This is a very pertinent question since most of us consider holiness or purity to be something physical and associated with the physical body. For centuries we had assumed that to be pure or holy meant to keep our physical bodies chaste through either sexual or gastronomic abstinence. This is also what the churches had taught for centuries and it is actually what they themselves have practised and still practise in the monasteries and nunneries.

This practice has resulted from our inability to differentiate between the physical and the spiritual worlds. It arose out of our complete ignorance of what is spiritual. We do not up until now have a clear conception of what spirituality is all about. If we did, we would long ago have been able to understand this lofty conception of chastity.

Up until now mankind knows only one conception and is actually guided by this: that the way to the Kingdom of God is through some sort of physical abstinence.

As a result, we built up monasteries and nunneries and imposed restrictions on those who have chosen this path, which are completely unnatural. The consequences have been disastrous for these people and recent events have actually proven this to be true whereby the nuns and monks have engaged in both natural and unnatural sexual exploits resulting in scandals from which the Catholic Church, for example, is still reeling.

The Lord did not place such restrictions on human spirits. These teachings are man-made and thought out by men, otherwise the Lord would not have placed these desires within human beings. The desire for sexual intercourse is completely natural as long as it is healthy and not artificially stimulated and brought about. It is the going against this natural desire through the restrictions placed by the Church that is unhealthy and must cause the downfall of many human spirits.

We must realise that it is of no use to keep our physical bodies chaste since this physical body is not endowed with the ability to ascend to the spiritual realms. It must remain on this earth after our earthly death. It must be left behind on this plane while our spiritual bodies or our essences continue on the journey towards the spiritual heights. Therefore, it is clear that it is this spiritual body or essence that must be kept chaste if we want to move closer to God and ascend to His Kingdom and not the physical body.

The physical body is derived from this earth. It has the same consistency as this earth and as a result must be left behind at our earth death. It cannot be taken over with us. This is actually quite obvious and as such spending an entire earth life keeping this body pure would not advance us very much on our spiritual journey. More attention must be placed on keeping that which matters, that is, the spiritual body pure since this is the only thing that is endowed with the capacity to ascend towards the spiritual kingdom.

The question we should be asking is: how do we keep our spiritual bodies pure or chaste? We can do this by keeping our thoughts, words and actions pure. Our thoughts, words and deeds are spiritual activities that have a direct bearing on how we fare spiritually. These actions form light or dark rings around us, depending on their nature. Good thoughts, words or deeds form light rings, while evil thoughts, words or deeds form dark rings or surroundings. Our good volitions affect our spiritual bodies in such a way that these become light and bright and as such due to this lightness and according to the Law of Spiritual Gravity, it is able to ascend towards the Kingdom of God, whereas our dark volitions darken our spiritual bodies making us heavy and as such after our earthly death our essences sink to dark, nether regions far away from the Kingdom of God.

We can therefore see that it is our spiritual activities in the form of our thoughts, words and deeds which determine everything and how we fare in this great Creation. If we keep our spiritual bodies pure and chaste through the nature of our spiritual activities, then our ascent to the Kingdom of God is assured without having to go through the terrible deprivations hitherto prescribed by organised religion.