People tend to get very defensive about the idea of celibacy, sexual abstinence, Brahmacharya, however it may be termed. They argue that it is unhealthy. They argue that this is a process in Nature that ensures the continuity of the race, they argue that the suppression of sexual expression leads to all kinds of perversions and criminality, including pedophilia, rape, or utilization of power dynamics to pressure others into sex. All of these arguments have some basis in fact. However, the spiritual seeker or practitioner is not the general case, but a very specific instance for a very small percentage of the population, and thus, some of the arguments, such as those relating to continuation of the species, are actually not relevant here.
With respect to the health argument, a factual review finds that a case can be made either way, depending on the actual circumstances. Elite athletes, for instance, frequently abstain from sexual activity before a competition, based on their experience of the potential weakening effect short-term of the expression of sexual energy rather than holding it in the core of the being. This is easily understood. It takes energy to produce the sexual seed, the sperm, as well as the semen that carries the sperm. Every time a sexual act occurs, these elements are dispersed and then the body begins to devote energy to rebuilding them. This energy takes away from energy that could be used elsewhere in the system.
Where health issues can arise is when the sexual energy is artificially suppressed and yet creating pressures that disrupt the vital energy, the emotions and the mental focus. Active suppression can disrupt the nerves, the emotions, and the mental balance. On the other side, excessive sexual expression can deplete the core energy of the physical body and make the nerves weak and exhausted.
Positive health benefits have been noted by many, if the sexual energy is conserved and allowed to provide positive support to the physical foundation, and if it is re-focused on positive growth processes.
The artificial suppression, without redirection, of the sexual energy can, indeed cause unhealthy fixations that can lead to expression of sexual energies in ways that are harmful to others in the society. A potentially greater cause of these societal harms, however, lies in the hyper-sexual focus of the society at large. When sexual energy, sexual imagery, sexual provocation surround people on all sides, there is no doubt that it will breed a certain amount of fixation that is unhealthy, and without a reasonable outlet, it works to disrupt both internally and externally.
The solution here is to recognise that for the spiritual seeker, the optimum approach is to conserve and refocus the attention and the application of energy toward the spiritual objective. This is done through separation from identification with the ego personality and the external action, and shifting the standpoint to that of the psychic being, with its expression of love and devotion focused on the Divine.
Sri Aurobindo notes: “The contrary opinion of which you speak may be due to the idea that sex is a natural part of the human vital-physical whole, a necessity like food and sleep, and that its total inhibition may lead to unbalancing and to serious disorders. 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 I have observed that 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, — I do not think harm ever occurs when there is a true spiritual effort at mastery and abstinence. It is now held by many medical men in Europe that sexual abstinence, if it is genuine, is beneficial; for the element in the retas which serves the sexual act is then changed into its other element which feeds the energies of the system, mental, vital and physical — and that justifies the Indian idea of Brahmacharya, the transformation of retas into ojas and the raising of its energies upward so that they change into a spiritual force.”
Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 4, Desire — Food — Sex, pg. 75
Sri Aurobindo Studies 