In this excerpt from Kishor Gandhi’s book Light on life-problems, Sri Aurobindo eludicates on the spiritual purpose behind the transmutation of sexual energies and whether psychological disorders can be caused by abstinence. Please note that this exchange occurred in the early twentieth century and therefore contains references to some personalities who were prominent at that time.
Question: Balzac, the famous French novelist, was of the opinion that indulgence in sex greatly hampers the high type of mental activity. According to him, “The man of genius is frigid. When he tries to lead both lives, the intellectual life and the love life, the man of genius dies, as Raphael died (it seems he died at 37 after a night of excessive sex) and Lord Byron.” So also Havelock Ellis, recognised as the world’s greatest authority on sex, maintains that to increase artistic and mental capacity and force it is necessary to restrain sexual activity. “The brain and the sexual organs,” he says, “are yet the great rivals in using up bodily energy, and there is an antagonism between extreme brain vigour and extreme sexual vigour, even though they may sometimes both appear at different periods in the same individual”. We find this evidenced in the life of some great masters of art like Beethoven and Mozart, in whose life sexual indulgence played a much smaller part than in the life of an average man. This would seem to imply that it is necessary to conserve sexual energy for the energisation and intensification of higher intellectual and aesthetic life. How far is this view justifiable ?
Answer: That is correct. The sex-energy can be controlled and diverted from the sex-purpose and used for aesthetic and artistic or other creation and productiveness or preserved for heightening of the intellectual or other energies. Entirely controlled, it can be turned into a force of spiritual energy also. This was well known in ancient India and was described as the conversion of retas into ojas by Brahmacharya. Retas, the sex-fluid, consists of two elements, one meant for sex-purposes, the other as a basis of general energy, and if the sex-action is not indulged and the sex-fluid is prevented from being spent away, it turns into ojas. The whole theory of Brahmacharya is based upon that by the Yogis.
This is a list of Sanskrit terms to help understand the next question:
- Retas = sexual fluid.
- Tapas = spiritual heat felt in the body during meditation.
- Ojas = spiritual vigor which is felt after union with and immersion into cosmic energies.
- Tejas = spiritual light observed within.
- Vidyut = electrical power which courses through the body during Yoga.
Question: What is the process by which ‘retas‘ (sex fluid) is transformed into ‘ojas‘ (vigor)?
Answer: The fundamental physical unit is the retas, in which the tejas, the heat and light and electricity in a man, is involved and hidden. All energy is thus latent in the retas. This energy may be either expended physically or conserved. All passion, lust, desire wastes the energy by pouring it, either in the gross form or a sublimated subtle form, out of the body. On the other hand, all self-control conserves the energies in the retas, and conservation always brings with it increase. But the needs of the physical body are limited and the excess of energy must create a surplus which has to turn itself to some use other than the physical. According to the ancient theory, retas is jala(fluid), full of light and heat and electricity, in one word, of tejas.
- The excess of the retas turns first into heat or tapas which stimulates the whole system, and it is for this reason that all forms of self-control and austerity are called tapas or tapasya, because they generate the heat or stimulus which is a source of powerful action and success.
- Secondly, it turns to tejas or light, the energy which is at the source of all knowledge.
- Thirdly, it turns to vidyut or electricity, which is at the basis of all forceful action whether intellectual or physical.
In the vidyut again is involved the ojas, or pranashakti, the primal energy which proceeds from ether. The retas, refining from jala to tapas, tejas and vidyut and from vidyut to ojas, fills the system with physical strength, energy and brain-power and in its last form of ojas rises to the brain and informs it with that primal energy which is the most refined form of matter and nearest to spirit. It is ojas that creates a spiritual force or virya, by which a man attains to spiritual knowledge, spiritual love and faith, spiritual strength. It follows that the more we can by Brahmacharya increase the store of tapas(heat), tejas(light), vidyut(electric) and ojas(vigor), the more we shall fill ourselves with utter energy for the works of the body, heart, mind and spirit.
Question: Many eminent psychologists, doctors and thinkers believe that complete sexual abstinence is dangerous and may lead to serious nervous trouble and even mental derangement. They maintain that the new form of energy produced from the sublimation of sexual energy may be harmful and may lead to perversities and morbidities. Rene Guyon, for example, points out: “When the libido is repressed, when its impetus is crushed back, it is forced to find an outlet by some other route …. But this compensation is not necessarily useful, superior and worthy of admiration. It can just as well be harmful and destructive.” How far is this true ?
