es the life forces that can encourage unity with the absolute (Koller, 1982, p. 182). Yogananda says that "sex sensations" in particular lead humanity to "enmesh itself in the inferior animal method of propagation" (p. 177). The crudity of life expression is associated with sex, and the very intensity of the experience is the less to be preferred for its attachment to the things of the world. It is most prominent in Yoga doctrine having to do with the human being's being an instrument for the alleviation of pain in the world. Or, as Yogananda puts it: "Solitude [meditation] is necessary to become established in the self, but masters then return to the world to serve it" (p. 50). He continues:
No Hindu religious or social ideal is merely negative. Ahisma, "non-injury," called "virtue entire" (sakato dharma) in the Mahabharata [Hindu mythology], is a positive injunction by reason of its conception that one who is not helping others in some way is injuring them (pp. 50-51).
Schweitzer describes the ethical implications of helping others to avoid in
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