Is there physical intercourse in the spiritual world?audio icon

From: Ravikant Jagtap

“The Origin of sex life in it’s pure form is Krishna.” Does it mean that even in the spiritual world there  is Physical Intercourse.Plz Clarify

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Question from Ravikant Japta Prabhu.
Sri Prabhupada says the origin of sex life in its pure form is Krishna. Does it mean that even in spiritual world there is physical intercourse? Answer, there is nothing physical in the spiritual world because the physical reality doesn’t exist. The physical is a part of material.
So now there is the body in the spiritual world. So we generally think of body as material or physical. No.
So there is body and the body of Krishna as well as his consorts have all the parts that the male and female body has in this world and the spiritual world is not deficient in any way. So even the deities also have those bodily parts and the primary activities that happen in this world, they are present in the original form in the spiritual world. However, the spiritual world is so different from our normal conceptions that it is very difficult for us to conceive of such things.
So in the spiritual world even eating is not the same as the eating in this world because even the food that we eat is conscious. The milk wants to serve Krishna and that’s why we know in the Dhammadharila the milk starts overflowing and boiling over when the milk sees that Krishna is taking mother Yashoda’s breast milk and so I will not get the opportunity to serve Krishna. So therefore in the spiritual world everything is so different that when we think about these things we often drag our material conceptions wherein all relationships are largely if not entirely based on physical impulses and the drive for personal gratification.
Now Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami gives a very radical definition of the difference between kama and prema. He doesn’t say that kama is material and prema is spiritual and leave at that. He says, ātma-endriyati priti-vāñcha tāre bole kāma, kṛṣṇendriyati priti-iccha dhare prema-nāma.
So the craving to satisfy one’s own senses is lust and the longing to satisfy Krishna’s senses is love. So now what is significant about this definition is that it says that Krishna has senses. So Krishna has senses and the desire to satisfy Krishna’s senses is love.
Why? Because that is based on selflessness. So everything that happens in the spiritual world when Radharani wants to cook delicious food and offer it to Krishna that is a desire to satisfy Krishna’s senses and the same applies to the various other ways in which Radharani serves Krishna. Because that kind of selflessness is very much unknown in the physical carnality that characterizes physical sexual relationships in this world.
The spiritual relationship is very difficult for us to conceive. So in the intimate pastimes of Krishna with the gopis as I described in esoteric literature like Govinda Leela Amrit or Sangeet Madhav or Krishna Bhavna Amrit Mahakavya. So these books do talk about the intimate pastimes of Krishna Now these pastimes were by the sahajiyas cheaply imitated and because of that Bhaktivinoda Dasa Thakur said that we sadhakas should not read such books.
And he would say that essentially Radharani serves Krishna in private. That is this question. For example in the science of self-realization he has said that sex is also to be engaged in Krishna consciousness and the conception of God as father or mother does not allow the engagement of one’s sex in the service of the Lord because there is no sexual relationship with the father and mother.
But in the conception of God as a lover there is sexual engagement also. But Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says that not only does God have a form but he has sex life also. This is the highest contribution of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
There is no sex in the spiritual world. There may be such things but generally Prabhupada says that we shouldn’t. Overall Prabhupada’s mood was that these are things which are very exalted and we can’t understand them without dragging our material conceptions.
So that is why first we need to become free from the physical selfish based attraction between males and females. And only when that physical self-centered attraction minimizes and we become purified of it then we can start understanding spiritual reality and especially the highest spiritual reality in terms of Madhuryaras is something which we need to be pure hearted to understand. Otherwise we will misunderstand it.
So if we start thinking of, if we take darshan of the deities and we start thinking of what happens at a physical level, at a self-centered level among people, then we will simply become more agitated by lust. When Sri Prabhupada was asked this question, should devotees read the Rasila pastimes, Prabhupada said that yes they are meant for purification but if it agitates your mind then you have to be intelligent. Don’t agitate your mind further, don’t read such things.
So that means you are not yet ready. Now of course, there is a human temptation to think that I am ready to understand these things, but actually lust is very deep rooted within us and we have to be cautious. So we need to first, before we can properly understand the Madhuryarasa, we need to first understand that Radharani and Krishna and the Gopis are not just males and females.
They are not just boys and girls, man and woman. They are actually Lord and devotee and the relationship between them is devotional, transcendental, pure, eternal, spiritual. Similarly, just as is the relationship between Ram and Hanuman or Krishna and Sudama or Narsimha and Prahlad.
So just as these devotional relationships actually uplift our heart, they inspire our heart away from sensuality and sexuality and towards authentic spirituality. Similarly, when we develop a pure enough vision, even the relationship between Krishna and the Gopis will lift us out of that and then when we become adequately pure, then we can understand the mystery of this relationship. So till then, because it is a very intimate relationship, because it can be very easily misunderstood, because our Acharyas like Bhaktisiddhanta Sri Thakur and Srila Prabhupada have exercised extreme caution in talking about such things, what to speak of, reading these things and discussing them publicly.
Therefore, it is best for us to not become unnecessarily prematurely and dangerously inquisitive about things that can contaminate our vision of pure spiritual relationships and make it more difficult for us to make spiritual advancement. Now some devotees may take this position to an extreme and try to make categorical statement that there is no such thing in the spiritual world and they may quote Srila Prabhupada to support their statement but as I said, Prabhupada has made statements both ways and if some devotees make statements like this, we shouldn’t make this a topic of debate primarily because the topic is so advanced and secondly because Krishna is a person and he has his personal life and we need to respect the sanctity and intimacy of his relationship with his most intimate devotees. So in the Chaitanya Charitamrita, when Ramananda Raya is describing the highest relationships and he goes up right from starting from Varanashram Dharma up to the Mahabhava of Radharani and then when he goes deeper and deeper into the mysteries of the love of Radha for Krishna, at a particular point when he becomes a little apprehensive and he says I have composed a song and I don’t know whether you will like it or not but it is a very sweet song.
So he has the desire as well as the hesitation and then when he starts singing that, at that time Chaitanya Mahaprabhu immediately gets up and he puts his hand on Ramananda Raya’s face and he says that stop now. So he says that this is too intimate, we shouldn’t talk about this. So if Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is setting an example that there are intimate things about Krishna which should not be talked about, when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is Krishna himself manifesting in the mood of Radharani, then that is the most powerful example for us to understand that we shouldn’t talk about these things at our neophyte stage in spiritual life.
Thank you.