Answer: It is a fact that sex suppressed in outward action but indulged in other ways may lead to disorders of the system and brain troubles. That is the root of the medical theory which discourages sexual abstinence. But these things happen only when there is either secret indulgence of a perverse kind replacing the normal sexual activity or else an indulgence of it in a kind of subtle vital way by imagination or by an invisible vital interchange of an occult kind; harm never occurs when there is a true effort at mastery and abstinence.
Question: The Freudian system of psycho-analysis has attributed a large number of physical and mental disorders to suppressed sexual desire. To what extent are the assertions of this system true?
Answer: The psycho-analysis of Freud takes up a certain part, the darkest, the most perilous, the unhealthiest part of the nature, the lower vital subconscious layer, isolates some of its most morbid phenomena and attributes to it and them an action out of all proportion to its true role in the nature. Modern psychology is an infant science, at once rash, fumbling and crude. As in all infant sciences, the universal habit of the human mind to take a partial or local truth, generalise it unduly and try to explain a whole field of Nature in its narrow terms runs riot here. Moreover, the exaggeration of the importance of suppressed sexual complexes is a dangerous falsehood and it can have a nasty influence and tend to make the mind and vital more and not less fundamentally impure than before.
See also:
- Napoleon Hill in his book How to think and grow rich illustrates how the men of greatest achievement are also those who have mastered sex transmutation. See Chapter 11 : Mystery of Sex Transmutation. Another copy of the chapter is available @ Google books: Mystery of Sex Transmutation
- Sri Aurobindo and the Mother on the “Sex urge in Nature”
- Sri Aurobindo and the Mother on “Yoga and the conquest of sex”
- Swami Vivekananda in his Lessons on Raja Yoga expatiates on the transmutation of sexual energy into ojas (spiritual force)
- Kishor Gandhi was a disciple of Sri Aurobindo. His book Light on Life Problems from which the above excerpt has been taken is freely available at Google Books and the Internet Archive
Sex can be the accelerant needed for spiritual take-off?
But what if you want to make love to the entire Universe? Give yourself up to be taken by your “Beloved” or smell your Beloved’s perfume one time more before gladly dying to be together again for all eternity?
contoveros
> Sex can be the accelerant needed for spiritual take-off?
Not sex but conservation of sexual energy. When the Kundalini rises, it uses this energy to generate spiritual heat, light and electrical energy which light up the brain and other parts of the subtle body. See Various ways in which the Kundalini rises
> But what if you want to make love to the entire Universe?
When the Kundalini reaches the apex of the head, that happens automatically!
-Sandeep
True.The difficulty lies in nature of the method of rejection of those dualistic thoughts, where one, in order to reject the sex impulse has to become sincere to the very core,, even down to the subconsious level.Sri Aurobindo, is so right in terms of informing us about the need to make a sincere effort in order to retain and transform this energy, lest its dissipation cause a loss of vigour, which supports the maintainence of the physical energies in the body and checks the unconsious flow of morbid and aggressive thought constructs.In a nut shell, the maintainance of Brahmacharya certainly paves the way towards the development of self control.
I think we need to keep in mind that this is not necessarily the case, or perhaps the painted brushstroke is a wee bit too wide. We know that many would like to believe (just like many would like to elevate those who were deeply accomplished and transformational to that of a god), that for one moment that the Mother and Sri Aurobindo did not have a most intense romantic and passionate sexual, sensual and spiritual relationship beginning around meeting in 1920 or so you would be sorely mistaken. In a different but similar vein, did it not shocked (indeed, scandalized, mortified and aghast the holy surround) that this French woman now in Southern India (let alone in an Ashram) would dare don cosmetics?.
We know that many would like to believe that for one moment that the Mother and Sri Aurobindo did not have a most intense romantic and passionate sexual, sensual and spiritual relationship beginning around meeting in 1920 or so you would be sorely mistaken
Sorry Neil, but I have to differ on this one. I don’t think they had any sort of sexual relationship. There is no evidence to say so. To assume that they must have had a good sexual relationship is also a form of prejudice reflective of one’s own upbringing.
