Transforming Sexual Energy

~~OM~~
Transformation of Sexual Energy
This discussion on sexual energy is classic. We have all heard about the need for
controlling our sexuality and about the power derived from transforming sexual
energy into spiritual energy. In this frank discourse, Shree Maa and I not only give a
new vocabulary with which to talk about the transformation of sexual energy, but
moreover we describe the process of that transformation. We detail the Swastik
asana and the banda kriya practices which turn shukra into ojas, and ojas into tejas,
resulting in the highest meditative energy and out of body experiences.
Click here for Talk on Sexual Energy

Swami Satyananda Saraswati's Talk on Transmuting Sexual Energy

This is the first time I've given this talk in mixed company, so please excuse me if
I'am a little hesitant. We wanted to talk about sexual energy. There are two paths,
the path of Viagra, and the path of Vairagya; they're very closely associated, just
equal and opposite. Of course, the path of Viagra is the path of stimulation and
external expression, and the path of Vairagya is the path that goes inside. Vai means
without, and raga means passion. And a vairagi is a kind of sanyasi in the Vaishnava
lineage. He is one who is free from passion. Also raga means activity. So vairagya
means reducing our attachment to activity. So we're interested, presumably, in the
path of vairagya, in the path of freeing ourselves from passion, and freeing ourselves
from activity. And I wanted to talk about a vocabulary that gives us new words to
invite new concepts, so that we can make the journey more efficiently.
Actually the concept of sexual energy has no Sanskrit name. There's just energy.
And there isn't sexual energy or spiritual energy or this energy, or that energy.
There is just shakti, energy. And wherever we pay attention to that shakti, that's
how it manifests in our lives, in our behavior, in our activities. So when we talk in
English about sexual energy, we're just saying our minds, our physiology is moving
toward sexuality. The energy is the same.
I want to talk about the process of transmuting, transforming, that energy which
we're paying attention to in sexual areas, into a spiritual energy which is taking us
higher and higher towards our intended goal. Because once we have this
understanding, we become empowered to desist from seeking frivolous relationships.
We don't have to go outside, and find relationships that don't work for us. We can
spend more time bringing that energy in and up towards our intended goal.
That's why I want to talk about this new vocabulary. The first step, of course, are the
organs. In the male, it is called the lingam, and in the female it's called the yoni.
Now, the yoni has another name; it's also called the chit kunda, the container of
consciousness, because no one goes to the yoni without placing full consciousness.
It's not something that is done casually.
In our Kali Puja book, we have translated a paddhoti, a system of worship for the
puja called garbhadhan. Beyond the yoni is the garbbha, the womb, and that's where
the seeds are incubated. What we call garbhadhan is placing the seeds into the
incubator, into the womb. We have many mantras that use the term garbha.
Hiranyagarbha, the golden womb, is the womb which incubates the seeds.
Actually, here is where the distinctions in the vocabulary between male and female
stops. From here on, there is just one vocabulary to describe the process, because
both male and female seeds are called shukra. Shukra means the seeds of life, and
shukra means bright, and clear, and pure, which means the seeds of life are the
purveyors of clarity and purity. In the Kali Sahasranama, there are several names
into which the qualities of Shukra are integrated: like, shukra vrishtipradayini and
shukra samudranivasini. In one sense, in the gross body, she is the purveyor of the
seeds of life. In another sense, she dwells in the ocean of purity or clarity, which
begets life. So in whatever way we want to take the understanding, that's how we
will apply it in our sadhana, and in our lives.
When I translated the Kali Sahashranam, I used the term, clarity to stand for the
seeds of life. But the seeds of life are equally applicable. Now more subtle that the
shukra is ojas. Ojas is the subtle body of shukra. Shukra is the gross body, that
which comes out, that which unites, that which begets life, another being. Ojas is the
subtle body. The objective of our practice will be to take all the shukra that wants to
flow out, that wants to take the path to the world, and turn it inside, and turn it into
ojas, and bring the ojas up. Almost like an ejaculation of the subtle form, it comes
up.
