Is sex an obstacle in liberation?

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Questioner (Q1): Acharya Ji, do you sex as obstacle or a useful tool in Liberation?

Acharya Prashant (AP): Sex is for the body, sex is not for you. Sex is neither helpful towards Liberation, nor is it a distraction.

There is a fire burning in the kitchen of the neighbour, is it helpful for your dinner or is it blocking your dinner? It is neither helpful nor a problem. It is in the neighbour’s house, it is not in your house.

Sex is the body’s concern, not yours. But you start talking a lot about sex when you become the body.

Q1: Acharya Ji, I asked this question because I have a book by Osho, ‘From Sex to Superconsciousness’. In that book he has said, “Sex is life energy, and one has to channelise that energy.” Do you agree or disagree with that?

AP: It is not the question of agreeing or disagreeing. Isn’t it obvious? When you say, “Sex is life-force, sex is just that which carries forward prakriti’s (nature’s) game of procreation. Why are you so bothered about sex? Let prakriti be bothered. She is very interested in running and continuously running the cycle of birth and death.

That’s the intention of prakriti that the cycle of birth ad death should continue running. Your intention is just the opposite. Your intention is to drop out of the cycle. So why are you talking so much about sex?

I’ll again remind you: the stove is in the neighbour’s kitchen. It is neither going to help you with your dinner, nor is it going to take away your dinner.

Sex is the body’s concern.

Do not make it your concern.

Your concern should be Liberation alone.

And when you are fully occupied with your legitimate concern, which is Liberation, then thoughts of sex and such things do not bug you too much.

Sex becomes a great issue for you only when you say, “I am going to have sex and sex is going to satisfy me.” That you can say only when you are a truthless wanderer. Whereas when your prime concern is Truth and Liberation, then you will simply not have the space, the vacancy to think too much of sex.