Spirituality and sexuality: The yoga model of spiritual transformation of western marriage

Abstract

Background: The fascinating subjects of sexuality and spirituality are often considered complex and controversial in contemporary society. World religions in general tend to enforce restrictions regarding sexuality, sexual behavior and sexual morality. But, Hindu religion, which is one among the world’s ancient religions, balances these two complex subjects quite exceptionally. Hinduism has an active following of over 1.2 billion believers, which is roughly 15% of the world’s population. The connection between sexuality and spirituality has become more intellectually stimulating lately in academic debates, but less research has been focused on this often ignored scientific subject. But, this thesis for the first time has synthesized the sexuality and spirituality association rather logically with analyses from both Hindu scriptural records and contemporary scientific literature to develop a conceptual model involving yoga, and how it could mitigate conflicts among couples to minimize breakups and divorce leading to a spiritually enhanced life. Divorce, by the way, has become a serious social and psychiatric problem in modern society and therefore there is an urgent need to find solutions to sustain happiness among families. Spirituality has the capacity to contribute in this polemical endeavor. Aims and Objectives: I have explored the potential of Yoga and how it could enhance sexual health by preventing infidelity, reducing divorce, building emotional bond between partners, strengthening monogamous relationship, providing partners the chance to realize life values and in the end, transcends the Western marriage scenario from social construct to spiritual union. In order to explicate the above highlighted ideas connected to sexuality and spirituality, I have presented scriptural and scientific annotations and viewpoints under diverse chapters with an in depth rationality to pursue practical advances. viii Methods: The working hypothesis of this study envisages that Yoga transforms sexual connection in couples from a proximate mundane physical outlook to an ultimate spiritual prospect based on the below mentioned predictions. I used databases such as the Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar to catalogue information to gather scientific data for a detailed theoretical scoping review. I also used secondary sources of information by referring to classical ancient Hindu scriptural texts (Sanskrit and Tamil languages), Yoga and Tantra Sastras, reference books and open data manually from online for their relevance. Results: I have presented results and discussions covering nine major chapters. In the first chapter, I presented the overall introduction of the entire doctoral thesis. It synthesizes the objectives and need for the study that include specific chapters on sexuality, spirituality and the yoga conceptual model of spiritual transformation of Western marriage. The second chapter describes the objectives, working hypothesis, methodology and analysis. The third chapter explores literature research with details on the concept and practices of the Hindu marriage systems that existed in ancient India. It also provides citations from various scriptural documentations. Chapter four presents the Yoga model of spiritual transformation of Western marriage. The chapter five discusses the sacred relationships of couples and how it will lead to spiritual transcendence. The chapter six deals with the importance of erotic temples, sexual energy and spiritual advancement. The chapter seven highlights contemporary India’s sexual spiritual paradox. The chapter eight outlines details on the transformation from social evil to spiritual redemption with an example from ancient scripture. The last chapter nine concludes by reviewing the strengths and weaknesses of the information presented in this thesis. ix Conclusion: Spiritual growth has played a key role as an essential protagonist in humanity’s extended insightful journey. Yoga as a spiritual technique plays an invaluable role in achieving the task of divine uplift. By integrating Yoga, meditation, and mindfulness, couples can enhance their lives in a transformative voyage towards the ultimate spiritual bliss. What’s unique about Yoga is that it works on three crucial levels, physical, emotional and spiritual. I have analyzed how the yogic transformation of sexual relationships could transcend couples through these three levels from the initial physical facet to the final spiritual facet to sustain harmony and happiness in relationships among couples.