum of all Prâna within the body is directed up to the Sahasrâra chakra in the brain. It reaches this seventh chakra by passing through the Sushumna Nâdi within the spine. This has nothing to do with the gender of a person. Immaterial of whether it is a man or a woman, both have all seven chakras, the Sushumna Nâdi within the spine and vital energy in the form of Prâna. It is not the vital seed of man or the egg of woman that is responsible for Kundalini awakening but the Prâna with which these are surcharged and which rises up the spine through their conservation and transmutation following a life of Brahmacharya that matters. So both man and woman can attain to the highest states of Kundalini awakening and are equally eligible to attain the final state of self-realization, for both in reality are neither man nor woman but only the Âtman.

The first thing that a person wishing spiritual progress must do is develop the attitude of seeing all living beings with an equal perspective as souls and not as bodies. One has to raise above the petty limitations of gender and false perspectives of ignorance such as "I am a man and you are ony a woman".  What is a man? It is a soul with the body of a man. What is a woman? It is again a soul with the body of a woman. Neither is superior or inferior to the other in terms of equality. The difference is to the body and not to the soul within. Upon death, both bodies will decompose and vanish. So they were both unreal. There was never man and never woman, both were an illusion. The Âtman alone is real. Everything else is false. Unless this train of thought of seeing and respecting all living creatures from a little worm to man or woman as the great Âtman is not developed, spiritual progress will not proceed even by a hairs breadth. Such a person is not yet ready for the path of Brahmacharya or spirituality. So let's raise above the limitation of the physical body surrounding the soul and work towards seeing all living beings as the manifestations of the Almighty Lord.

ॐ तत् सत्
(That Supreme being is the absolute truth)