Brahmacharya

Intro:

• Juvenile delinquency - is a result of adult irresponsibility

Section 1: The phenomenon of sex

The present day degradation:

• sex and ego are the products of avidya or nescience
• man degraded himself of becoming a puppet of passion
• sunk into the most abject form of slavery

"Lions cohabit only once in a year. After conception,the female animals will never allow male animals to approach them, till the young ones are weaned and they become healthy and strong"

• Ahara(food) , Nidra(sleep) , Bhaya(fear) , Maithuna(Copulation) - are common for animals and man.
• but Dharma, Viveka, Vichara sakthi - only these differentiates us
• Jnana and Vichara can be secured only by preservation of Veerya
• if women and men restrict sexual indulgence to mere procreation, then that itself is observance of BRAHMACHARYA.
• Total abstinence is enjoined on those who seek the higher values of life.

Spiritual Sadhana is the answer to sex attraction:

• Self realization, god, self, vairagya, renunciation, death, burial ground are very revolting and terrifying when someone is attached to objects.
• Self realization is attained through purity and practice of constant meditation
• Etiquette is mere show
• Keep mind engaged in divine thoughts, concentration, meditation, study and service of humanity

Brahmacharya - the need of hour

• Sat - Chit - Ananda Atman
• the path becomes smooth for a man of iron determination, patience, perseverance
• ! "Example is better than precept"
• Training of youth means nation - building.
• Struggle hard to control passion.

The working of sex impulse:

• instincts creates habits
• the instinctive impulses supply the driving power by which all mental activities are kept up
• they mould the life of a man
• the attraction towards women in men is born of rajas
• "Generate the spiritual wave of devotion through Japa, Satsanga, meditation, Vichara and kill this attraction in the bud"

The flowery bow of cupid:

Five arrows of cupid

1. Mohana - fascination
2. Sthambhana - stupefaction - arrests the attention
3. Unmadana - intoxication
4. Soshana - emaciation - intense attraction
5. Tapana - burning - inflames and burns heart

• even in dreams the cupid arrows has full sway when all indriyas are silent

The samskaras in subconscious mind:

• When the mind has once tasted sexual pleasures, it always runs after women
• the irritation and burning in the mind percolate into the physical body, just as the water inside the pot percolates into the surface of the pot.
• "Chant OM mantra or any other mantra with concentration"
• when the strong impulse manifests suddenly and is transmitted to the organ, you forget everything and become blind.
• you become prey to lust
• Later you repent

"A man who is established in mental brahmacharya can never have even a single thoughts of evil in dreams"

• Enjoyment cannot bring satisfaction of a desire

How to gauge your own mental purity:

• dreams serve as a criterion to judge our mental state or degree of our mental purity

Story of Vyasa and his son Sukhdeva

• Suka left home and roamed the world naked. Vyasa, felt pained and went in search of his son. When he passed by a tank, the apsaras, felt ashamed and put on their clothes hastily.
• Vyasa said, "I'm old, am putting on clothes. But when my son passed this way naked, you kept quiet, you remained unmoved"
• The Apsaras replied, "O venerable sage, thy son knows not man and woman, but thou knowest".

Eradication of lust is no easy task

• senses can be controlled by various methods like:
  • fasting
  • restriction in diet
  • pranayama
  • japa
  • kirtan
  • meditation
  • vichara or enquiry of Who am I?
  • pratyahara or abstraction
  • dama or self restraint
  • asanas
  • bandhas
  • mudras
  • thought control
  • destruction of vasanas
• one must not be puffed up with pride for your little achievement in celibacy. if you are put to test, you will hopelessly fail
• Constant japa and meditation for a long period are necessary to direct the sex energy into spiritual channel
• most powerful friend is the NAME OF THE GOD

Intensity of the cravings in different persons

• passion means lust or strong sexual appetite.

YA DEVI SARVABHUTESHU KAMARUPENA SAMSTHITA NAMASTASYAI NAMASTASYAI NAMASTASYAI NAMO NAMAH

• I bow to that devi who has taken the form of passion in all these beings

Lust in men and in women

• women are more jealous than men.
• women are eight times more passionate than men.
• women also possess eight times more strength of control over the sexual impulses or the sexual urge.
• do not be very familiar with any women
• those who have renounced women and money, have really renounced the world.

