Mahatma Gandhi's Obsession with '' Sex''

[satyanarayan sharma]

Much has been written and discussed on Mahatma Gandhi's ''experiments'' with celibacy, or Brahmacharya, or about his thoughts on ''Sex ''. I need not to repeat it.

Here I have to put out what has been discussed between me and one Mr. Bakshi. I was attending the first International Conference on Orgasm, February 3-7, 1991, held in New Delhi. It was the inaugural day. Mr. Bakshi was the Vice Chairman of this Conference. It was around noon. He asked me about Mahatma Gandhi's experiments with Brahmacharya, or celibacy. I procured some material on it and handed it down to him. We had a little discussion on it, and He, i.e., Mr. Bakshi, concluded that ''Mahatma Gandhi held an obsession with '' Sex ''. 

Here I wish to clarify the two words, sex and obsession.

Sex has been defined as the sum of the structural, functional, and behavioral characteristics of living things that are involved in reproduction by two interactive parents and that distinguish males and females. 

Alternatively, it also means a healthy sexual desire/attraction between opposite sexes, or sometimes between the same sex.

Obsession means a persistent, disturbing preoccupation with an often unreasonable idea or feeling. 

I participated in this conference for five days, from morning to evening, as the chairman of the conference was Prakash Kothari. We developed a friendship during 1989, so I was free to attend each and every event within the conference.

Later, I also delivered a brief speech on the negative and positive sides of Brahmacharya, or celibacy, in the midst of the said conference. About 300 papers were read out, and one thousand sexologists were gathered here.

I have studied Mahatma Gandhi's life, going through the major biographies and his works, particularly in The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (97 Volumes).

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi could not inherit a sense of healthy sexuality, either; or he was indulging in excessive sexual behavior as described by him, at least in the early phase of his life. His vow of Brahmacharya (1906), that is, not to have further sex with his wife, was a compulsion to avoid pregnancies. Actually, he suppressed his natural sexual desire, which turned into 'experiments with Brahmacharya', or sleeping with young girls. 

Brahmacharya does not mean abstinence from sex. Its association with the negation of sex was stated for different reasons. Naturally occurring sexual desire was most clearly condemned in Buddhist literature because monks and nuns inwardly suppressed sex.

To conclude the topic, I wish to draw here what Bhagavad Gita says regarding it. It says that one should not indulge in excessive sex, but it never says that one should avoid it. Rather, it recommends. In a verse, it is said that one should relish the subjects of bodily organs, including sense organs (रागद्वेषवियुक्तेषु विषयानिन्द्रियेश्चरन). At two places in the Gita, the Lord says that He is god of sex. (प्रजनश्चापि कन्दर्पः and बलं बलवतां चाहं कामरागविवर्जितां, धर्माविरुद्धभूतेषु कामोस्मि भरतर्षभ!  ).