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"And also physically," said Indira. "Physical sex is biologically necessary. It is a factor in our physical health, and also in our mental health. Celibacy isn't a stepping stone to a richer life but a stepping stone into the madness of self-imposed sterility that is the opposite of vitality. It isn't the key to humanist vitality. Maybe Helen's Principle of the Universal Kiss is more profound than we yet realize, and the universal kiss is a sexual kiss."
"Maybe this was the key issue here," I interjected. "And maybe this is still the issue, the very issue that makes these temples the most popular tourist destination in India. It's sex that draws the people. There is nothing else here. The climate is hot, there is no nightlife here worth the mention, the village only has a population of 3,000. The temples are the only thing. Sure the
Kandariya Mahadev Temple is impressive with its 900 sculptures and countless spires. It's a marvel in the temple construction. The book says it stand more than a 100 feet tall. But is this what the people come for,
the art, the architecture? No it's sex that most of them come for. The men crane their neck to get a closer look and the wives pretend to be annoyed. Sex is the thing, because sexual isolation runs deep in almost every society on earth so that sex is now the key attraction."
"This fact is exploited by the tourism vendors," Indira interjected. "You see the erotic sculptures on posters and post cards, but rarely the architecture and the remaining 90% of the artwork. So I agree. Sex is the thing. Sex sells. Sex is what the people want to see, that's why it sells. If this wasn't so you wouldn't see a single sexual image on the posters and postcards. The commercial world caters to what sells, what people want."
"I find it amazing how deeply attractive sex is, because of all the sculptures in these temples only 10% are erotic sculptures, as the guide book points out, while the rest show common scenes of everyday life. The amazing thing is that even this thin spread draws the tourists. Maybe its is false advertising that brings people here. The temples should not be seen as erotic temples at all, but as temples of the celebration of life and the wide sphere of our humanity in which the sexual has a place, a 10% place. Evidently society has become too 'small' in its self-isolation for one-another to give to one another that 10%. It's that 'poverty' that causes these temples to be seen as erotic temples instead of temples of a human life in which eroticism place a certain role, a 10% role as the ancient builders had seen it in their society."
"Are you saying that most other temples are temples of poverty?" Indira interjected.
"Maybe they are, Indira. The general religious thought is that the human beings is the reflected image of God. And so society builds great temples and cathedrals in honor of their God in whose image they see themselves. But then they say oops we have to exclude sex from this image. We are ashamed of what we are. We say that God as messed up. Did you ever read the Adam and Eve satire in the Bible? The satirist has Adam to confront God, saying, 'you fool, you have messed up, I am ashamed of what you have done.' Society is still saying that by omitting sex from its temples as if it wasn't a part of life and human existence. That is what makes the temples here richer and grander, because they are honest temples. They are more honest than society is itself."
"How honest is society with itself?" asked Indira. "Is pornography honest or is it dishonest?"
"I never heard anybody pose that question," I said to her. "But knowing you, I know what the answer must be. It takes a highly sensitive person to recognize that pornography is dishonest."
Indira nodded. "It is dishonest, because it comes in the name of sexual freedom while it imposes sexual impotence. It becomes a substitute for the intimacy of sexual sharing between people, which is thereby left to wither away and die. People become isolated from one another by pronography. Marriages collapse. Families break up."
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