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10          BRAHMACARYA IN KÅÑËA CONSCIOUSNESS

                   SEX FASCINATION—THE DISEASE OF
                              THE MODERN AGE

              Sex is the overwhelming obsession of modern society. Sexual
          promiscuity is so unrelentingly stressed that anyone who does not
          appear to be highly interested in it is generally considered to be a
          crank. Social pressure induces people to try to maintain juvenile
          lustiness long after the sensual high of youth has subsided. Thus
          millions of people remain emotionally immature all their lives. It
          is a sick world.
              Ignorant of their relationship with Kåñëa, and unsure of their
          status in rapidly changing societies with no fixed values, people
          desperately desire an identity—an image of themselves which they
          feel good with and which others respect. The essence of image, as
          inculcated by the mass media, is sexual attractiveness. The power
          of the media to mold people’s attitudes and behavior is a pathetic
          but documented fact. Even if the average person’s mind would not
          have been always absorbed in sexual thoughts, the media makes
          sure it is.
              The advertising industry in particular churns out unending
          pictures of dressed-up or undressed women—in magazines, on
          billboards, on television—always and everywhere. Despite grossly
          exploiting the bodies of women and the basest impulses of men,
          solely for the sake of making some already over-rich people even
          richer, their activities continue for the most part unquestioned.
          The general public absorb their propaganda and remain ever
          steeped in lust, having no knowledge of the necessity to resist.
          Thus advertisements oozing with sexual overtones allure the
          willingly gullible public to mindlessly purchase everything from
          back-scrubbers to brandy. And the consumer society rolls on, its
          members forever sexually jacked-up.
              Constant titillation of the senses, however, increasingly dulls
          the spirit. Thus despite all the celluloid promises, people find
          themselves cheated of real happiness. In adolescence, when the
          senses appear to have unlimited power to invoke euphoric
          delights, happiness through sense enjoyment seems not only to be
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