Sex is in imagination

• beauty is mental concept
• sugar is not sweet but the imagination is sweet
• beauty and ugly are relative terms

"CUPID IS PAINTED BLIND. IT FINDS HELEN'S BEAUTY IN THE BROW OF EGYPT" - Shakespeare - Mid summer Night's dream

• Misleading descriptions of woman's beauty
• the fly runs towards the fire or lamp thinking it is a flower and gets burnt up
• the passionate man runs towards a false beautiful form thinking that he can get there real happiness and gets himself burned in the fire of lust

Wet dreams and voluntary copulation

The value of semen

• veerya is the quintessence of blood

• According to Ayurveda, semen is the last dhatu that is formed out of blood.

• Sapta Dhattus

  1. food
  2. chyle
  3. blood
  4. flesh
  5. fat
  6. bone
  7. marrow
  8. semen

• these sapta dhatus support the life and body

• Falling of semen brings death

• preservation of semen gives life

• Semen is the real vitality in men

• it is the hidden treasure in man

• it imparts brahma tejas to the face and strength to the intellect

Mind, Prana, Veerya

• practice of viparita karani mudras such as sarvangasana, sirshasana and pranayama

"PARUSHAM NRISHU" - "I am the seed or virility in men" - Bhagavad Gita

Section 2: The glory of BRAHMACHARYA

The meaning of Brahmacharya

• strict abstinence not only from sexual intercourse, but also from auto erotic manifestations, from homo sexual acts and from all perverse sexual practices
• all sorts of sex anomalies and evils habits of various sorts like masturbation and sodomy must be completely eradicated
• they bring about a total breakdown of the nervous system and immense misery
• Brahmacharya is purity in thougts, word and deed
• it is celibacy and continence

People established in brahmacharya

1. BHEESHMA - incarnation of Vasu Devata
   • Naishthika brahmacharya - All the women of the world are my mothers*
2. HANUMAN - "Jaya siya ram jaya jaya siya ram jaya hanuman jaya jaya hanuman"
3. LAKSHMAN - "Naham janami keyure naham janami kankane Nupura evva janami Nityam padabhivandanat"
   • I donot recognise the bracelets or ear rings. I only know the anklets, for I worshipped her feet alone.
4. MIRA BAI
5. SULABHA
6. GARGI
7. SWAMI DAYANAND
8. JESUS
9. SANKARA
10. JNANA DEVA
11. SAMARTH RAMADAS
12. SWAMI VIVEKANAND

Eight breaks in Brahmacharya to be avoided

1. Darshan - looking at women with passionate resolve
2. Sparshan - touching women
3. Keli - play with women
4. Kirtan - praising the qualities of the other sex
5. Guhya Bhashan - talking in private
6. Sankalpa - determination
7. Ashyavasaya - nearing other sex with the desire for gratification
8. Kriyanivritti - actual sexual actt

"A real brahmachari should ruthlessly avoid all these eight breaks"

• bring the image of your ishta devata into your midn if the thought of a woman crops up
• See Mother Kali in all women
• Do japa and meditation regularly

Physical and Mental brahmacharya

• Mental brahmacharya is more important
• do selfless service in some form for the society
• keep the mind fully occupied
• as you think, so you become
• repeat the gayatri mantra or pranava for just half an hour

The glory of Brahmacharya:

• eight siddhis and nine riddhis roll under the feet of the true celibate
• "*Ayusteo balam veeryam prajna sreescha yashastatha Punyamcha sat priyatvamcha vardhate brahmacharyaya"
• By the practice of brahmacharya, longetivity, glory, strength, vigour, knowledge, wealth, undying fame, virtues, devotion to the truth increase

Celibacy promotes concentration

• a true brahmachari in thought, word and deed has a wonderful thought power
• concentration and purity goes together
• this is due to ojas sakthi which is conserved by the preservation of semen and its transmutation
• if a man persistently refuses to yield to his lower nature and remains a strict celibate, the seminal energy is deflected upwards to the brain and is stored up as ojas sakthi.
• the intellect becomes sharp and clear by continence
• Swami dayanand broke the sword with his hands and stopped the carnage of the maharaja

In other religions

Lambichus:

• the gods do not hear him who invokes them if he is impure from sexual connections

Islam:

• strict continence is required on the pilgrimage to Mecca

Hebrew:

• during the theophany at sinai and before entering the temple

Christianity:

• required as a preparation for both baptism and eucharist

Jains:

• force on their munis the rule to abstain from all sexual relations
• not to discuss topics relating to women
• not to contemplate the forms of women
• Lust is thus condemned as "Of myriad vices, lust is the worst"
• A bhikshu is not to sleep in any place where woman is present
• not to preach the sacre doctrine in more than five or six words to a woman unless a grown up man be present
• not to journey along the same route with the woman
• he is to walk with downcast eyes
• not to sit in a secluded place with a woman

