Ojas : The Power of Abstinence from Sex


From total indulgence in sensual pleasures while experiencing the divine through tantric practices, to abstaining from any sexual thoughts or activity for long periods of time can have a life changing impact on one's consciousness and general perception of reality. As we begin to conserve our sexual energy, we create more Ojas or Radiance in our Auric field, affecting others positively around us. On our earthly sojourns, we meet many people while pursuing this idea of 'love', which is defined by most as an inherent need for another to fulfill us in some way. It is beautiful, it is painful at times ... it serves its purpose. As beautiful the act of love making is, when over, it leaves one drained of our radiance as the ancients have always known, and we seem to have been hypnotized by our 5 senses into believing false, self gratifying ideas.

As I was flipping through the pages of 'Aghora : At the Left Hand of God', I came across the chapter on Sex and in particular, the part on Ojas caught my attention. After reading it, I felt this was a timely reminder for me ... as this is something that has been one of the recurrent lessons for me this year. From chasing orgasms in Tantric ecstasy to practicing celibacy is a journey towards discovering our true nature, and purpose to reincarnate on Earth in this lifetime. Maintaining a balance is key. There is much work to be done and it would be prudent to remain focused while allowing the true seeds of unconditional love to blossom within our being.


Ojas

Humans...believe that through sex they are creating a child. Why should they want a child? They just want someone to reproduce their own attributes [genes], someone who will appreciate and love them.....Real creation becomes possible only when they become aware of that impulse and transcend it....

For creation you must use the semen in a different way than you use it for procreation. Semen is that substance in the male body which has the ability to create. Only procreation is possible if it is expelled from the body, ejaculated during the sex act. If it is retained within the body, stored instead of being wasted, then real creation becomes possible through ojas. Ojas is the source of the body's metabolic energy...

It is said in Ayurveda that ojas is derived from semen, but this is not quite so. Ojas exists in association with the head and the nervous system. In fact the "aura" or "halo" which you can see around a person's head is composed of his or her ojas. When I say that loss of semen causes loss of ojas you must remember that sex is all in the mind. ...When thoughts of sex fill the mind the Kama Agni (Fire of Lust) [dopamine] becomes inflamed. Heat is anathema to ojas. The Kama Agni causes a disturbance in the ojas, which alters the brain chemistry and directs the endocrine glands to begin to secrete. The effect is first felt on the prostate in men and the Bartholin's gland in women. Whenever oozing from these glands occurs you can be sure that ojas is being dissipated. During celibacy the ojas goes on and on harmonizing itself.


Women are lucky in that every month all the filth in their blood is drained out. This is the function of menstruation, and each menstrual cycle strengthens a woman's ojas because there is less waste material in the body to disturb digestion or brain chemistry. Unfortunately, since women are nine times more passionate than men most of them will find that this increased ojas merely serves to increase their sex drive.They will be impelled to copulate more, and all the benefits will be lost. Ayurveda recognizes that the substances which rejuvenate the body also act as aphrodisiacs and warns that when a rejuvenating effect is desired, sex must be restricted.

Ordinary sexual activity destroys ojas, but so do thoughts of sex and sexual fantasies even if you do not act on them. In fact continual brooding about anything is equally devastating to the ojas because thought causes the mind and brain to heat up and this mental heat, no matter what the cause, causes excessive physical heat. According to Ayurveda, excessive heat in the body leads to constipation, the root of most diseases. Heat also causes hypersecretion of all the glands, which in turn excites the mind via the body. It's a vicious cycle. Excess coolness in the body can be readily dealt with; excess heat is dangerous. Any unnatural heat ruins the ojas just as surely as does, an inflamed Kama Agni.

Likewise, harmonious thoughts increase ojas. How often have you heard someone say to a pregnant woman, "What a glow you have about your face!" That glow is the aura, composed of ojas. You might think that a pregnant woman's ojas would be low because her body tissues are being depleted to furnish nutrients for the baby. But because of the emotions of motherhood [oxytocin], the overwhelming love for the child being formed, ojas actually increases....

From the Art of Living website ...

Ojas is a certain type of energy, vibrancy in you. Like in the morning you are very vibrant, then you go to work and get tired, and in the evening you don’t have that same energy, right?

In the same way, when you are enjoying through the five senses, you see television for three hours, or you sit in a movie for three hours and come out, your Ojas is spent. If you listen too much, or eat too much, your Ojas is gone. Too much sex and Ojas totally gets depleted. Ojas is spent when you are engaging in any of the five senses.

Ojas can be rebuilt in the system through proper food, rest and attitude, but not very late in life. You cannot say that you are trying to rebuild your Ojas at the age of 60 or so. It has to be done before a certain age. It is like you cannot become very flexible after a certain age.

Ojas is certain vibrancy in you, energy. Our body has seven substances and Ojas is one of them. In the pulse reading you can see that.

After a certain age, the testosterone hormone is gone; similarly Ojas is related to, let us say, hormones. You cannot build those hormones at a later age.

During teenage, Ojas is maximum, and then if one keeps up with a good routine, good food, then Ojas continues through the middle age. And in the middle age, you can increase it or completely get away with it. That is possible. But after sixty or seventy, you cannot say, ‘Okay, now I want to bring back the Ojas into my system’. It may be possible but it is difficult. It depends.

Source : Aghora : At the Left Hand of God


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