IN RESPONSE TO POONAM SINGH'S COMMENT ON A PERTINENT POST THAT RAN THUS : DURING THE STAGE OF CHARACTER-FORMATION ASSOCIATION WITH WOMEN IS EXTREMELY HARMFUL FOR MONKS

Poonam Singh An woman can be a sister also. Sorry I am not crossing your statement....but for a pure mind it does not matter if women are around.

Sugata Bose It very much matters as the ideal will, nonetheless, have to be set. Read Ramakrishna. Such sisterly, motherly, daughterly association is also dangerous for the male spiritual aspirant (here, the monk) as it is for the female counterpart (here, the nun) in terms of brotherly, son-like and fatherly association, and this is veritably the pitfall that is to be avoided at all cost till one is absolutely established in the consciousness of gender-free Brahman when all distinction naturally eases. But even then when fully living in the super-conscious state, the realised soul (monk) sticks to the earlier self-injunction of abstinence of female company, as it were, to keep aflame the golden ideal of renunciation of all carnality before humanity so that future generations are well-guided en route to the summit of realisations, the solidarity of the universe and the oneness of existence.These are not mere opinions of the hour but are the articulations of sages and saints, the pronouncements of prophets who deemed such segregation of the sexes the sine qua non for the spiritual aspirant. Let those who will remain mired in material Maya have as much association with the opposite gender as they wish, with inevitable consequences, often not very wholesome, but let the golden ideal of renunciation be left intact and free of carnal contact even in principle for humanity to behold in it the beacon of future movement towards the ultimate goal of terrestrial existence.When Maya hits, She does so wearing the mask of innocence, soon to disappear in the degradation of the deluded soul when Her poisonous fangs will have dealt the death-blow to all that he had cherished earlier in his unfolding awakening consciousness. So, he must be wary of all such treachery and cannot as a monk bring in familial associations in the way of final fulfilment of the ideal after having renounced such earthly endearment in the ceremony of self-funeral while embracing the nothingness of sannyas. Hence, your objection is opposed thus and remains untenable in so far as my stated affirmation in the pithy post.@Poonam Singh