Whatever people generally call as “love” right now, tends to be between man and woman because nature has created a certain attraction between man and woman. This attraction is crucial for the survival of the race.

If you look at this physical urge that you refer to as sexuality, you will see, the urge is to become one with something. It is not just about doing this or that. Somewhere, there is a longing in you that being yourself is not sufficient. You want to include another person as a part of yourself. So, sexuality is just a longing to become one with something more than that which you call as yourself – the basic longing is just to seek oneness.

Oneness means yoga. You are seeking to become one with something, but if you become one with a woman or a man, it is not sufficient. Initially, you may have really believed it was sufficient. But once you go through that, you will see, it is not. A fool will think he wants to become one with more and more people in that way, but still it will not fulfill you. If you go through a whole lifetime of that, it does not get you anywhere.

Equally, your desire to have more money, more property, more power, more pleasure, more love is simply your spiritual longing, but without awareness. Whether you desire sex, money, pleasure, property, power, whatever, your desire is right, but you are not giving it the right direction, that is all. Your desire is still wanting to become one with something more than yourself, but you need to understand that getting one woman or one man, or one this or one that is not going to fulfill you. It seeks more, and more. What is it that your desire is finally seeking? It is seeking unboundedness. It wants to become one with everything.

In life, it does not matter what you include as a part of yourself, whether you include a man or a woman or one dozen children, still your life is not fulfilled. When you are young, you think “Oh, if I got married to this particular person, my life will be complete.” It may bring some happiness and comfort into your life, but it does not fulfill you.

Once you realize that, you think “Oh, we don’t have children. That is why we are like this. If I bear a child, everything will be okay.” You could have one or one dozen, but nothing happens. We produced one billion people in this country. Do you think everybody is realized and fulfilled? We go on bearing children without limit, but still, where is fulfillment? Do you see fulfillment on people’s faces? It is not happening.

So, either you go through all these experiences at the cost of a whole lifetime, or you look at all these people and see. They have done all these things, it has not gotten them anywhere. It is very obvious. You look at a sixty-year-old man who has gone through every process of life: of ambition, of power, of sex, of children, of love. If you look at his face and see, is it a face of fulfillment? No. If you have the intelligence to understand this from other people’s experience of life, you will see these things will not get you anywhere. This is why the yoga sutras start this way, “And now Yoga.”

The most basic instinct in you is always to become one with something or somebody. This is a spiritual instinct. It is just that you give expression to your spiritual instinct in a materialistic way. If you bring awareness to whatever you refer to as the most basic instincts, you will see, you will start on a spiritual journey. Right now, you are doing it without awareness, that is why it is remaining a limited process. -Isha Foundation New Zealand