H.H. Bhakti Caru Swami - SEMINAR ON BRAHMACARYA Part 2

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LESSON 2

 

Today is the 2nd day of the seminar on Brahmacarya.

Again, brahmacarya is not just celibacy, or remaining single and unmarried.

Actually, it means to be situated on the spiritual platform, upon which

celibacy becomes a side-effect.

Brahman means the spiritual world, and acarati means to act accordingly,

living in such a way that one attains the spiritual platform. To review

yesterday's class, there are 2 things, matter and life. Matter is inert, but

due to the presence of the spirit soul, matter becomes alive. Matter is the

body, and the soul makes the body alive. The soul's influence is that it

enters the womb of the mother, in which it develops a body which grows and

finally comes out as a baby. Like this, the soul develops a body made of

matter. Then he functions through the body. There, the growth of the body

depends upon food. What is food? Food is the juice that a tree extracts from

the earth. Basic food is derived from trees and plants. Meat is just the

flesh of animals that have eaten grass. So actually the trees are

transforming the juice of the earth into its fruits and leaves and nuts etc…

then the human being eats that. Our stomach extracts the juice of the food

we eat. Then the juice transforms into blood, into flesh, into bone, into

bone marrow, into Virya, or semen. So this virya is the ultimate material

substance that carries the spiritual energy. Therefore this element is very

important for one's spiritual growth. So semen keeps one's spiritual

energy, and also it carries a soul into a mother's womb. So semen is the

storehouse of spiritual energy. Therefore one must retain that spiritual

energy. Not only the Vedic scriptures say that, but all religions say that.

The catholic monks and nuns had to be celibates. The jews also, the suphis

also. The fact is that it is a scientific subject. Who can deny the

importance of this vital energy in the body?

Butter is separated from milk. Then it is not milk anymore. Similarly, virya

spreads throughout our body. But through sexual agitation, it is churned and

ejected of the body. So for some fleeting pleasure, it should not be wasted.

It is essential for our spiritual progress. One must retain this valuable

spiritual energy.

 

It is a matter of consciousness. Take the spirit soul and consciousness:

consciousness comes out of the soul. Where there is light, there is fire. In

the same way, consciousness comes out of the soul. According to the

direction of the projection of our consciousness, our spiritual energy will

flow in that direction. In Bhagavad Gita, Krsna says, dhyayato visaya

pumsah ETC………. that is how the consciousness becomes effected. First it

flows through the mind, then through the senses toward the objects of the

senses with a desire to exploit them: that is lust. So when consciousness

goes toward material sense objects, virya also goes towards that. In the

same way, if consciousness is directed to Krsna , this vital energy will

flow toward Krsna. Therefore all importance is put on fixing our mind on

Krsna, fixing our mind on Him. If we project our consciousness on matter, we

will run after sense gratification, and we will loose our vital energy. Loss

of this energy causes death. Again, consciousness can go toward matter or

toward Krsna. If it goes to matter, we loose everything. If it goes to

Krsna, this vital energy becomes even further spiritualized, just like a

mothers' blood is transformed into milk. It becomes transformed into nectar.

What does nectar do? It inundates our heart with joy. therefore the real joy

and bliss comes from developing our joy from Krsna. This vital energy, which

is apparently matter, becomes nectar. How does it happen? It happens due to

our love for Krsna. By transformation, it causes something to our heart that

gives us an experience of transcendental joy and bliss.

Therefore again, we are discussing something far beyond celibacy. I will

repeat, again, that brahmacarya is not exclusive for brahmacaris, but it is

meant also for householders. When the householders engages in sex for

procreation, one is also a brahmacari. Even the householders can become pure

devotees. There are so many householder pure devotees in our sampradaya.

Srila Prabhupada was a householder, so was Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Gaura

Kisora das Babaji Maharaja, and most of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's associates

were householders. So everyone in Krsna consciousness is a brahmacari.

Ultimately, our material body is secondary, as part-and-parcels of Krsna.

