Sex as Yagna by Adi Shankaracharya

Question

Sex is an activity involving multiple benefits. In India, according to scriptures, the primary purpose of marriage is to have progeny and then the other uses are gaining sexual pleasure, the performance of religious rites, and through them experiencing bliss or happiness.

Nowadays, there are plenty of perverted interpretations regarding sex.

I heard that Adi Shankaracharya interpreted/compared sex for progeny as a divine Yagna. In which scripture did Adi Shankaracharya compare sex for progeny as a Yagna and what is his Yagnic parlance of sex?

Answer 1

Sex is described as a yajna in many Upanishads. One famous description of sex as a yajna is in the Panchagni Vidya of the Chhandogya Upanishad. Various parts of sexual intercourse are compared to various parts of the yajna.

5.8.1 - O Gautama, the woman is the fire [of the yajna]. Her genitals are the samits [sacrificial stick]. The seduction or sexual advance is the smoke. The vagina is the flame. The interaction is the live coal. The tiny pleasures are the sparks.

5.8.2 - The gods oblate the seed in this fire and from that oblation, the fetus is born.

Shankaracharya comments on this verse in his commentary on the Chhandogya Upanishad. He doesn't say much for verse 5.8.1 other than what is already mentioned in the verse.