Happy Liberation
“Same-gender affectional and sexual orientation” and beyond.
by Jagajivana dasa
Caro, thirtyish and wearing brown, a filmmaker-screenwriter and easily one of the “beautiful people,” is back in Manhattan to review takes from several months on location. Now, as before, Caro will be coming a few nights a week to the Krsna center to hear half-hour classes on Bhagavad-gita, the science of self-realization.
“There’s a difficulty in homosexuality,” Caro confides to me, “in that one really knows that it’s a distortion. As soon as it goes into a personal relationship, there’s a raging contradiction. You’ve got two proud roosters or two hens—and sometimes one of the roosters is forced to play a hen, or one of the hens is forced to play a rooster. It’s edgy.”
But Caro, what about The Joy of Gay Sex, The Joy of Lesbian Sex, and Masters and Johnson’s new Homosexuality in Perspective, plus Time’s recent cover story, the one that said, “By looking honestly and critically at the gay life, straight men and women can learn important lessons… among them … treating sexual partners with consideration, understanding, and unhurried gentleness.” What about that?
“Absolute hogwash,” Caro says, “utter nonsense. A husband and wife have a natural, God-given relationship. The man never totally comprehends the woman’s psychology, nor the woman the man’s psychology, and this is the charm.
“Now, what Masters and Johnson and Time are blowing all out of proportion is this: homosexuality—and heterosexuality where procreation is not involved and sensual gratification dominates the relationship—is unnatural, an illusion, a game. To make homosexuality ‘work,’ you really have to work hard and pay dogged attention to technique—to playing the game of being ‘considerate.’ One false move and you might get a bad report and jeopardize your future make-outs.”
After observing that Masters and Johnson’s most notable finding seems to be that they can make good money selling their findings, Caro continues, “The natural, God-given purpose of sex is having a child, just like the natural purpose of eating is keeping your body fit. Once you take away the idea of having a child, then you’re working with a distortion, heterosexual or homosexual.
“You can even go all the way to sadomasochism—you know, the whipping-and-beating route. And the real reason people do this is that they know in their inner self, their inner spiritual core, ‘I’ve corrupted myself; I’ve become a living distortion. I ought to be flogged.’
“You want to believe Masters and Johnson when they say, ‘You can do anything—whatever titillates your body is good for you. They know so many clever words, and radio and T V talk-show emcees introduce them as though they were the royal couple and held the panacea for all sexual problems. Yet what made them devote twenty-five years of their lives to studying the sex act? What kind of obsession is that, you know? What’s their problem?
“Another thing—” says Caro. “Who are the testers choosing? Anybody who would perform sex for spectators must be rather peculiar. And they weigh a few hundred of these ‘test cases’ against how many millions of ordinary people? I don’t find any credibility in this kind of so-called scientific test. It’s all trumped-up nonsense.
“The ‘homosexual revolution’ is a publicists’ game. Do you think Time is reporting the average person’s feelings? They’re pushing atheistic materialism, that’s all. And one of their current ploys is the ‘homosexual revolution. Actually, they should call it the ‘homosexual revulsion. Most homosexuals—and heterosexuals who’ve forgotten procreation and turned sex into a sensual game—are inwardly in agony, because they know they’ve smeared excrement all over their spiritual identity.”
Now Caro speaks of a recent visit to a church in the Village. “If you’re a homosexual and you find a spiritual group that doesn’t reject you, you’re delighted, overjoyed. But I attended one service where at first everything seemed sublime and spiritual and then right afterward the ‘clergy’ started smooching. If you’re looking for spiritual enlightenment, you have to feel cheated. I’m sure Christ would be appalled at this. He taught that the body is dust and ‘Be pure as your heavenly father is pure. But they don’t show you how to get beyond homosexuality or unchaste heterosexuality, either of which is a perversion, an animality. Instead these so-called Christian priests hold seminars on ‘same-gender affectional and sexual orientation.’ They say, ‘Let’s celebrate our gay spirituality.’ What spirituality? How can you understand the Supreme Spirit if you immerse yourself in a sensual garbage pail?
“If you listen to people who can manipulate words, they can talk any kind of bunk and make you say, ‘Well, that sounds reasonable.’ But actually,” Caro says, “no one is born a homosexual; even crazy Kinsey knew there are ‘no peculiar hormonal or hereditary factors involved. So you have to be very well centered spiritually to see through good actors with good scripts—to look at these people and say, ‘Nonsense. They’re a bunch of jokers, a bunch of Georgia crackers. They may as well be selling medicine bottles from a covered wagon.
“I’m convinced that deep inside, every one of us is really a pure spirit, a pure soul. But it’s next to impossible to stay in touch with your inner self unless you can get yourself some solid spiritual instruction. I feel that if you’re sincere, sooner or later you’re going to find a sincere, first-rate spiritual teacher.”
Already Caro is planning to become a student of one of the spiritual masters that Srila Prabhupada chose before passing from this world. Caro knows—and we talk about it awhile—that a genuine spiritual master helps his student understand, “I’m not my material body; I’m a pure spirit, a servant of the Supreme Spirit.” And this is liberation—not the slavery of trying to satisfy the body’s insatiable demands, but the freedom to satisfy the soul’s need to serve the all-loving Supreme Soul (and all other souls) with love and devotion.
“No question,” Caro says. “This is liberation. Even a half-hour hearing devotees talk about Krsna consciousness and your life changes. My happy experience with the devotees is that suddenly you can walk into a room and no one’s checking out your body, sizing you up financially or sexually (‘How can I use this one?’ or ‘How can I make out with this one?’). When you meet Krsna conscious people you meet their spirits, and your own.”
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