Contrary to what many people believe, the Yogis are no more ascetics in the matter of sex than of food even though some of their elder sages do live on a lofty spiritual plane where all things of the flesh have ceased to matter. On the contrary, Yoga, being a philosophy singularly free of both Puritanism and hypocrisy, its disciples recognize the sex urge for the healthy instinct it is and would consider any attempt at its suppression profoundly unhealthy. Suppression and denial can lead only to physical upsets and mental harm. It is we Westerners who sometimes tend to look on sex as unclean. But the Yogis are steeped in the general Eastern attitude which is simply that sexual impulses, like any other natural urges, may be used to either good purpose or evil, depending on our­selves.

If sex is made synonymous with physical love—the carnal side of deep and genuine emotion—it becomes a supremely meaningful and beautiful expression of the man-woman re­lationship, the ultimate union. Debased, it debases and brings down the mis-user to animal level. The Hindee believe that woman is the complementary part of man, a gift from heaven,

man's soul companion and helpmate, and that union must be not only mental and spiritual, but physical. Marriage is en­tered upon in an attitude of humility, with full recognition of its solemnity. In fact, one of the basic Hindu writings, the Kama Sutra, is an elaborate treatise on the philosophy and etiquette of love, courtship and sexual behavior, both male and female, detailed in a manner which our best modern man­uals on marriage techniques do not begin to approach.

Hindu temples are often decorated with phallic represen­tations which shock the Occidental traveler, but which to the worshippers have a deep spiritual significance. Because of this cultural attitude Oriental women share with their men an approach at the same time more natural and more sophisti­cated, quite unlike so many Western women who consider all sex relationships, including that with a husband, as slightly unclean if not indecent, a grim "duty" to be performed as the price of staying married. In this—unfortunately for ourselves and fortunately for the rest of the world—we are truly unique. For there is nothing unclean about sex except the mind of the man or woman who either is obsessed with it or cannot face it. What is perverted is the cultural aura handed down to us from repressed Victorian ancestors whose neurotic patterns have helped misshape some of our own.

The Yogis, who teach that man's supreme goal is Self-realization, understand that such realization cannot be wholly achieved except through union with woman, his other half. What one sex lacks the other provides. Rigid denial is merely a superficial form of escape which is self-defeating. To live fully, with understanding, each human being must know something of the innermost depths of the mind of the other sex. It is impossible to advance to complete understanding of Self, and of the world at large, while living in ignorance of the other half of mankind. Man and woman have been created for each other, not to exist in separate vacuums.

However, Self-realization may not be equated with self-indulgence. Therefore Yoga teaches that much of our sex drive must also be sublimated, that is, channeled into other life drives, creative or otherwise useful and always constructive. In this Yoga is not too different from the Freudian theory which claims that all man's urges, including the life urge it­self, are based in the libido. The very symbol of Kundalini, remember, is the serpent; and the serpent is one of the basic and universal symbols of male sexuality, not only in Freudian language but throughout mythology and folklore every­where. Thus in Genesis, the serpent enters the Garden of Eden and prevails upon Eve to taste of the fruit of the Tree of Life so that she might have knowledge of good and evil. This, ac­cording to some authorities, symbolizes sex and the creative power wrongly used. It has also been pointed out that a close parallel exists between the Genesis legend and the sacred Hindu writings relating to Kundalini, for that too is generally described as "the slumbering serpent." Furthermore, when this serpent is awakened and used grossly merely to satisfy sheer animal desire—when it is directed downward to the lower physical centers—it brings knowledge of evil; directed upward toward the heart and head, it brings knowledge of good.

The Yogis themselves have learned how to transmute sex energy into psychic channels. Thus it is never either actually suppressed or dissipated but rather transmuted. Sometimes it is drawn to the solar plexus for utilizing in healthful physical exercise. Sometimes it is sent to the brain and toward the spirit. To the advanced Yogi it then brings poise, harmony, freedom from desire, lasting serenity, and finally a merging with the Universal Consciousness. To us average individuals, control over this basic inner force may well mean a happier personal life.