Now in order to make this more efficient, there are a few techniques called
"bandhas." A bandha is the contraction of the muscles. In order to practice this, you
will want to be sitting in the swastik asana, with your left heel in the muladhara to
the extent of your capacity. And if you were to feel yourself in a state of sexual
excitement, and paying attention to the sexual energy, then you could sit in the
asana, and practice the bandha. The mulabandha is the contraction of the muscles in
the anus, and you just close the anus, and tighten the bottom, and bring the energy
up, almost as it shoots up. And as the energy comes up in its subtle form, in the
form of ojas. it comes through the swadishtana, and into the manipura chakra,
where you practice the madyamikabandha, by contracting the abdominal muscles.
So you practice first the mulabandha, and bring that energy up into the manipura,
and then you practice the madyamikabandh, and contract the abdominal muscles,
and keep pulling it up until it comes to the heart. In the heart comes the
uttarbandha, where you contract the muscles of the heart just like you are so much
in love, just like you're feeling so much power, empowered by the shakti that's
coming up. Now it's no longer sexual energy, it's shakti. And this shakti's coming into
the heart chakra. It's filling the heart with. the essence of what we're seeking in that
expression of energy. We're turning that sexual passion into love, and we will change
the ojas into tejas, and tejas means light. If you contract the muscles of the chest,
and pull in your heart, and feel the light rising higher and higher, you move into the
uttarabandh. Here you bring that tejas shakti to the agnya chakra, and through the
sahasrara, and bring it out, and let it go as high as you possibly can, almost like you
had an ejaculation of the subtle form of energy that came all the way out through
the top of your skull, and reached all the way to the planets.
And that's called making love. So the mulabandha contracts the anal muscles and
also those of the thighs, and then you bring up the energy into madhyamikabandha,
where it becomes so much empowered, so much more fulfilled, and through
practicing madhyamikabandha, you bring it to the anahata chakra. Here it fills your
heart with so much love, and you're exuding this energy. You can hardly contain it;
your chest pulls in tight because you're feeling so much emotion. Now you've
become vairagi, because all the raga, all the passion, has been directed towards your
love of God. And from the uttarbandha, we're bringing it higher and higher, and by
letting it sit in the agyna chakra, the ojas becomes tejas. The mind becomes filled
with light, and now you feel that light, you see that light coming higher and higher.
And that's where we can meditate.
Then sexual energy is no longer an obstacle in our path; it's just energy. And it's a
tool by which we move, direct, and can focus our attention to where we want to go.
It doesn't bring us outside into relationships that we don't really need. It brings us
inside into the furtherance of our true objectives.
Swamiji asks, "Are there any questions?"
Shree Maa says:
Patnim manoramam dehi, manovrittanusarinim
tarinim durga samsara, sagarasya kulodbhavam.
This is shiva/shakti.
Swamiji explains, "This is the union between Shiva and Shakti; Shiva in the
sahasrara, and shakti resides in the muladhara. She's coming up in the form of
shukra, transforming into ojas, becoming tejas, and then uniting. And this is the true
union, the verse that Mother is reciting from the Argala Stotram. Give me a wife in
harmony with my mind; that wife is Shakti because who's singing the song? Shiva!
Consciousness is asking for energy to come and illuminate him. That's just what it is!
From Shree Maa's comment, Swamiji further explains, "That wife, that energy, is
uniting with the soul, and taking the soul higher and higher, and higher. Now she's
no longer the energy that keeps us bound to worldly interaction. She's the energy
that inspires us to come to the highest realization. We have just transformed that
energy. So the concept of sexual energy is really a misnomer. It's not understood.
There is no sexual energy. there's just energy! And if we don't regulate or direct that
energy, it will direct us. But once we grab hold of ourselves, and clarify our goals,
and clarify our objectives, and really make the sankalpa, the firm determination and
definition of that objective: "What are my values, what is important to me?" then, a
verse in the Bhagavad Gita says that all the thoughts flow through the mind of the
muni, but the muni never reacts. He is free from reaction. Knock on the door, and
there's nobody home. That is the degree of vaiyagra, dispassion, freedom from
misdirected passion, that we strive to attain. We want to be passionate, but about
the right things.