Buddhists:

• Order of Mendicants - governed by 227 rules of Patimokha

Brahmacharya - the foundation of spiritual life

• it is a sine qua non
• great desideratum
• truth cannot dwell where passion lives
• the total annihilation of sexual desire is the ultimate spiritual ideal
• sex attraction cannot be destroyed without the grace of lord
• try to see god in all faces
• eventually you will be established in brahman or the eternal

Brahmacharya and educational curriculum

• modern civilisation has enfeebled our generation
• young children suffer from anaemia, bad memory and debility
• diseases are increasing

Section 3: Techniques of sex sublimation

Suppression and sublimation

• do not try to run away from women
• try to see self in all forms and repeat "Om ek sat - chit - ananda atma"
• have judicious control of indriyas

from sex energy to spiritual energy

• japa
• prayer
• meditation
• study of religious books
• pranayama
• asanas
• Sublimation is the process of controlling the sex energy, conserving it, then diverting it into higher channels, finally converting it into spiritual energy or ojas sakthi
• Oordhvareta Yogi - "one in whom the seminal energy has flown upwards into the brain as ojas sakthi"
• there is no possibility now for the semen to flow downwards by sexual excitement

The secret of sex sublimation

• perfect discipline
• if a person can follow strict celibacy for 12 years, he can acquire super natural powers
• medha nadi or buddhi nadi is formed in him

Total sublimation is difficult but not impossible

• continuous struggle with patience and perseverance
• practice perfect celibacy through the practice of
  • Sama
  • Dama
  • Viveka
  • Vichara
  • Vairagya
  • Pranayama
  • Japa
  • Dhyana
• False mental fatigue for brahmacharyas owing to continence
  • just a deception of mind
  • like pseudo hunger
  • when you actually sit for a dinner, but you do not have a real appetite
• by observing strict brahmacharya, one will have immense mental strength
• continence conserves energy

Epicurean school of thought

• gluttonism is their goal
• friends of satan

Naishthik brahmachari

• when there is no passion in the heart
• desire for god is strong
• longing for spiritual pursuits
• marriage is not compulsory
• sensual pleasure is tantalizing
• free yourself from all miseries, worries, troubles

Akanda Brahmachari

• unbroken celibacy for 12 years
• attain nirvikalpa state
• Tat Tvam Asi
• mind becomes extremely pure, strong and one pointed
• the one who not even dropped one drop of semen out
• prana and mind are under his perfect control
• strong power of grasping, retentive memory, power of enquiry
• pure intellect
• I can become an AKANDA BRAHMACHARI, if i attempt in right earnest

The dangers of promiscuous mixing

• familiarity breeds contempt
• do not mix with members of opposite sex
• Bhagwan Dattareya compared a woman to a burning pit of fire and man to a pot of ghee. When the latter comes into contact with the former, it perishes. therefore abandon her
• do not expose yourself to temptation
• if you constantly think of the image of the lord, the images of the object will die by themselves
• god places some temptations before the aspirant to test his spiritual strength
• he also gives strength to conquer
• sex instinct is most powerful
• always remain alone, meditate and slay this urge
• sleepless vigilance is necessary in the spiritual path
• there is many slip between the cup and lip
• one should not stop the sadhana falsely thinking that he have reached the goal
• he who lives in seclusion is more exposed to temptations and dangers
• he will have to be more careful and vigilant
• the mind will be tempted to do anything as there is nobody to witness its evil action
• he is like a man, put in a big bag with tiger, serpent, bear
• the enemies anger, lust, greed will take you unaware
• do not go astray

Mind the feeling behind the look

• develop the divine bhav
• feel that everything is the manifestation of god

• "if you have a lustful look at a woman, you have already committed adultery in your heart" - Bhagwan Jesus

• Study the 10th chapter of gita - VIBHUTI YOGA

How to conquer impure mind

• inflict self punishment
• collyrium of discrimination and pigment of vichar
• greater the difficulty, the greater the glory of success

Diet in sex control

• tongue is an organ of knowledge
• the organ of generation is an organ of action
• never overload the stomach at night
• a glutton can never dream of becoming brahmachari
• fruits are highly beneficial
• stuffing the stomach is highly deleterious
• fasting controls passion
• fasting destroys sexual excitement
• calms the emotions and controls the indriyas
• purifies the mind
• but avoid excessive fasting, as it will produce weakness
• give up tea, coffee, meat, fish, smoking
• never stop the urge to answer calls of nature
• if worms are present in the bowels, remove them by a dose of worm powder in the night and take purgative castor oil the following morning
• to relieve constipation, the use of enema is most essential.

