While we may think we have come a long way in our approach to sexual wellness, there’s no denying that there’s still a moral element attached to sex – especially in countries such as India. According to sexual health expert Amrit Sadhana, a long time Osho meditator and editor of Osho Times International, ‘All problems relating to sex arise due to one basic blunder committed by humanity down the ages – treating sex as a moral issue. Ancient Indians never looked upon it as an ethical value though; for them, it was a natural instinct, needed for procreation as well as pleasure. We cannot forget that the great sexologist Vyatsayana was born in India and that Tantra, the most mature way of dealing with sex, is the greatest gift of India to the world.’ So do people in India see sex as purely for procreation, or are the times changing?
‘Sex for procreation came under social and religious domain and there were rituals built around it by priests,’ Sadhana details. ‘The procreative aspect of sex was accepted so naturally that when the husband died childless, his elder brother or a trusted sage was asked to have intercourse with the woman and produce children. Manusmruti called this process Niyoga. This act was a religious ritual and the couple was not supposed to enjoy it! They used to apply oil on their bodies so that they remain detached during the act.’
Sadhana adds, ‘However, the human being is not only a body; he/she also has emotions and intelligence. So his higher sensibilities motivated him to seek pleasure out of sex. The Indian name for sex is Kama which is expansive and all-inclusive. Kama means desire, the lust for life. Lust is yet again a condemned word; in fact, all that allows people to enjoy the pleasures of the flesh and the senses is condemned by moral custodians because they are afraid that people will get lost in sensuous delights. Kama is the libido, the life energy, not necessarily sexual. All creativity is motivated by Kama, it is the desire to create as well as procreate.’
But what about sex today? ‘If we want sex to be accepted as a natural instinct, we have to drop the moral firewall built around it,’ Sadhana asserts. ‘In this nuclear age, sex can be understood as pure energy because we have developed scientific understanding. Once we acknowledge that sex is the bio energy, we can make efforts to transform it. Just as water when boiled becomes vapour, and the vapour travels upwards and becomes clouds, sexual energy can be transformed into higher states. The higher forms of sex energy are love, compassion and enlightened consciousness. Tantra’s greatest contribution to humanity is that it has created many devices to sublimate the sexual energy and turn it into an experience of higher consciousness.’
So, as an Osho meditator (Osho is the first master who saw the disaster of repressed sexuality) what does Sadhana recommend to help clean your attitude about sex?
1. Meditate: ‘Every man and woman should meditate before getting into the intercourse,’ says Sadhana. ‘Mot the old fashioned repressive meditation but the dynamic, cathartic meditation created by Osho.’
2. Forget Stress: ‘Do not use sex for stress release,’ warns Sadhana. ‘This is neither procreative nor re-creative. It is self- destructive.’
3. Respect Your Partner: Sadhana instructs, ‘Do not use your partner as a means for your pleasure. People unconsciously use each other, which is an insult to the dignity of the other. Such a relationship can never be fulfilling.’
4. Enjoy the Journey: ‘Re-creative sex is like classical music,’ Sadhana explains. ‘It develops slowly and takes long to warm up. Let your attention be on the process and not on the goal. Stay with the beginning, don’t look for the end otherwise you will be embarrassed by premature ejaculation.’