Drayer Baba’s doctrine of abstinence

Drayer Baba’s doctrine of abstinence governs the sexual boundaries in Sara and Henry Chinaski’s relationship, turning their attraction into a repeated negotiation between religious prohibition and physical desire. Sara identifies the rule plainly: she will let Henry stay in her bed, but says that sex without marriage is forbidden because Drayer Baba does not believe in it. The resulting intimacy is neither simple separation nor full compliance: the couple kiss and engage in sexual touching, repeatedly stopping short of intercourse until Sara eventually crosses that boundary herself.

The doctrine and its authority

Drayer Baba’s influence is made tangible before Sara explains the rule. In the window of her van, Henry sees a poster advising him to “Smile and rejoice,” signed with Drayer Baba’s name. Inside her house, photographs of him are everywhere. Sara tells Henry that Drayer Baba was from India and died in 1971, having claimed to be God. The doctrine’s authority thus persists through an absent teacher represented by images, teachings, and Sara’s continuing belief.

That authority becomes decisive after Sara and Henry have been drinking together. When Henry says he is too drunk to drive home, Sara offers him her bed but draws a clear boundary: “One doesn't have sex without marriage.” Asked why, she answers, “Drayer Baba doesn't believe in it.” Henry jokes that God can be mistaken; Sara answers, “Never.” Their exchange establishes the relationship’s central conflict without dissolving it into an abstract debate. Henry treats the prohibition as open to challenge, while Sara treats Drayer Baba’s judgment as binding.

Desire within the boundary

The rule does not prevent physical intimacy. In bed, Sara and Henry kiss, and she touches him and rubs him against her body. Henry refrains from touching her sexually because he thinks it would offend Drayer Baba, yet he waits for her to take the next step. She does not. When the contact becomes uncomfortable for him, he pulls away, says good night, and turns his back. The scene shows the boundary operating not as a total ban on erotic contact but as a limit on what the couple will do together.

The pattern continues across their meetings. Henry thinks of Sara as unusually individual and inventive, and remembers their time together as happy and full of expectancy, while identifying their sexual impasse as the relationship’s outstanding difficulty. He regards Drayer Baba as the obstacle separating them and says he is losing a battle to God. Sara, for her part, later insists that “Fucking is not that important.” Her statement sits beside the repeated physical encounters rather than erasing them: the doctrine and her desire coexist in a relationship that keeps approaching, but not crossing, the same threshold.

The recurring ritual

The abstinence rule becomes most visible through repetition. Henry sees Sara every three or four days, either at her home or his, and they sleep together without having sex. They come close, but never quite proceed to intercourse. The visits sustain their relationship while also renewing its frustration: the boundary is not settled once and for all, but encountered again in each encounter.

The same pattern marks their New Year’s celebration. After Dinky Summers and Janis leave at about one in the morning, Sara and Henry go to bed and begin kissing and touching as before. Henry recalls that the sequence has previously ended with Sara rubbing him against her body, leaving him uncomfortable by morning. This time, however, she takes his penis and initiates intercourse. The reversal is unmistakable because the scene has established the same expectation and repeated form so often: what had stopped short now proceeds.

The breach and its meaning

Henry responds to Sara’s decision with astonishment and uncertainty, then describes the physical act as something familiar to him. Afterward, Sara goes to the bathroom. Henry looks at the blue ceiling of his bedroom and asks Drayer Baba to forgive her. The appeal preserves the doctrine’s presence even at the moment it is breached: Henry does not treat the change as proof that the teaching never mattered, but frames Sara’s action as something for which forgiveness might be needed. He also notes that Drayer Baba cannot answer or accept money, underscoring that the authority in the scene is a remembered and mediated one, not a living participant.

Sara returns, and the two kiss again. The evidence does not establish that she renounces the doctrine, that the couple marry, or that the boundary is permanently abandoned. Its significance lies in the contrast between a rule that has repeatedly governed their intimacy and Sara’s singular choice to cross it. The doctrine’s force is therefore measured both by what it prevents over many meetings and by the striking change that occurs when Sara finally acts otherwise.