Consequences of Misdirected Sexual Energy
Pornography is often connected with organized crime and its harmful activities. The influence of pornography can increase the incidence of rape and destroy healthy relationships, breaking up families and discouraging meaningful connections with others.
Because pornography is so prevalent, people begin to emulate the degradation they see, accepting such perversions as normal and justifying all kinds of reprehensible behavior.
In addition to pornography, another negative consequence of misused sexual energy is the rapid spread of sexually transmitted diseases around the planet. Each year, millions of new cases of syphilis and gonorrhea appear, and every day several thousand people become infected with the AIDS virus, so that in the next few years untold millions will fall ill.
We will remain vulnerable to sexual exploitation and to the temptation of drugs until
we find a higher purpose for our lives.
A greater understanding of life’s spiritual meaning will ultimately allow us to develop more compassion and selflessness, using the great restorative power of our sexual energies to love and care for others instead of directing them toward destructive ends.
Bisexuality and Homosexuality
Another manifestation of the role of sexuality in modern society is homosexuality and the growing number of bisexuals around the world. Of course, we should not be homophobic, nor should we condemn anyone for the choices they make.
Everyone is simply looking for love. However, many people, gay or straight, are just avoiding an honest, hopefully spiritual, monogamous relationship.
Such people are guided by selfish lust rather than accountable, selfless, and compassionate love. Many straight people are quick to lump all gay people together which is just as absurd as viewing all straight people to be the same.
There are many varieties of gay people whose consciousness can vary from the most mundane to the most highly spiritual, just as in the heterosexual community.
One of the Vedic texts, the Kama-sutra, includes gay people in the categories of tritiya-prakriti
or the “third sex.” A certain, renounced class of these individuals lived in their own villages, practiced celibacy, and were invited to attend or perform at important gatherings or festivals, and their presence was considered very auspicious.
That is their means of livelihood. Such men never become servants or engage themselves in agriculture or business occupations; they simply take charity from neighborhood friends to maintain themselves peacefully.
Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila, 13.106 purport
Obtaining the body of a man, a woman, or of the third gender is a choice, but not necessarily a choice made in this lifetime. Everyone who has a material body is a product of karma from a previous lifetime, which involves their choices, experiences, and desires.
All of these factors add up directly and indirectly, producing not only our particular bodies but also our psyche, relationships, and field of activities in each incarnation. Some people are born with very unusual configurations of chromosomes or with complex and mixed genital structures.
Thus, they come into the world with a certain physical proclivity. Such people as well as all people in general have had their mentality impacted upon by previous experiences in past lives and by critical periods in this lifetime.
Regardless of our hormonal and chromosomal configurations, and our psychological and emotional states, we all have the same choice in this lifetime—to use our body, senses, and mind in love and service to God, or to use them for lust and exploitation. Let us examine a few possible sociological and metaphysical factors that can also play a role in transgender behavior.
For many gay males, a factor is their desire to avoid imitating the male role models they witnessed as children.
If a boy sees his father showing disrespect for his mother and refusing to support his own children, will he be proud to become a man? When a boy sees his mother crying because her husband has abandoned the family, will that child be eager to become like his father?
Most modern cultures are founded upon an autocratic, patriarchal model of human interaction. The normal behavior of males in these systems is to be lords of everything they survey.
Such societies encourage men to be ruthless, self-centered, manipulative dictators, despite the wish of many to be kind, compassionate protectors and providers.
Men who do not have a wholesome respect for themselves can easily succumb to these social pressures by fully embracing “macho” behavior—or totally rejecting it.
Even women have internalized this patriarchal pattern; many of them are only too eager to take
advantage of others, male and female, for their own personal gain. Regardless of gender, anyone in a position of seniority who lacks love and compassion inevitably becomes an exploiter. Such exploitation perpetuates the patriarchal paradigm that continues to hurt so many of us.
Females face so many unnecessary challenges. Many young girls experience abuse and mistreatment just because they are female. The patriarchal culture teaches a young woman not to value
her femininity. A woman walking down a street must be vigilant just because she is female. She must be cautious even when greeting or smiling at a man, because he may misinterpret her behavior.
She has to be wary when her boss makes certain comments, because he may have another meaning in mind. She may work hard at her job only to discover that she is paid far less than a man doing the same work.
Under such a relentless onslaught, how can anyone be happy about being female?