Until such time as we become capable of drawing infinite energy from the universal force of creation, we have the issue of choosing how we utilize the energy that we have available to us. Through certain types of practices we can actually increase the available energy. The radical transformation of the mental, vital and physical being requires large amounts of focused energy.
One of the primary sources of the energy needed is already available to us through the operation of the subtle energy centers, if we harness that energy for the spiritual work. As we undertake this process we find that additional energy becomes available from the universal source as we naturally open and can receive and manage greater forces than in our normal, mostly closed-off status.
The energy of the first chakra, known as the Muladhara and as the ‘root chakra’, is a primary foundational energy that provides support and energy to the physical body. When it is utilized for sexual expression, it gets dispersed. It is a well-known phenomenon that after sexual union, the partners frequently tend towards sleep, highlighting the exhausting impact of the sexual activity.
We can understand the process by looking at the use of money. We work and earn money. We then can spend the money, save it, or invest it. Some of the spending goes toward the basic process of supporting the life-activities, food, clothing, shelter, transportation and support we provide (taxes, etc.) to the commons and the organization of society. Anything left over can be allocated toward other things. Many people spend the discretionary money to entertain themselves, to enjoy pleasures, such as use of alcohol or recreational drugs, acquiring various luxuries, or spending money on travel and entertainment, etc. In this way, substantial money is “leaked” and has only a short-term impact in terms of a pleasurable experience, and may actually have long-term negative effects depending on what types of pleasures have been chosen and what they actually do to the body, life force and the mind.
Those who exercise some control over their use of money may forego some of these short-term pleasures in favor of long-term benefits or objectives. They invest, or at least their use of discretionary funds is focused on things that build up the mind, life and body, not lead to its dissolution or breakdown.
Similarly, the sexual energy, as a foundational force for the physical body and the lower vital centers, can either be dispersed and the energy dissipated, or it can be “invested” in creating positive, uplifting and directed focus on a longer-term benefit. This is the underlying concept of the control of the sexual force in the spiritual practice.
Humanity tends to extrapolate from its current understanding and forms of fulfillment at the physical, vital and mental levels, to imagine what some future form of fulfillment will turn out to be. They expect to see the physical capacities expanded as an extension of current capabilities. Training the body may take an individual to new levels of performance, but they are within a fixed range. Similarly, the mind can be developed and trained, but remains still the basic apparatus of the mind.
Sri Aurobindo and the Mother foresee that just as the advent of the vital consciousness began to radically change physical nature, and just as the advent of the mental consciousness radically altered both the physical and vital existence, so the advent of the next evolutionary stage, the development of the supramental consciousness, will necessarily radically change the function and relations of the physical, vital and mental powers. Thus, a direct extrapolation within limits is not actually the process that Nature is following; rather, we can expect entirely new expressions of consciousness and power and new forms of action and relationship to develop. The energy required to accomplish these changes will necessarily come from the Divine. The working of this energy within the individual comes through aspiration (tuning) and receptivity to this higher force. By refocusing the use of the existing physical, vital and mental energy on the spiritual sadhana, the seeker creates the pathway, the opportunity and the readiness to receive and use that higher force without wasting or spilling it.
Sri Aurobindo notes: “The transformation of the sex-centre and its energy is needed for the physical siddhi; for this is the support in the body of all the mental, vital and physical forces of the nature. It has to be changed into a mass and a movement of intimate Light, creative Power, pure divine Ananda. It is only the bringing down of the supramental Light, Power and Bliss into the centre that can change it. As to the working afterwards, it is the supramental Truth and the creative vision and will of the Divine Mother that will determine it. But it will be a working of the conscious Truth, not of the Darkness and Ignorance to which sexual desire and enjoyment belong; it will be a power of preservation and free desireless radiation of the life-forces and not of their throwing out and waste. Avoid the imagination that the supramental life will be only a heightened satisfaction of the desires of the vital and the body; nothing can be a greater obstacle to the Truth in its descent than this hope of glorification of the animal in the human nature. Mind wants the supramental state to be a continuation of its own cherished ideas and preconceptions; the vital wants it to be a glorification of its own desires; the physical wants it to be a rich prolongation of its own comforts and pleasures and habits. If it were to be that, it would be only an exaggerated and highly magnified consummation of the animal and the human nature, not a transition from the human into the Divine.”
Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 4, Desire — Food — Sex, pp. 72-73
Sri Aurobindo Studies 