From sex energy to spiritual energy

The sexual energy must be transmuted into spiritual energy or Ojas Sakti by the practice
of Japa, prayer, meditation, study of religious books, Pranayama and Asanas. You must
develop devotion and a burning desire for liberation. You must constantly meditate on the pure,
immortal, sexless, bodiless, desireless Atman. Then only the sexual desire will be annihilated.

If the sexual energy is transmuted into Ojas or spiritual energy by pure thoughts, it is
called sex sublimation in western psychology. Sublimation is not a matter of suppression or
repression, but a positive, dynamic, conversion process. It is the process of controlling the sex
energy, conserving it, then diverting it into higher channels, and finally, converting it
into spiritual energy or Ojas Sakti. The material energy is changed into spiritual energy, just as
heat is changed into light and electricity. Just as a chemical substance is sublimated or purified by
raising the substance through heat into vapour which again is condensed into solid form, so also, the
sexual energy is purified and changed into divine energy by spiritual Sadhana.

Ojas is spiritual energy that is stored up in the brain.

By entertaining sublime, soul-elevating thoughts of the Self or Atman, by meditation, Japa,

worship and Pranayama, the sexual energy can be transmuted into Ojas Sakti and stored up
in the brain. This stored up energy can then be utilised for divine contemplation and spiritual
pursuits.

Anger and muscular energy can also be transmuted into Ojas. A man who has a great deal of Ojas in
his brain can turn out immense mental work. He is very intelligent. He has lustrous eyes and a
magnetic aura in his face. He can influence people by speaking a few words. A short speech of his
produces a tremendous impression on the minds of the hearers. His speech is thrilling. He has an awe-
inspiring personality. Sri Sankara, an Akhanda Brahmachari, worked wonders through his power of
Ojas. He did Digvijaya and held controversies and heated debates in different parts of India with
learned scholars through his power of Ojas. A Yogi always directs his attention to the
accumulation of this divine energy by unbroken chastity.

In Yoga, it is called Oordhvaretas. An Oordhvareta Yogi is one in whom the seminal energy has flown
upwards into the brain as Ojas Sakti. There is now no possibility of the semen going
downwards by sexual excitement.

– Swami Sivananda