Swamiji continues, "When we can control our senses, then we can achieve to the
wisdom of Brahma, the wisdom of the Supreme Divinity, by understanding this
process. From the external, from the stimulation of the lingam and the yoni, and
from the production of shukra, we take the shukra and extract the ojas. We let the
ojas flow up until it becomes tejas, and let the tejas continue up. We go from the
tejamayi kosha to the anandamayi kosha. There's an illumination. Then the higher
definition of shukra as bright, clear, illuminating, becomes ever more subtle, and we
get to have the union in that way.
Swamiji asks, "Do you have any questions about it?"
One person asks, "When you move the energy with the bandhas, do you use your
breath?"
Swamiji responds, "Yes, you do. When you contract the muscles, you breathe into it,
and then you pull up that energy, just as though it were ejaculating up, and you pull
it higher, and higher, and don't let it stop below. Let it go higher, and higher, and
higher. Encourage it to rise, and pull on it until you get it up to the
madhyamikabandha, and then when you have the madhyamikabandha, you're
practicing the pranayama, but you're constricting the solar plexus, so you don't have
a full purak, or a full rechak, because you've got a bandha. There's a restriction;
you're not practicing a full kumbaka.
Instead you are forcing the energy up higher and higher. Bring it to the heart, and
feel it in the heart. You know what it feels like when your heart is so full, that your
chest cavity can't contain it. You've all had that experience. Your chest is just not big
enough to contain your heart; it's bursting. And breathe into that, and that's where
the ojas becomes tejas. And now you're not pulling on the subtle force of life, you're
pulling on light, radiant light! And you bring up that light with the rising breath,
uddhana, just higher and higher and higher until this body is not sufficient to contain
it. It just comes right out the top, as though if you were to look down from the
highest heavens on that body meditating there, it would seem that that body is just
one part of you, because you've pulled the consciousness out of it in the form of
light.
Shree Maa comments, "That way you can get levitation."
Swamiji comments, "That's the true meaning of levitation; it's removing your
consciousness from the body, and looking down, raising the consciousness up. Not
necessarily raising the body.
Swamiji, "Are there other questions?"
One person asks, "Should this just be used when you feel that stimulation; should
one use these practices only then?"
Swamiji, "I would recommend using this technique primarily if you feel any sexual
stimulation, because you don't want to put yourself into a position of stimulation. But
if you were to feel stimulation, then there are two choices, you can let it out, or you
can bring it up. Now, if you let it out, you want to let it out with all purity, and all
thankfulness, and all gratefulness, and all surrender, as the greatest expression of
the seeds of life uniting in the purest,
clearest, most dharmik way possible. But even better is to bring it up, and turn the
shukra into ojas, and the ojas into tejas, and the tejas into chit shakti, the energy of
consciousness. It becomes filled with the energy of consciousness. So this would be
a technique if you feel yourself prone to sexual stimulation, and I guarantee you that
within some time of practice, you'll forget all about the sexuality of it, and just look
at the transformation of energy. It won't be a sexual stimulation anymore. It will be
part of a technique of meditation.
Swamiji, "Are there any other questions?"
One individual asks, "When we are meditating, and we can feel that tejas in our
heart, can this come spontaneously during meditation?
Swamiji responds, "Yes, it can, absolutely, and you want it to. It doesn't have to be
the result of sexual stimulation. It could be just filling your heart, and not practicing
the mulabandha or the madyamikabandha, but going right to the uttarbandha. If you
are free from sexual stimulation, then you can just go directly to the uttarbandha.
Fill your chest full of that love, that energy, that bhava, and then make your heart so
big that your chest can't contain it anymore, and then take that tejas shakti and
bring it up. It doesn't have to start from sexuality.
But if you have sexual stimulation, then there are only two choices, let it out, or
bring it up. And this is a system by which we can bring it up. So that's why we
wanted to share that.
Om Sam Saraswatyai Namah!