Sexuality and Self-Control

Part 14 - Chapter 1, Stanza 6. We have enormous power but may waste it. For mental clarity, health in body and mind as the Bhagavad Gita recommends, learn to control the life force and sexual impulse. Swami says that just as the Native Americans have rites of passage for their young, all young people should be taught the importance of using the life force wisely once they reach adulthood. Young people can learn the dignity of becoming adults and about the responsibility they have to their bodies and to society to be a clear channels of physical and spiritual power. Sex and sense enjoyment are not bad or wrong, yet we do pay a price. The choice is ours. This talk offers a deep and generally unknown teaching about the nature of human life-force and why one might choose to conserve it. In yogic tradition it is well known that the power lost during sexual emission is the very life-force that sustains us physically, mentally, and spiritually. Celibacy leads to greater mental power. The depletion of life-force through overindulgence in sex (and lack of self-control in general) has a cumulative negative effect on one's mental clarity, and overall health. Many sincere seekers have found that overindulgence in any sense pleasure actually dims their awareness or strengthens the feeling of being separate from God or one's Highest-Self. Swami Kriyananda worked with Paramhansa Yogananda in 1950 while the Master completed his commentary of the Bhagavad Gita. At that time Yogananda commissioned him to disseminate his teachings world-wide. Kriyananda has in his lifetime lectured, taught, and written over one hundred books based on Yogananda's teachings. Find out more at https://www.swamikriyananda.org/ Like on Facebook:   / nayaswamikriyananda   ABOUT ANANDA WORLDWIDE Ananda is a worldwide movement to help individuals realize the joy of their own higher Self. Ananda is based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda and was founded by his direct disciple Swami Kriyananda in 1968. Learn more at https://ananda.org. ___ HOW TO STAY IN TOUCH Subscribe to our YouTube channel:    / anandaworldwide   Follow on Instagram:   / anandaworldwide   Like on Facebook:   / ananda.org   Dive into Yogananda’s spiritual teachings with Ananda Online: https://www.ananda.org/online-classes/ Learn to meditate with Ananda Course in Meditation: https://www.ananda.org/meditation/med... Download the FREE Ananda Meditation app and watch guided meditations https://www.ananda.org/meditation/app/ Visit the beautiful Ananda meditation retreats in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada: https://meditationretreat.org/ Find an Ananda near you: https://www.ananda.org/find-ananda If you have been touched in your own journey by Ananda and our videos please consider making a donation so that we, as a spiritual family, may all continue to reach and inspire souls everywhere: https://www.ananda.org/support/