If you were speaking of Sri Aurobindo or the Mother at the age of 20-30, I might be willing to acknowledge they had sex but by the time they met in 1920, both had undergone through some major spiritual realizations and were no longer human like you and me. It is known that when the Kundalini rises out of the Muladhara and reaches the Sahasrara, sexual desires become neutralized, and one attains a Universality of Consciousness. See Gopi Krishna’s book Living with Kundalini on his experience after Kundalini awakening. A Yogi who tries to revert back to sexual conduct after any form of realization is called a fallen Yogi (Yoga Bhrashta)
In a different but similar vein, did it not shocked (indeed, scandalized, mortified and aghast the holy surround) that this French woman now in Southern India (let alone in an Ashram) would dare don cosmetics?.
She donned cosmetics because even the “Divine” has to look good, as she told a disciple. Nothing wrong with it. Certain human habits can continue after attaining Self-Realization – men may smoke and women may wear cosmetics. It shocks those who see the superficial form but was irrelevant to the disciples who experienced her enormous power.
If you could live fully in a stream of aspiration i.e. psychic consciousness unlikely there is any need of sex because joy from it is finer and Mother since She was a child had contact with Divinity above which is something more advanced .
I don’t have a clue why She married may be some unavoidable karma from past or need of such an experience in this particular body? As for relation between Mother and Sri Aurobindo it was much more intimate then physical and They where Twin Soul why sex then?
Of course if you wish to be a yogi and live spiritual life sex is out of question
but for most of us it’s hardly possible because we are still half animals if somebody
could show me an angel in human form I’ll change my mind.
I don’t have a clue why She married may be some unavoidable karma from past or need of such an experience in this particular body?
Why did either of them get married? It is because they were not fully conscious of who they going to become later.
The Mother once said that “For those who have come upon earth fully conscious of their entire being and conscious of their Origin, there is at first a period when this consciousness gets veiled by the physical life and the body-consciousness. It withdraws deep within and waits for the hour when the outer circumstances will make it necessary for that inner self to manifest and to become fully active in the body….It is only when the outer crust of the ordinary life is violently broken by some unexpected and tragic event that the inner consciousness has the opportunity of taking the place of this outward movement and governing fully the whole being. From the point of view of growth of consciousness, that is the justification of all these dramatic events. An eventless life is not often a progressive life.” See the full quote at the end of another article Early mystic experiences of Sri Aurobindo
Similarly, Sri Aurobindo, responding to a disciple said that the consciousness is not fully developed in the beginning, and one doesn’t know one’s path in life is going to change. The following dialogue is from Nirodbaran’s Correspondence with Sri Aurobindoo, p 576.
“To assume that they must have had a good sexual relationship is also a form of prejudice reflective of one’s own upbringing.”
Yes and the upbringing of hominids stretching back over three million years
“She donned cosmetics because even the “Divine” has to look good, as she told a disciple. Nothing wrong with it.
Nothing wrong with it, yes I agree, however I think that sentiment (la sentiment) would have found only a rarefied affable ear or two at the time. And not the righteous indignation of the outraged and incensed masses at the time! lol
“Certain human habits can continue after attaining Self-Realization – men may smoke and women may wear cosmetics. It shocks those who see the superficial form but was irrelevant to the disciples who experienced her enormous power.”
And perchance could that equitable reasoning be applied to the secret throes of passion and taken form at many moments, irrespective of age and attainment, in the physical, sexual and orgiastic bliss of two twin souls, where sexual union does not (dogmatically, usually out of fear of violating one’s “internalized parents”) need inexorably be viewed as a lower expression awaiting to be suffused to a higher illuminative Light? I understand the transmutation of energies. Yet, at the risk of the cries of obscene insolence or blasphemy, I believe their common conception urgently needs to a bit revision, put in their place in a more sober and psychologically mature rather than dogmatic manner .A fallen yogi for his/her indulgence of tamas or a fallen angel from the grace of Heaven? I do not think Dante would take kind to that nor, we can reasonably speculate, a Solomon or Shakespeare or Wordsworth.
I think it is rather dangerous to say they (Mother and Aurobindo) were no longer human and so therefore, shall we say, “the temptation of reverting back to the lower prakriti was no longer a necessity.” Or, if present individually at an earlier age certainly not by the time they met and concurrently realized the twin Divine within each other.
