17 July 2014 - QA 7

Gurudev, why does someone sometimes have attractions towards people of the same sex? Why is being homosexual or bisexual such a taboo?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

I think it is no longer a taboo in many parts of the world now. In the past it was, and people were executed because of their sexual preferences. People simply don’t understand that each one of us is made of both mother and father. You have qualities of both in you. Of the feminine and masculine energies that you are made up of, sometimes one dominates and sometimes, the other dominates and that’s how these types of changes happen in people. Someone thinks they are straight and after fifty years or so, they suddenly discover that they have attraction towards the same sex. Then they get so perturbed and their mind goes haywire. They are simply not able to comprehend.

The other way is also true. They are gay from the very beginning but you never know, sometimes preferences change. So it is better not to label oneself for lifetime and feel bad about it. Even if you label yourself, do it happily. But don’t label someone else and accuse them because it is just a play or display of energies inside of you. And I want you to rise above identification of the body because you are genderless. Your body has a gender but your consciousness has got no gender.
Love is the nature of consciousness. That is why sometimes, irrespective of the body’s gender, consciousness gets attracted or your mental attraction goes in that direction. So it is wrong to blame oneself and blame others.

What you need to do is realize that you are scintillating light. You are not just a piece of flesh, bones and blood. You are light. When you get this understanding, then you will be free from whatever emotional turbulences you have. Serenity dawns in you and you get a better understanding of yourself.

There are so many people who discover their sexuality and get so upset or assertive that they start hating the entire society. We should get over these extreme reactive tendencies in the mind and realize that we are not just the body but scintillating, sparkling joy and consciousness.

People are understanding now that homosexuality is not a disease as it was thought some time back. Today people see that it is just a tendency. It is just the energy that plays that role. Sometimes, the male energy is dominant though you are a female and sometimes, the female energy is dominant though you are a male. All this is possible.