Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Baba on homosexuality

What did Baba say about homosexuality? The following is from Lord Meher.
ONE DAY IN CANNES, Baba disclosed to the group, "For my work I need a healthy, handsome, intelligent and innocent boy. These qualities are essential for the work I wish to do for the world involving the minimizing of lust and especially to destroy that lust of homosexuals which is now prevalent to an alarming extent all over the world." (Lord Meher, original 1986 print edition, p. 2213)
The following footnote was written for the above paragraph by Bhau Kalchuri in late 1993 for inclusion in Lord Meher, based on points Baba gave him for The Nothing and the Everything.
Meher Baba once revealed to the author, when he was giving the points for the book THE NOTHING AND THE EVERYTHING during 1967-68, that homosexuality was the most unnatural human predicament. The unnaturalness is that the homosexual is in male form but is working out female sanskaras, whereas he should be spending his male sanskaras since he has reincarnated in male form. Therefore, homosexuality is not a natural or normal state for the human being. It is basically a byproduct due to all the unnatural sanskaras in a person’s individual mind and environment. 
However, due to concern the statement would be too controversial for the time it was eventually replaced with a softened version by the editor, Lawrence Reiter, as it currently appears in the original print version. See this post for the final wording.

There is more backstory to this footnote. There originally was material in The Nothing and Everything conveying Baba's points about certain unnatural sex acts, homosexuality and bestiality. Bhau and the editor Lawrence Reiter decided to replace these words 'homosexuality and bestiality' in the final printing with the more general phrase "unnatural sex acts" (Nothing and Everything, p. 251). The word 'homosexuality' was removed.

Please don't be angry at this author for what Baba's biography says Baba said, or what its author said that Baba told him. I am simply reporting what information has been given to me.

New Gay Pride Flag, image from Wikipedia
In the original manuscript of Lord Meher, the following paragraph describes Don Stevens and Alain Youell's visit to see Baba in 1959. It is omitted from the published version.
When the subject of homosexuality came up one day, Baba explained that sometimes, for various specific or unspecified reasons, when the progression between a male and female form takes place, it does not go all the way through. The soul, in a sense, gets stuck in the middle. The transformation between forms somehow doesn’t become complete so that a male changing into the female form will develop homosexual tendencies, and the female changing into the male form will develop lesbian tendencies.
The only other reference to homosexuality in Lord Meher comes from the description of Baba's 1956 visit to England:
Two young homosexuals, one a well-known painter and the other a dancer, were also in the queue. Both were good friends of Delia who had persuaded them to come. As they approached Baba they began to have misgivings, wondering if Baba was going to censure them. They considered leaving but decided to stay. As they apprehensively came before him, Baba looked at them, threw up his hands and gestured, "Chums!" They were so relieved, they nearly leapt forward and hugged Baba!

2 comments:

  1. Does Baba have any more specific instructions on how to reduce homosexual lust within oneself? I consciously acknowledge that homosexual lust is a harmful impression that keeps me trapped in the Gross Plane; however, the force of this impression is so strong. How can I get passed this roadblock?

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  2. What an interesting honest question. No, sadly I don't think Baba did give specific instructions in that regard. The same question could be asked of heterosexual lust, which Baba says creates binding sanskaras when not sublimated in family life and children. So I think we are all in the same boat really.

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