Theos-Talk Archives (November 1996 Message tl00362)

The question of celibacy, sex and chastity and Krishnamurti's views on these
issues has been brought to focus on account of Sloss's book which focused on
K's physical relationship with Rosalind. The most elegant presentation of
K's views is found in Mary Lutyens' latest book. I am quoting the relevant
parts:

	"As for it being a secret affair, was K supposed to go about saying that
Rosalind was his mistress? It was her concern as well as his.

	And he never "presented" himself as being a celibate. According to the
tenets of Leadbeater-Theosophy, celibacy was essential for any aspirant to
the Path of Descipleship but K broke away entirely from Theosophy and its
tenets in 1929 and thereafter often spoke publicly *against* celibacy.

	Here are a few quotations from his published talks to prove this point:
"So-called holy men have maintained that you cannot come near God if you
indulge in sex, therefore they push it aside although they are eaten up with
it. But in denying sexuality they put out their eyes and cut out their
tongues for they deny the whole beauty of the earth. They have starved their
hearts and minds; they are dehydrated human beings; they have banished
beauty because beauty is associated with woman." And again: "I think we
should understand what love and chastity are.

	The vow of chastity is not chastity at all, for below the words the craving
goes on and trying to impress it in different ways, religious and otherwise,
is a form of ugliness which, in its very essence, is unchaste. The chastity
of the monk, with his vows and denials, is essentially worldliness which is
unchaste. All forms of resistance build a wall of separateness which turns
life into a battlefield; and so life becomes not chaste at all." And again,
"To deny sex is another form of brutality; it is there, it is a fact. When
we are intellectual slaves, endlessly repeating what others have said, when
we are following, obeying, imitating, then a whole avenue of life is closed;
when action is merely a mechanical repetition and not a free movement, then
there is no release; when there is this incessant urge to fulfil, to be,
then we are emotionally thwarted, there is a blockage. So sex becomes the
one issue which is our very own, which is not second-hand. And in the act of
sex there is a forgetting of oneself, one's problems and one's fears. In
that act there is no self at all."

And the above presents K's views on the above issues. It is for each one of
us to ponder over the whole question and come to our own conclusion, if we can.

After all a true Theosophist has as his/her motto "There is No Religion
Higher than Truth" and all of us who are searching for Truth will have to
find out for ourself, first hand, IMHO.

MK Ramadoss