At the risk of raising even greater outrage and indignation I think it is extremely unfortunate to imagine them as “no longer human.” Aurobindo and the Mother did not really want “disciples. They wanted others to consciously explore the multifarious darkened shadows or deities and higher godheads within themselves…sincerely, consciously, honestly and Differently. It was only then, I believe they thought, a sufficient minimal collective realization of humanity could be achieved. A new religion of humanity of them serving as the spiritual spearheads they did not want in the least! The color of homage or obeisance fails to have a certain something (je ne sais quoi ) or diaphanous play of Light; a certain strength of courage, of individual exploration outside the previously painted perimeters we so often feel we need to guide us lest we become lost!
Neil: where sexual union does not (dogmatically, usually out of fear of violating one’s “internalized parents”) need inexorably be viewed as a lower expression awaiting to be suffused to a higher illuminative Light?
It has nothing to do with dogma and about them being “internalized parents”. I am stating the facts that are independent of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. These are realities that many Yogins have experienced. The sexual organs get desensitized beyond a point because the Kundalini energy which was locked in them has been raised above to the Chakras in the head. This is the whole basis of Divine Union in Yoga.
Neil: At the risk of raising even greater outrage and indignation I think it is extremely unfortunate to imagine them as “no longer human.” Aurobindo and the Mother did not really want “disciples.
Not true. They did admit disciples into the Ashram and there are innumerable instances where they bestowed their Grace on those disciples by curing them of their subconscious tendencies and raising them higher.
These sort of remarks emanate from Westerners (especially men) who have been raised in a materialistic atmosphere and tend to be highly individualistic. They view with suspicion any conception of a Divinity in a human being. They are afraid of surrendering their consciousness to anyone.
The reality is that the Guru-disciple relationship is an accepted and long-standing bond which is necessary for the realization of a higher consciousness. It is the Guru who plants the seed of his/her consciousness in the disciple and awakens the light in him gradually. Only those who have experienced the true light of a Guru within their consciousness will understand how this works.
Neil: They wanted others to consciously explore the multifarious darkened shadows or deities and higher godheads within themselves…sincerely, consciously, honestly and Differently. I A new religion of humanity of them serving as the spiritual spearheads they did not want in the least!
Your conception of religion is based on the Judeo-Christian tradition where worship and belief are paramount but no method of achieving enlightenment has been proposed (except in the esoteric schools like Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Kaballah). The Hindu tradition is different because it incorporates the practical methods of Yoga by which one can become like the Guru. There is no contradiction between accepting someone as the Guru and practicing Yoga. In fact, it goes hand-in-hand. I don’t think of it as religion.
I think it is best that we do not communicate on this topic anymore, because we are going to remain on different wavelengths. Certain things have to be experienced, not debated. You should continue on your path and let me do so on my own.
Yes… this experience has been mine…
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Biological transmutation, photosynthesis, acquiring the energy necessary for supporting vital processes by metabolizing nutrients are far from being new entries to a specialist in biology or physiology. But these processes are still hiding many mysteries. According to conventional science we cannot separate carbon from CO2 but at very high temperatures. Some animal species go through long periods of hibernation, and while food and water are not supplied to their body, this maintains its vitalitaty and functioning in very good conditions. The human being cannot live for an indefinite period of time without food and water. These are only a few enigmas.
I became interested in the issue of the so-called paranormal phenomena as far as 1990, under the impact of the enthusiasm of the period. At that time, my interest was rather theoretical than practical, as initially supplied by the sensational mediatic coverage, which enabled the access to this information (documentary and SF films, esoteric literature and other resources). With the time being I understood that, in reality, a more profound mystery was hidding behind the sensational. I pursued the discovery of the mystery key by going deeper into theoretical studies and by extending them to all aspects of paranormal phenomenology. But theoretical studies were not sufficient for a profound understanding of these aspects, while being subsequently supplemented by 14 years of practice and experiments. At the beginning of the year 2006, I succeeded in going beyond an important barrier, which determined me to write this book, even if, at the beginning, I didn’t want it because, in the same period, I used to be involved in finalising another book of about 600 pages, dedicated to climate changes.
This book aims to establish a closer relationship between medical sciences and the somehow „enigmatic” biochemical and biophysical aspects of the human being. Until now, they have been approached by mystics, in an obsessive extended measure, from a unilateral mystic-religious perspective, with far too many gaps.