Wet dreams and Spermatorrhoea

• nocturnal emissions
• repeat om several times with meaning in the mind
• when it gets erection , do mula bandha and uddiyana bandha
• think of purity
• do 20 pranayama
• a loaded gall bladder is the cause for wet dreams
• get up atleast at 4am regularly
• sleep on coarse bed
• use rough mats
• sleep on the left side
• practice japa or meditation before sleep and as soon as you wake up

Brahmacharya - An outlook of consciousness

Swami Krishnananda

• Conduct of the absolute
• Brahman - Supreme being
• Charya - Conduct or behaviour
• Our participation in the attitude of supreme being may be infinitesimal
• It is integrated outlook of consciousness, an attitude of the personality and interpretation of things.

Anu Gita of Mahabharata

• The interpretation of Brahmacharya is given
• It has no conscious relationship with anything, though it is related to everything in the world.
• God is related even to the minutest of things in this world.

How our energy gets diverted or dissipitated ?

• When we do so with particular interest, which process is called the Klishta Vritti, in the language of Patanjali, we are drawn towards that object, a part of us goes to it.
• As long as we do not sell ourselves to any outside object, do not participate in anything external , we stand by ourselves.
• When our energies are in tumult ( ) , the impact of it is felt by the mind.
• As milk gradually becomes curd by an internal shaking of itself, the subject can turn into the object.
• This is mentioned by Bhishma in the Shanti parva of Mahabharata.

Conservation of energy for brahma sakshatkara

• God realisation or Brahma Sakshatkara
• A two feet wide bridge without any protection on either side and spanning a stream flowing in deep george below - we know how we will walk on that bridge, holding our breath and thinking only of that narrow passage, and nothing else.

The Individual - A pressure centre

• Causative factors are not properly understood or analysed.
• We may know that we are sick, but we may now fully know why we are sick.
• And unless we know the cause behind our illness in the form of psychological stress and strain, distraction of attention, like and dislike, we will not be able to handle this subject properly.

Stresses and Strain - Their cause and cure

The havoc wrought by the externalising senses

• The more the unfulfilled desires, the greater is the weakness of the body and mind.

Desire - A metaphysical evil

• Though all needs may be called desires and all desires may be called undesirable things in the end.
• The horizontal adjustment is the varna and the vertical adjustment is called the ashrama.

Varnashrama - an aid to free ourselves from the grip of nature

• Varna means class and not caste.
• It is a classification and not castification
• It is a classification of the functions of individuals according to their knowledge and capacities, for the purpose of a complete cooperative organisation of human kind.
• Establish ourselves in a status of strength.

Marriage: What does it mean?

Swami Krishnananda

• Brihadaranyaka upanishad
• Sage Yajnavalkya

Birth control

Swami Sivananda

• Learn the virtue of self control
• There is a intimate connection between sex and control of the palate.
• Continence is not harmful

Population should be checked

• The UN Population commission is now at work, assisted by the Economic Council for Asia and Far East
• Raj Kumari Amrit Kaur, the then Health Minister said, "I need hardly say that our educated class thinks of planned parenthood mainly in terms of city dwellers and educated men and women. There are also many amongst the poorer classes whom our social workers can reach in the cities, where their organisations are working. But they also invariably think of birth control by artificial methods of contraceptives, which have taken a firm hold of people in countries of the west. I am totally unable to reconcile myself to this view."
• Sake of progeny
• There is no safer and better solution for the restriction of our population than practice of self restraint.
• If rural population practiced moral restraint they could limit the size of their families better than through the use of contraceptives. Artificial methods are like putting a premium on the vice. The remedy will be worse than the disease.
• Sir Lionel Beale, "Sexual abstinence has never yet hurt any man. Virginity is not too difficult to observe, provided that it is physical expression of a certain state of mind."
• Professor Cesterbu, "The sexual instinct is not so blindly all powerful that it cannot be controlled and evens subjugated entirely by moral strength. "
• Sir Andrew Clark, "Continence does not harm. It increases the perception and energy. "
• Joseph HJ Spenglar, "Moral restraint offers a salutary solution to the problem of over population."
• Gandhiji, "I took the vow of brahmacharya in 1906. It is not an arm chair philosophy. "
• Bernard Shaw, "Unless we restraint desire, we destroy ourselves. "

Danger of artificial means