I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that pretty much nobody who regularly reads this is going to have much of a clue about what I’m saying here.

Let’s begin at the beginning.

There is a sannyasi named Satsvarupa das Goswami. A sannyasi is a celibate priest. Now, personally, I’m a HUGE fan of Satsvarupa Maharaja. I’m REALLY into his poetry and his art. Quite a lot. I’ve read some of his novels and they’re pretty good too.

Sometimes he stretches the boundaries on just what it is that a sannyasi should be doing, but that’s part of the charm as well.

However, his latest book, I feel, takes it WAY too far.

Here’s an excerpt:

“Bold as she was, she placed his hands on her breasts. She then kissed him and placed her tongue in his mouth. His tongue also entered hers. She embraced him and by now he had a half erection… Braja dasa sat down and calmed his genitals……… He didn’t want to stick his genital into some well formed beauty star. He wanted Sandy. And he had heard from a Godbrother who worked as a physical therapist that a man could even have sexual intercourse with a paraplegic… It’s not just a sticking in of a penis into a vagina. It’s the being together in the touching and the embracing that lead up to the mechanics and the orgasm…”

Well… ok then. This would be a very tame book had pretty much anyone who wasn’t a celibate priest written it. But no. A celibate priest wrote it.

Seriously, what the fuck?

I’m not about to propose that my standards are amazingly high, but even I wouldn’t write something like that. And I’m FAR from a celibate priest! And I’m not saying that I’m even fit to judge this on either a spiritual or literary level… but come on.

Now, I’m fairly “liberal” when it comes to spiritual matters. However, one thing that I’m rather conservative about is sannyasi’s dealings with women. Monks too. They choose to be celibate. It’s voluntary. In Krishna consciousness, that means that they should have VERY limited dealings with women. That’s not at all to say that they should be jerks to them or ignore them. Be kind and generous, but the dealings should be extremely limited. And they sure as hell shouldn’t be writing books like this! It’s simply not their place to do so.

Just as, I feel, it’s not their place to give marriage or relationship advice. They shouldn’t be concerned with those matters (let alone that they have no experience in such things!).

Basically, I feel, that if you want to have dealings with women and write books like this, etc, that’s perfectly ok. Just don’t claim to be a celibate monk or priest… cause by this point, it’s rather transparent that something is fishy.

Satsvarupa Maharaja is a guru and a sannyasi in ISKCON (the Krishna consciousness movement). It is my humble and unworthy opinion that perhaps those things should be reconsidered.

Related posts:

1. What exactly is a retired sannyasi?
2. My closing thoughts on the “retirement” issue
3. To retire or leave?
4. Aww cute! It’s trying to write!
5. What’s wrong with this picture? (Or, how I’m kind of “conservative” sometimes)