I had uploaded my book for free…
http://www.scribd.com/doc/34145683/Biotransformations-under-the-Influence-of-the-Mind-Excerpts
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The Jan 2010 issue of Prabuddha Bharata features an article by Swami Yukteshananda on “Brahmacharya(celibacy) and Its Practice”.
See page 73 of the magazine (which is page 84 in the PDF), click here
For other issues of this magazine published by the Ramakrishna Mission, see the Archives section at http://advaitaashrama.org/prabuddha_bharata.html
Ramakrishna Paramahansa on continence:
“One has to observe strict continence to attain God. Sukadeva and people like him were men of absolute and unbroken continence. They never discharged semen. There are others who have discharged semen earlier but now conserve it. A person conserving semen for twelve years builds up a special power. He develops a new nerve of mental power. When this nerve develops, one remembers everything, can know everything.” (Gospel of Ramakrishna)
The “nerve of mental power” which Ramakrisha mentions above is known in the scriptures as Medha Nadi (nerve of intelligence)
From Yogis’ Secrets by Sandra Heber-Percy, Page 148: “By means of many years of celibacy a special nerve, medha nadi, is developed which helps in further development of the brain and in awakening the power of intuition.”
See also:
1) The Primal Power in Man: The Kundalini Shakti By Swami Narayanananda, page 21
and
2) http://www.atmajyoti.org/INC_Techniques_of_Sex_Sublimation.asp
Seems like, the observance of continence leads towards the development of a sort of nervine strength which may enable one to voluntarily induce a stillness conducive towards maintaining concentration of mind. For example, in attempting to draw the thread into a needle head, one must certainly be able to gather all the organs of perception towards the task at hand lest subject fails to achive the intended result. In other words one has to still the dissipation of mental energies in the form of vitiated emotions and distracting energies and then be able to project the resulting unitary point of focus onto the task at hand in order to complete it with greater efficiency.The development of this sort of focus is wonderful indeed.
The strength of such impulses as those of sex lies usually in the fact that people take too much notice of them; they protest too vehemently and endeavour to control them by coercion, hold them within and sit upon them. But the more you think of a thing and say, “I don’t want it, I don’t want it”, the more you are bound to it. What you should do is to keep the thing away from you, to dissociate from it, take as little notice of it as possible and, even if you happen to think of it, remain indifferent and unconcerned.
The Mother
Questions and Answers 1929 – 1931
As for the method of mastery, it cannot be done by physical abstinence alone – it proceeds by a process of combined detachment and rejection. The consciousness stands back from the sex-impulse, feels it as not its own, as something alien thrown on it by Nature-force to which it refuses assent or identification – each time a certain movement of rejection throws it more and more outward. The mind remains unaffected; after a time the vital being which is the chief support withdraws from it in the same way, finally the physical consciousness no longer supports it. This process continues until even the subconscient can no longer rouse it up in dream and no further movement comes from the outer Nature-force to rekindle this lower fire.
Sri Aurobindo
Letters on Yoga Vol 24
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just a question – does this mean that King Janaka, Sri Krishna and others were excluded from a very high level of spiritual consciousness, due to their life-style? Indeed in Yoga Vasistah there are statements about dealing with needs of the body, but not being enslaved by it?
I think the story of Krishna and the Gopis is symbolic rather than historic. I do not know what realization Janaka had attained or what his lifestyle was. One shouldn’t rely too much on ancient stories, which tend to be a mixture of mythology and history, to justify one’s desires.
As for the Yoga Vashista, does it specifically say that sex is allowed? There are many things that people justify as “needs” but which are in reality just “desires” (e.g. Need to travel and enjoy life, Need to speak one’s mind without being suffocated, Need to live in a joyful community, etc). Sex is a vital desire – an escape from loneliness, and a desire to share joy with another person.
It may be possible to progress a little on the path of devotion (Bhakti Marga) without giving up sex, like many neophytes do, but I think one would have to give up sex after one starts having deeper Kundalini experiences. Otherwise, one starts getting attacked by serpents and other vital beings in dreams, as various letters from disciples to Sri Aurobindo indicated.
I found the following passage by Sri Aurobindo in the Letters on Yoga (vol. 24 SABCL), section on the Transformation of the Physical.
