"We say to ourselves that this is the reason we have laws and customs about sexual behavior," I interjected. "We say we need these barriers to curb perversion. But what hypocrisy is that? All nations and religions have different rules and customs and barriers, but we are all one single humanity. So what does this diversity of the barriers say about our customs and laws? It makes us look either small-minded, dumb, dishonest, even hypocritical. If there is one problem, there can be but one principle for solving it. What is considered natural in one culture is often totally prohibited in another. The solutions seem arbitrary, therefore, and designed for for some form of imperial social control. What is considered perversion in one country may be considered acceptable elsewhere, and might eventually become acceptable universally. We are evidently still in a learning mode."

      "I love the idea that in India kissing is considered to be a sexual act," Indira interjected. "But what would you say about a mother that is found breast feeding her baby in a public part. I saw such a scene in New York, Peter, and watched the passers by. Most people that saw her looked away as if the woman was shunned by a religious edict. It wasn't shame. The men would have loved to take in the sight. Just watching the woman would have involved a sexual act. Maybe that is why they denied themselves and looked away in the belief that sex and civility don't mix. I just wonder what these men's reaction would be here in Khajuraho if the same woman was sitting at the steps of a temple feeding her baby. Would they be proud of her? No one needs to ashamed of these temple sculptures and the majority of the people don't seem to be. But what about a real life human being? The sculptures of the human form are considered a fine and delicate art, but the human being itself, the art of God, the greatest creation of the divine art of life, is shunned if the same image is seen in public. Aren't we missing something? Shouldn't we have resolved that paradox ages ago? Maybe they had resolved it at the time when these temples were built."

      "We might be missing a lot," I said. "All the temples that we see here were built in a hundred year period, together with the 60 others that have already been lost. Wouldn't the builder of projects on that scale have researched the topic of sexuality by bringing together the best writings on the subject, like the Kama Sutra. I can't believe, however, that the Kama Sutra was their only reference work. There might have been hundreds similar works that have become lost over time, just like most of the temples themselves have become lost. Only one out of four temples has survived, and those that were lost might have been the most daring architectural creations, with the most daring expressions of art, built on the most daring writings. Maybe in what has been lost lies the answer that we seek today. We seem to be looking at these ancient treasures with the eyes of a spiritually decaying civilization, rather than with the eyes of an unfolding civilization. And the little that we do see appears to tell us of a social life of an abundance that we should regard with pride and aim to replicate, rather than regard with a notion of shame. The tempels speak to us of an era of abundance in India's history that had many other related expressions. The guidebook suggests that these many hundreds of sculptures weren't created with life models but were drawn from the artists' personal experiences, which must have been rather rich and diverse since it is rather impossible to sculpt postures that artists have never practiced or have ever seen. Also it is pointed out that the artists were proud of their work since they carved their name under them. They wouldn't have claimed the artistic ownership in this proud manner if they had considered their creations to be vulgar. The evidence seems to indicate that the ancient Hindus considered the appropriate use of sex a living form of art worthy for the honoring of their gods."

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Stories about War from novels by Rolf A. F. Witzsche