That which is the eternal, unmanifest cause,comprising both being and non-being is called Brahma. Having dwelt inthat golden egg for a year, that lord through the meditation of hisown self, divided that egg twofold. Dividing his body into two, hebecame a male by one half, and by the other half a female.
The Lawbook of Manu
This is a familiar motif in the creation tales ofthe ancient traditions of Asia: The Lord divided Himself intohalves--one half became male, the other half, female. Or you mightsay, the Lord divided Herself into halves; it makes no differencewhatsoever.
We encounter the same idea in Greek philosophy.Socrates speaks of the golden age when there was no division ofsexes. As the golden age passed away, a split occurred--one becametwo, and each lost touch with its own other self. Since then, themale has been seeking the female and the female the male--both areseeking their counterparts since after the golden age. But because weare blinded by appearances, and our eyes cannot perceive thatspiritual light by which we can recognize our counterparts, westumble around experimenting, discarding, accepting, rejecting,trying out--all the while failing to find that one with whom we wereunited in the golden age.
In every individual, there is a male and there isa female. Because we have not balanced these two in ourselves, onebecomes the primary and the other secondary in ourselves. Then wespend our lives seeking the other half in the externalworld.
Yoga can be regarded as the science of union withthat lost counterpart, as the science of uniting female and male. Aswe progress spiritually, there comes a time when this apparentseparation ceases and the two are seen as one. The yogis who wrotethe Yoga Sutras also wrote the tantric texts. Tantra is the scienceof celibacy, the science of the internal union of the male and thefemale. A perfected being is one in whom the male and the female havebecome perfectly balanced. When otherness ceases to be, there isunion within.
Not only have we divided ourselves into male andfemale, we have also divided ourselves into body and spirit. Withineach of us, the kundalini force is lying coiled up, its power hiddenbecause we have divided ourselves into an external self of the bodyand an internal self of the spirit. Having divided ourselves up inthis way, we tend to identify with the body and dis-identify with thespirit. We start searching for the spiritual self, but the one who isdoing the searching is that very spiritual self.
In the same way, we go around seeking fulfillmentthrough the so-called opposite sex. But when we discover the virtuesand the beauties that we contain within ourselves, then we becomeself-sufficient and self-dependent. What the male looks for in thefemale is within himself, just as what female looks for in the maleis within herself. We are like the musk deer in the high Himalayanmountains, who are now on the verge of extinction. Legend has it thatin a certain season, this musk deer wanders frantically from valleyto hilltop and hilltop to valley searching desperately for the sourceof the intoxicating smell of musk that is coming from a gland nearhis own navel. He has been hunted to the brink of extinction for thatvery smell. Others know that the musk is in him, yet he does not knowit.
(Head)
There is no opposite sex; what we are looking forout there is already within us. Carl Jung somewhat understood this.In his office he kept a picture of a statue in which the sculptor hadbrought out the totality, the perfection of both sexes. Jung wouldask visitors, "Is this the picture of a male or a female?" Femaleswould always say it's the picture of a male, and males would alwayssay, "It's the picture of a female." Each recognized the other, butdid not recognize herself or himself.
Just as we have split the male from the femalepart of ourselves and the female from the male, we are split betweenthe external world and our spiritual selves. For this reason, a splitoccurs in our subtle energy. It becomes divided threefold: thecentral stream (called sushumna, the left stream (called ida), andthe right stream (called pingala) interweaving like the snakes in thewell-known medical symbol of the Caduceus.
The leftward force is called the female, therightward force is called the male. We are seldom perfectly balancedin our lives. We either lean to the left or we lean to the right, inone way or another. We try our best to balance the two, but we leadan unbalanced life, a life in which we have attractions, aversions;aversions, attractions. We shift between one side and the other, butnever take to the middle stream. This is why we fail to fully enjoywhat is present before us, why we do not enjoy what has been given tous.
The art of enjoyment in life has only two parts:restraint and concentration. It is not possible to enjoy anything inlife without these two. If you want to enjoy a painting, you have torestrain yourself from looking in all the other five thousanddirections and concentrate on the painting. If you want to enjoymusic, you have to refrain from every other thought and becometotally absorbed in listening. Restraint and concentration arecompanions: Restrain from other things and concentrate on what youwant to enjoy.
In their search for sexual satisfaction, peoplehave not mastered either the art of restraint nor the art ofconcentration. If you restrain yourself from sexual indulgence for aperiod of time and enjoy other things about your companion, then thepleasure of sexual indulgence will be fully concentrated. Thispleasure will be heightened if the sex act is undertaken primarilywith the thought of giving pleasure to the other person. A person onthe meditative path is considered fully celibate if his or hersexuality is a form of giving, rather than a means of personalsatisfaction. If you practice restraint and concentration andundertake sex with the thought of giving pleasure to your partner,you will be surprised at the way your marriage and your satisfactionwill bloom.
If you are on the meditative path, you will alsowant to learn to observe that energy that manifests itself outwardlyas sexual energy and understand that it has an inward flow. In yoga,we are always trying to balance the left nostril and the rightnostril. At most times, either your left nostril is flowing stronglyor your right nostril. But there are a few, rare times when bothnostrils flow with equal force. One of them is the moment of sexualclimax. Just for a brief period, the left nostril and the rightnostril in each individual participant of the sexual act flowsequally. And the yogis say that it is not your union with the otherpartner that is bringing you this ecstasy, but the fact that for thatmoment, all the male and the female forces, the left force and theright force within you, have become so fully concentrated that bothnostrils begin to flow equally and an ecstasy occurs.
The Sanskrit word for married couple is singular;it has no dual and plural as do other words in Sanskrit. This isbecause the outer partner is a projection of your opposite nature.The male in you, lady, is projected out there, and you embrace thatmale, your own other self, and vice versa. But if you keep lookingonly outwards, you will never find the essence of perfectsatisfaction within you.
The yogis say that celibacy means a permanentunion of the male and the female within you. So when the yogi whosekundalini is awake sits in long meditation, both nostrils begin toflow with equal force and he may sit that way for hours, even fordays. He has entered the path of sushumna, he in whom the two sideshave become absolutely balanced, experiences an ecstasy a milliontimes greater than the ecstasy experienced in sexual climax for anunbroken period of hours and days. So he opens his eyes to the worldand asks, "What is it that you people enjoy in sex? For a few secondspleasure, there is so much trouble in the world."
Those of you who are on the meditative path andwho are married will reap great rewards when you approach sex withrestraint and concentration. Concentrate on one person, concentrateon one person's pleasure. Restrain yourself for awhile, and at thosetimes, let your awareness flow inward and enjoy the art ofcelibacy.
Swami Veda Bharati was trained from childhood inmeditation and yoga philosophy and has taught yoga to thousands ofpeople from an early age. He is an expert in raja yoga which is thesource of all branches of yoga. A faculty member of the HimalayanInstitute, he has written many books and articles on yoga andmeditation. In addition to his writing and meditation, Swami VedaBharati has lectured and taught meditation throughout theworld.
Now you can have 5,000 years of wisdom, knowledgeand inspiration in your own home. Swami Veda Bharati's taped lecturesallow you to study, meditate and review various facets of yogascience at your own pace and level.
In 1982, Dr. Arya took the vows of swamihood, andis now known as Swami Veda Bharati. He lives in Rishikesh,India.
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