SELF-RESTRAINT V. SELF-INDULGENCE. BY. M. K. GANDH

Prefaces
PART I

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

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.

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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PART I & PART II  Download 13mb

Gandhi Brahmacharya Experiments