[vallalargroups:2237] Self-Restraint vs Self-Indulgence by Mahatma Gandhi

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எல்லா உயிர்களும் இன்புற்று வாழ்க

Self-Restraint vs Self-Indulgence by Mahatma Gandhi

That the first edition was sold out practically within a week of its publication, is a matter of joy to me. The correspondence that the series of articles collected in this volume has given rise to, shows the need of such a publication. May those who have not made self-indulgence a religion, but who are struggling to regain lost self-control which should under normal conditions be our natural state, find some help from a perusal of these pages. For their guidance the following instructions may prove needful:

1. Remember if you are married that your wife is your friend, companion and co-worker, not an instrument of sexual enjoyment.

2. Self-control is the law of your being. Therefore, the sexual act can be performed only when both desire it, and that too subject to rules which in their lucidity both may have agreed upon.

3. If you are unmarried you owe it to yourself, to society and to your future partner to keep yourself pure. If you cultivate this sense of loyalty, you will find it as an infallible protection against all temptation.
4. Think always of that Unseen Power which, though we may never see, we all feel within us as watching and noting every impure thought, and you will find that Power ever helping you.

5. Laws governing a life of self-restraint must be necessarily different from a life of self-indulgence. Therefore you will regulate your society, your reading, your haunts of recreation and your food.

You will seek the society of the good and the pure.

You will resolutely refrain from reading passion-breeding novels and magazines and read the works that sustain humanity. You will make one book your constant companion for reference and guidance

You will avoid theatres and cinemas. Recreation is where you may not dissipate yourself but recreate yourself. You will, therefore, attend bhajan-mandalis where the word and the tune uplift the soul.


CONTENTS

PART I Gandhiji's Writings

Prefaces

1. 'Towards Moral Bankruptcy'
2. Birth Control
3. Some Arguments Considered
4. On the Necessity of Continence
5. Self-control
6. Brahmacharya
7. Truth v. Brahmacharya
8. Purity 9. In Confidence
10. Abolish Marriage!
11. Conservation of Vital Energy
12. Influence of Attitudes
13. A Moral Struggle
14. Vow of Brahmacharya
15. 'Startling Conclusions'
16. Brahmacharya or Chastity
17. Birth Control (I)
18. Birth Control (II)
19. Married Brahmacharya
20. The Cause of It
21. For Contraceptives
22. For Women Reformers
23. Self-control again
24. Birth Control through Self-control
25. What it is like
26. A Witness from America
27. 'A Voice in the Wilderness'
28. Wonderful if True
29. Sexual Perversion
30. A Growing Vice?
31. Duty of Reformers
32. For the Young
33. Heading for Promiscuity
34. A Youth's Difficulty
35. For Students
36. A Moral Dilemma
37. The Marriage Ideal
38. Sex Education
39. An Unnatural Father
40. A Renunciation
41. Nothing without Grace
42. How Non-violence Works
43. Students' Shame
44. The Modern Girl
45. Obscene Advertisements
46. How to Stop Obscene Advertisements?
47. Famines and Birth Rate
48. Self-restraint in Marriage
49. How did I Begin It?
50. Walls of Protection
51. A Perplexity
52. In Defence
53. On Contraceptives

PART II
Extracts from Mahadev Desai's Weekly Letters

I. On the Threshold of Married Life II. A Birth Control Enthusiast III. Problem of Birth Control IV. Mrs. Sanger and Birth Control V. Wrong Apotheosis of Women

Appendices

1. Generation and Regeneration 2. Chastity and Sensuality

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