The man and woman doesn't exist whose personal life is not closely related to his sex life, be this good, indifferent or bad. The well-adjusted, well-functioning and sexually potent individual dreams of perpetuating this state of affairs indefi­nitely. The ineffectual man, the frigid woman, even if they may not realize it themselves, wish helplessly for a solution to their special problems, a solution that would bring them liber­ation.

Yoga offers many such solutions. In the first place, a number of the Yoga exercises help sublimate a restless sex urge while others awaken a sluggish body. Restlessness becomes positive, creative energy which may then be properly utilized instead of merely bringing trouble. Conversely, lack of interest in one's mate—and sometimes the free-floating hostility arising out of such feelings—slowly gives way to a warmer, more giving attitude.

Sex, as we all know, is not all there is to a good marriage but it is one of its cornerstones. A warmhearted partner mated with a cold, unresponsive one may be willing out of loyalty to put up with a physical starvation diet, but is bound to be adversely affected and sometimes even emotionally destroyed. Or else, the marriage itself is destroyed when once the rejected partner, having had enough of indifference, turns elsewhere for affection. Contrary to what many Westerners have been brought up to believe, primness, excessive reserve, overempha­sis on decorum (the so-called virtues of the "good" woman) often are not virtue at all but a mask for deep insensibility, for an inability to love and be loved, to give and to share, or even for a need to destroy the mate, castrate him physically, so to speak, as an expression of hostility to the opposite sex. The sexless male—not as rare as many imagine—is the same kind of emotionally impoverished individual.

Yoga spiritual education frees the student of the straight-jacket of prudishness and of hostility. But long before such emotional growth has been achieved certain obvious changes may be brought about through the daily performance of the proper asanas and mudras. As we have said so many times at various points in this discussion, there can be no under­estimating of the interplay of the physical and the spiritual in the human makeup. Therefore putting your physical house in order will do wonders for you in other ways too.

Sluggish sex urges are often traceable to inadequately func­tioning endocrine glands and a resulting hormone deficiency. The gonads, or sex glands, would be the offenders here. But the gonads, like the other endocrines, are themselves con­trolled by the pituitary gland which is known to secrete about a dozen hormones that stimulate the proper functioning of all the other seven pair. It may very well be, therefore, that the sexually indifferent person's basic trouble lies in some mal­functioning of the pituitary, a condition which Western medicine would treat by means of expensive hormone injec­tions or equally expensive pills. The Yoga method, of course, is through exercise.

Turn back to the chapter on basic asanas, Chapter XI.

You will find that the Headstand, or Sirshasana (Page 100), if practiced regularly, will stimulate the pituitary gland by sending a vast flow of blood to the head as your body briefly defies the laws of gravity. Thus stimulated, it will then im­mediately wake up the gonads, which will begin to respond by producing hormones of their own. Needless to say this is not the only beneficial result of the Headstand (its various therapeutic effects are detailed along with directions for executing it) but it happens to be the effect which concerns us here.

For persons unable to do the Headstand, there is the Shoul­der Stand, or Sarvangasana (Page 90) and the Reverse Pos­ture, or Viparitakarani Mudra (Page 85), both of which ac­complish almost, if not quite, the same results. Again, you will find a careful description of these exercises and the various benefits derived from them in Chapter XI.

But revitalizing the pituitary is not the only way to keep the gonads in top functioning condition. Exercises for both stim­ulating and sublimating the sex instincts include the Stomach Lift or Uddiyana Bandha (Page 92), the Plough or Halasana (Page 99), the Fish Pose, Matsyasana (Page 88) and the Su­pine Pelvic Posture (Page 89). Keep in mind that each of these asanas is beneficial in more ways than this one—that by learning to do them you will be reaping fringe benefits, but their specific value here is revitalization of the gonad secre­tions, overcoming seminal weakness in men and ovarian dis­turbances in women. The Stomach Lift, for instance, massages the inner walls of the abdomen and tones all stomach muscles. The Plough, Fish and Supine Poses strengthen and stimulate the muscles and organs of the lower abdomen, or the entire pel­vic region. This, of course, has a direct bearing on the glands situated there. At the same time all of these asanas as well as the Headstand have a beneficial effect on the thyroid gland so closely related to our overall physical well-being.

