Physical Austerities, Self-Torture, Fasting and the Mastery of the Sexual Impulse

Physical Austerities, Self-Torture, Fasting and the Mastery of the Sexual Impulse
Posted on January 21, 2026
There is a considerable history within the religious and spiritual traditions of the world, of the use of various forms of self-inflicted physical suffering to restrain the basic sexual impulse. Part of this arises through an attempt at ‘disciplining’ the physical being to not stray from whatever the specific objective of the particular path happens to be. Another part arises through the dogma that sex is a ‘sin’ and the body is born ‘sinful’ and thus, needs to be punished. Yet another part comes through the vital nature’s desire for excitement, attention and action. If it cannot get it through sexual activity then it substitutes various forms of painful suppression as a sort of sado-masochistic alternative. And part of it comes through a sense of frustration at the inability of the mind and will to simply bring about compliance by the vital nature and the physical body.

Whatever the reasoning behind adopting any of these methods, the reality is simply that they do not actually succeed. The result tends to be weakening of the body and the focusing of the attention on the suppression of the sex-drive and the physical means being employed, rather than on the aspiration, the tuning of the consciousness to the spiritual force, and the strengthening and increasing the positive supportive action of the body, life and mind in the spiritual transformation. As we know, harsh suppression tends to increase the power of the force being suppressed, so that in the end, it can become even more aggressively powerful when it gets the opportunity to escape from the active conscious will that is suppressing it.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “Hurting the flesh is no remedy for the sex-impulse; though it may be a temporary diversion. It is the vital and mostly the vital-physical that takes the sense-perception as pleasure or otherwise.”

“Reduction of diet has not usually a permanent effect. It may give a greater sense of physical or vital-physical purity, lighten the system and reduce certain kinds of tamas. But the sex-impulse can very well accommodate itself to a reduced diet. It is not by physical means but by a change in the consciousness that these things can be surmounted.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 4, Desire — Food — Sex, pp. 80-81