When Brahma realized that it was his duty to create, he created the 4

Kumaras, who were perfect brahmacaris. Then he created 10 sons, 9 of which

became progenitors. The last one, Narada Muni, wanted to stay brahmacari. He

became a very detached person, and eventually he became a pure devotee of

Krsna. He was eventually approached by the daughter of time, and he did not

accept her. He decided to remain a celibate. As a result of that, he

attained eternal life. So we can see that when one becomes a brahmacari, one

does not become subject to death. Also, when Bhisma got to know that his

father wanted to marry the daughter of the fisherman who would only offer

his daughter to him only if his daughter's son would become the successor to

the throne. So Santanu refused, saying that he already had a successor. When

Bhisma got to know that, he told the fisherman that he would forgo his right

over the throne. He said, "I take a vow that I will never get married." For

a ksatriya to remain a celibate for one's whole life is so difficult that

the demigods showered flowers, saying "Bhisma, Bhisma, what a terrible vow!

What a terrible vow!" When Bhisma went back, his father blessed him that he

would never die unless he wanted to. Do we see a link here? He decided to

remain a celibate, and he was blessed with immortality. So when one becomes

a brahmacari, he conquers death. We can therefore see that when we don't

allow the life energy to come out of the body, we get a very very long

duration of life. One does not become old either. The 4 kumaras, for

example, look like 5 year old boys although they are zillions of years old.

Bhisma was Arjuna's grandfather. He was so much older at that time, but he

was fighting the battle of Kuruksetra so valiantly that thousands of

soldiers could not conquer him.

Hanuman is another ideal brahmacari. He had the form of a monkey. He

is a perfect brahmacari because he is a devotee of Lord Rama. What sorts of

feats he performed! He carried a mountain from middle India and jumped

across the ocean to Lanka. These are not fairy tales. It took place! We can

consider that because he was a brahmacari, he was also an extremely powerful

personalities.

Also, we can remember Vedavati. She was performing austerities to

get the Supreme Personality of Godhead as her husband. She was performing

severe austerities on top of a mountain. While Ravana was passing by in his

airplane, he approached her. First she told him what she wanted. He forcibly

tried to molest her. She was so powerful that threw Ravana far away. She was

so chaste that because he had simply touched her, she considered herself

contaminated, and so she generated a fire to burn up her body with the vow

that she would cause Ravana's death. She came back as Sita.

In India there were many others like Gargi, who challenged

Yajnavalkya in the assembly of Janaka. She was a brahmacarini. Maitreyi

also. In the recent past there is the example of Queen Mirabai. When she was

given away in marriage, she could not associate with him because she had

already accepted Krsna as her husband in her youth. Her husband finally

decided to kill her and gave her poison to drink, which she did without

dying. Later she went to Vrindavan and became a devotee of Sri Caitanya

Mahaprabhu. These are examples of brahmacarinis in our heritage.

So the goal of our life is to become situated on the spiritual

platform, which will lead us to endless Srila Prabhupada joy. therefore let

us all become fixed up. Let us realized that this is our goal. If we don't

fix our goal with intense seriousness, then we will become frivolous. Today

in ISKCON, today somewhere else. That is not good. We came here to achieve

the mission to become situated on the spiritual platform and thereby

experience spiritual joy. Hare Krsna.

 

Question: Srila Prabhupada brought Vedic culture to the West, where life is

quite different. How do we adjust that?

 

Answer: Srila Prabhupada did not bring oriental culture to the West. He

brought the spiritual culture and made the world aware of it. If we think

that we are Westerners and that that culture is from India, then we are

making a mistake. We are souls, and in ISKCON, everyone who wants to make

spiritual progress has a place. So brahmacarya is a question of developing

Krsna Prema, not suppression. When you develop love for Krsna, then you

will not be affected by sex attraction. He will deal with women in a very

reverential way, full of respect. Another point is that in ISKCON many

members are married. When both husband and wife are in Krsna consciousness,

then both help each other.

 

Question: Is Virya also there in women?

Answer: Yes. There are some anatomical differences, but in summary the

answer is Yes.

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