ACQUIRINGFIRST-HANDKNOWLEDGE 471
aspirant would certainly not be justified in neglecting duty
and devoting the entire time and energy to spiritual
purposes. An effort must be made to gratify such aspirations
without interfering with duty to family.
If the des ire to live a celibate life comes t o a person who
holds marriage relations with another, the obligations of
such relations are not to be forgotten. It would be very
wrong, by practicing celibacy under such circumstances, to
endeavor to escape from theproper performance of duty. As
to what constitutes duty in regard to coition, however, there
is a standard for aspirants to the higher life different from
that of the ordinary man or woman.
Most people regard marriage as sanctioning unlimited
license for the gratification of sexual desire. In the eyes of
statute law, perhaps it does so, but no man-made law nor
custom has any right to govern this matter. Occult science
teaches that the sex-function shouldnever be us ed for sense-
gratification, but for propagationonly. Therefore an aspirant
to the higher life would be justified in refusing coition with
the marriage partner unless the object were the begetting of
a child, and then only if both parties were in perfect health—
physically, morally and mentally—as otherwise the union
would be likely to result in the generation of a feeble or
degenerate body.
Each person owns his or her body, and is responsible to
the Law of Consequence for any misuse resulting from the
weak-willed abandonment of that body to another.
In the light of the foregoing, and looking at the matter
from the viewpoint of occult science, it is both a duty and a
privilege (to be exercised with thanks for the opportunity)
for all persons who are healthy and of sound mind to provide
vehicles for as many entities as is consistent with their