A person can be spiritual in any industry. I doubt Ghandi determined one's spirituality contingent upon someone's station in life.
I agree. most people have tunnel vision. it fucks with their perspective, and that's never a good thing.. thai people always wai (pay respect) as they pass by a representation of the buddha. don't matter who they are or what they do. your spirituality has nothing to do with what you choose to do with your life.
Ritual is only a subset of spirituality. It says nothing in and of itself of an individual's spiritual condition. One might "wai" when he passes a representation of a Buddha but if that person is a child sexual predator, his spiritual condition might be morbidly grotesque.
I believe we all have the same spiritual potential (ie going to Heaven, being reunited with Atman, reaching Nirvana), no matter what we do, but not the same condition at any given time. It is the Christian perspective that an individual's spiritual salvation is solely the work of God and not the result of personal ritual.
Mahatma Gandhi had taken a public vow of celibacy at age 37 and toward the end of his life he undertook what he described as the last yajna or ritual to test his sexual impulses. His exercise involved by sleeping naked with young women in his ashram, including his 19-year-old grand-niece Manu Gandhi and Abha Gandhi, the 16-year-old wife of his grand-nephew Kanu Gandhi. He acknowledged “that this experiment is very dangerous indeed,” but insisted “that it was capable of yielding great results.” This has been viewed with suspicion by sceptics.
The above anecdote is kind of a red herring. Ghandi might have slipped up but he was still a big proponent of restricting sex as a means of achieving spiritual transcendence. I'm not really saying I agree with him. I believe sex is a spiritual act in and of itself and it can be used for good or for evil. I believe there is virtue in avoiding promiscuity (for it can harm the body) and that the beauty and satisfaction one can gain from sex is directly proportional to the strength of the connection between partners and their aggregate virtue.
I really adhere to the Christian point of view. It is not that God is against sex but that "He hates divorce" (Malachi 2:16) in the sense that it is wrong to willingly sexually connect with someone and not feel some lasting sense of love towards them. The sexual bond is pretty powerful as many porn performers shockingly realize when they are constantly harassed in public by anonymous admirers.
Also, restricting sex is a testament to the virtue of self-control--which is crucial for achieving anything in this life. Just because one is promiscuous doesn't mean one is totally lacking in self-control but it would only elevate one's virtue if one were not that way.
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