“I do not deny that so long as one allows a sort of separation between inner experience and outer consciousness, the latter being left as an inferior activity controlled but not transformed, it is quite possible to have spiritual experiences and make progress without any entire cessation of the sex-activity. The mind separates itself from the outer vital (life-parts) and the physical consciousness and lives its own inner life. But only a few can really do this with any completeness and the moment one’s experiences extend to the life-plane and the physical, sex can no longer be treated in this way. It can become at any moment a disturbing, upsetting and deforming force. I have observed that to an equal extent with ego (pride, vanity, ambition) and rajasic greeds and desires it is one of the main causes of the spiritual casualties that have taken place in sadhana. The attempt to treat it by detachment without complete excision breaks down; the attempt to sublimate it, favoured by many modern mystics in Europe, is a most rash and perilous experiment. For it is when one mixes up sex and spirituality that there is the greatest havoc. “
To add to my earlier comment:
A female practitioner of Integral Yoga stated sometime ago that she lost the desire for sex after a partial, albeit painful, Kundalini awakening. Once the psychic in the heart gets activated, sexual desires tend to fall off. One feels satiated within so external support is not needed.
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Thank you for clarifying.
Yes that last sentence sums up the results of misguided and exploitative ‘mix’ of some well-known new-age ‘Guru’s’.
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l know from personal experience that sex-indulgence definitely interferes with the action of the Descending Force in the body. After any indulgence the Force will go out of the body, but later you will feel The Force filling up the body once again. This will go on until the sex-impulse is no longer indulged, then it becomes stable.
l remember SA telling somebody this in one of his letters, and in my experience it’s very true.
l met someone years ago [who l believe is probably my Twinsoul] and after certain inner experiences with this woman, the sex-impulse just dropped away. l believe this happened because of the double-power working through twinsouls [that Sri Aurobindo talks about. l have no doubt about this dual-power speeding up our progress]. l believe this activated something in my kundalini.
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I believe that Marriage is a Normal and Natural Part of Life ,but if one Truly desires complete Freedom and Detachment in this turbulent world, one must Practice Self-Control . Once your Mental and Spiritual Powers begin to unfold, You will not have any trouble attaching yourself to Chastity of Body and Mind.
True. This may seem risible to frivolous characters, but Ramakrishna Paramahansa used to say that after having one or two children, husband and wife should live like brother and sister.
Of course, once we experience the real Ananda in the body, then sexual pleasure becomes a pale and insignificant thing. The True bliss is a thousand times more intense and satisfying.
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“I believe that Marriage is a Normal and Natural Part of Life ”
Yes, but it should be stressed that it’s a ‘normal and natural part of ORDINARY Life’ not Spiritual Life.
Sri Aurobindo says above:
In accord with the above observation, these are observations by Susruta, the ancient Indian surgeon who lived around 800 BCE on the process by which food transforms into chyle, then blood, muscle, tissue, bones, marrow and finally semen (retas). The text is from M.S. Valiathan’s recent book “Legacy of Susruta”.
“Doshas act on the components of the body (dhatus). How are the dhatus evolved? Their primary source is food and drinks which, on digestion, become chyle that provides felicity and satiety and a source for the supply and nourishment of blood; blood, in turn, accounts for bright complexion, muscle growth and vitality; muscle strengthens the body and adipose tissue; adipose tissue originates all fatty substances, sweat, firmness, and supports the growth of bones; bones support the body and promote marrow; marrow provides a source for lubrication, strength, increase in semen and the filling of bone cavity; and semen remains the source of courage, quick discharge, sexual pleasure,strength, orgasm and male fertility.
[...]
Ojas is the final product in the evolution of dhatus from rasa and follows sukra. It may be regarded as the essence of all dhatus. It is the basis of the firmness and the development of muscles,freedom of all movements, pleasing voice and complexion and the regular functions of all the motor and sensory organs. Permeating the whole body, it is liquid, lubricant, white in colour, cold, stable, flowing, pure, soft, delicate and remains the abode of vitality. In its absence, the body decays.
As it flows out of the heart through channels, ojas suffers attrition by injury, wasting diseases, emotional excesses such as anger and grief, fatigue and hunger. Its displacement from the heart is further aided by vata-triggered pitta.”
(M.S. Valiathan, Legacy of Susruta, Hyderabad : Universities Press (India), 2009, pp 105-109 passim)
Amazon.com: The Legacy of Susruta (9788125031505): M.S. Valiathan: Books
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