Vraja Kishor Dasa

Vraja Kishor Dasa

THE CROWD TONIGHT is volatile like nitro. Intense polarization: ninety percent of the kids are totally into Shelter [The popular straightedge band Vic was part of before recently forming his new band, 108], heart and soul. The rest, dead set against us. The mixture explodes as our music blares. Kids running and jumping around, urgently singing along.

At song's abrupt end, silence envelops the hall. Ears perk to receive Krsna consciousness. Taking advantage of the quiet, those opposed launch a shower of protests, the first attack their spearhead slogan "Sex is great!" followed by anthems of sex glorification and a flurry of praise for masturbation.

A few sharp words from Raghunatha slice their offensive to pieces. The power chords of our next song finish them off. The show ends. Pulling a book bag full of 'zines over my shoulder, I move into the crowd. Guess who I run into…yeah, Mr. Sex-Is-Great himself. Not unexpectedly, whatever he has to say is pretty crude. I shrug off his remarks with a "Yeah, yeah, sure, sure" and walk away.

The next thing I know, his eyes are inches from my face, and he's shouting and pointing fingers of accusation. I out-shout him, arrogant enough myself, then draw him into a quieter corner, hoping to transform wrath into discussion.

After letting him blow off verbal steam for close to ten minutes, I interrupt: "Hey listen. In two sentences or less, what's your point?"

"I just think it's so stupid that you guys are against sex! Sex is beautiful! Sex is totally natural."

"We're not against sex."

Pause. Let it sink in.

"Sex is natural. You're right. And sex naturally results in a baby. Latex condoms don't grow on trees. Sex that's dependent on all that stuff is obviously unnatural. But sex can be natural and beautiful and all that mushy poetic stuff, if it's followed through to its natural conclusion. Otherwise it's nothing more than mutual exploitation, thinly masked by a ridiculously transparent costume of lovey-dove-dove."

With gestures comically reminiscent of a college professor, he asks, "Sex only for procreation?"

"Yeah, but not that any John and Sally can hop into the sack and have some kid they kick out onto the street. That's not natural either. They have to be committed and qualified to raise the kid, giving him or her every opportunity for a full life enriched with self-realization. Then, like you say, sex is beautiful."

"Do you have sex?"

"I don't."

That ignites him: "No way! No possible way! I don't believe you for a second. You'll go crazy. You've got to have sex!"

Shades of the old "you'll die if you don't eat meat" argument. "You don't go crazy without sex," I tell him. "You go crazy with it. Here you are with some overwhelming, consuming compulsion which is never fully satisfied but instead burns more fiercely every time you go at it. Now that's enough to drive anyone crazy. And that's exactly what sex…"

"Look," he interrupts, "I'm studying to be a sex therapist…"

"So then you know firsthand all the crazy problems surrounding sex."

"People just need to open up." The standard textbook dogma. "People are so afraid of sex. That's why they have so many problems."

"Come on! You really believe that trash? There's no proof that anyone, anywhere, at any time, has ever had a life of deep fulfillment and satisfaction by opening up to sex. In fact, just the opposite. As people get more and more into sex, the world just gets proportionately hotter. Depression, violence, crime how often are they all bound up with your just-get-into-it sex? Doesn't say a whole lot for your so-called sexual revolution, does it?"

Nothing. He just stares at his shoes. Then something clicks and his eyes light up. "I have sex, and I'm happy!"

The utter predictability almost hurts. "The truth is you're accepting a pitifully temporary high. If you're really so satisfied, why are you always so damn bored, looking for something to do? Only a hungry man goes in search of a meal. A person who's already satisfied has no need."

His strong frame shakes with disapproval. "No! No! You don't understand! You can't repress the sex drive!"

"Stand still for a second," I say, waiting for him to calm down. "I agree with you. You can't shut off or stifle the sex drive, because it originally comes from the deepest recesses of the self."

"Right," he graciously confirms.

"The strongest and most primal urge of the soul," I explain, "is called bhakti. When this drive tries to find expression through the body, it gets perverted into the sex drive."

"Sex is not perverted!" he explodes."Cool it. I don't mean 'perverted' like some weirdo flasher in the park. Maybe 'distorted' is a better word. Anyway, the sex drive is a garbled expression of our deepest primal urge for pure devotion.

"A devotee," I continue, "is not some stuffy character with a stiff upper lip and self-crucifying Victorian ideals. Myself, I want the most pleasure. I want to satisfy the sex drive to the maximum possible extent, at the fountainhead, in sex's most primal and unbridled form the urge for pure devotion. This is the only way the sex drive will ever really make you happy. That's the only way to satisfy sex desire."

"So you don't have sex?"

I can just about see my words floating out his other ear. "No. I don't."

"Let me ask you a question. Do you masturbate?"

"No."

"Impossible! You gotta…"

"Look, this is the last time I'm gonna try to communicate with you, so listen close. I couldn't care less about masturbation. Or any kind of sex. What's so fantastic about it? Cockroaches do it. Worms do it. I want something more out of life than worm pleasure. And because I'm actually getting that higher pleasure by stimulating my Krsna consciousness the most intense, urgent, and pure desire I couldn't care less about your sexology and your crazy masturbation theories.

"Sex is like a mosquito bite. You'll never satisfy it by scratching. I don't care if you're up to your ears in sex you'll never be satisfied. The only way you can really fulfill and express the pure sex desire and bring the highest pleasure into your life is to develop love for Krsna. That's all I have to say."

I walk away from a man who continues to shout the glories of sex. Wasted time? Well, he sure didn't hear a word. But I know I did. And I hope you did too.

Bhakta Vic 108 joined the Hare Krsna movement about a year and a half ago. He and his new band 108 are based at the Washington, D.C., temple.