How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
It was a time when I thought the wife was the object of her husband's lust, born to do her husband's behest, rather than a helpmate, a comrade and a partner in the husband's joys and sorrows. (4.10.9)
So, if a spouse isn't for sex, what's a spouse for? According to this book, they should be a helpmate, comrade, and partner. Gandhi and Kasturbai are still very much devoted to one another as partners in life, so even though they don't have sex, they're still married and in a unique relationship they share only with one another. Consider what might happen in a marriage if one spouse cannot have sex for whatever reason, say, a physical injury. Gandhi thinks it's completely possible for the couple to remain just as married as before—in fact, he'd say they're more married, more true to one another, without sex getting in the way.
Quote #8
I too took the plunge—the vow to observe brahmacharya for life. I must confess that I had not then fully realized the magnitude and immensity of the task I undertook. The difficulties are even today staring me in the face. (4.24.9)
Gandhi admits it isn't easy to give up sex. A life without sex seems to be something you never fully get used to.
Quote #9
Life without brahmacharya appears to me to be insipid and animal-like. The brute by nature knows no self-restraint. Man is man because he is capable of, and only in so far as he exercises, self-restraint. What formerly appeared to me to be extravagant praise of brahmacharya in our religious books seems now, with increasing clearness every day, to be absolutely proper and founded on experience. (4.24.9)
It's hard for most people to imagine giving up sex forever. But, Gandhi says life with sex is insipid and animal-like. He clearly prefers life without it.