Naturally, as has been said elsewhere, it is not necessary to perform all of the exercises mentioned here. You would prob­ably not have time for them even if you have the agility. Be­sides, in working out a schedule for yourself you must not neglect other aspects of your Yoga routine. Since any one of them, done accurately and regularly, will accomplish the desired results, start with whichever is easiest for you and suits you best. Keep to it for a while and, if you have time for more or wish to vary your routine, experiment with a second or a third later on. In a short while the effects will become apparent and will doubtless surprise you: you will be rewarded not only by physical revitalization, but a sense of greater inner har­mony. Anxieties relating to your sexual activity will gradually vanish. This combination of renewed vitality and inner peace will eventually mean the ability to maintain undiminished sexual powers for decades longer than is generally common in the West.

Sexual potency and responsiveness—or conversely the ability to control too-violent, disturbing urges—will not be the only gain you will notice. Your instinctive drives once properly channeled, you will discover that your general re­lationships with others are gradually changing for the better. First and foremost, of course, there may be a change in the re­lationship with husband or wife. Physically and emotionally you will find yourself growing more giving, and inevitably you will receive more in turn. What's more, your new inner balance will make it possible for you to have a deeper under­standing of your partner, a new responsiveness to the other's needs, a greater tolerance of faults and imperfections. What was once a simple physical urge will have grown into spiritual experience.

Aristophanes, in Plato's Symposium, tells how once upon a time all human beings were born like Siamese twins. Each had two heads, two sets of arms and legs and, because each was complete within the self, infinite ability and strength. So pow­erful did the human race grow that the gods became fright­ened. So to lessen the threat to themselves they severed each human creature in half. Then they scattered the halves, hopelessly mixed up, far and wide over the earth. And ever since then, each of us must spend his life groping, searching for the lost other half. A few, a very few, succeed. When this happens there is a perfect, an ideal marriage. But more often people merely think they have found their destined mate. Betrayed by primitive longing, they settle for a pedestrian partnership with someone whose temperament is quite incompatible with their own, then both spend the rest of a lifetime in a state of armed neutrality. Then, until death do them part the disenchanted partners bicker, undermine and hurt one another. How much more constructive to learn to search for what may be good and worthwhile in an admittedly imperfect relationship. This is what the pursuit of Yoga enables the student to do.

Learning how to sublimate the sex urge is, then, a way to de­velop spiritual strength. Directing the emotions toward goals of universal love means reaching out toward everything in this world that is alive and good. Thus many consider Christ a per­fect example of the Yoga ideal, for His was an all-embracing love that enveloped all humanity. It was this love that made it possible for Him to say of Mary Magdalen, "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven for she has loved much ..." Love like this of course transcends the limits of sexual emotion and those who are able to experience it come to know an inner happiness denied less understanding and compassionate natures.

In their all-embracing approach the Yogis strive to achieve purification of spirit through four stages: Maitri, or friendli­ness toward those who are contentedly happy; Marujia, or compassion for those who are not; Mudita, or gladness toward those who are virtuous; and Upeksha, or indifference with re­gard to the wicked, or rather indifference to wickedness, which nevertheless does not exclude good will and a hope that the erring may be regenerated. Along with this, there is a complete exclusion of the emotion of hate.

The very last thing a Yogi would maintain is that one must rise above sex. On the contrary, Yoga teaches that it is desirable to rise by means of it to greater spiritual heights. Properly used, sex is the greatest of gifts and none may despise its rich po­tentialities. Both sexes should therefore learn to accept them­selves completely, man as man, woman as woman, while at the same time recognizing that each of us carries some of the qualities of the opposite sex within us. Armed with this knowl­edge and understanding, using sex as an adornment, it is then possible to glory in its possession, not stifle it.