Brahmacharya - celibacy

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Brahmacharya-Celibacy

 

The Mahabharata

Santi Parva, Section CCXIV

Translated by Sri Kisari Mohan Ganguli

 

Addressing King Yudhishthira

 

Bhishma said: I shall now tell thee what the means are (for

conquering the senses) as seen with the eye of the scriptures. A

person, O king, will attain to the highest end by the help of such

knowledge and by framing his conduct accordingly. Amongst all living

creatures man is said to be the foremost. Among men, those that are

regenerate have been called the foremost; and amongst the regenerate,

they that are conversant with the Vedas. These last are regarded as

the souls of all living creatures. Indeed, those Brahmanas (Brahmins)

that are conversant with the Vedas are regarded as all seeing and

omniscient. They are persons who have become conversant with Brahman

(the Supreme Reality). As a blind man, without a guide, encounters

many difficulties on a road, so has a person destitute of knowledge

to encounter many obstacles in the world. For this reason, those that

are possessed of knowledge are regarded as superior to the rest.

 

Those that are desirous of acquiring virtue practise diverse kinds of

rites according to the dictates of the scriptures. They do not,

however, succeed in attaining to Emancipation, all that they gain

being those good qualities of which I shall presently speak.

 

[Note: Bhishma desires to show the difference between the religion of

Pravritti or acts and that of Nivritti or abstention from acts. Those

that follow the former cannot attain to Emancipation. What they gain

are certain good qualities mentioned in the next verse, which,

however, are equally gained by the followers of the religion of

Nivritti. See Page `Pravritti- Nivritti'.]

 

Purity of speech, of body, and of mind, forgiveness, truth,

steadiness, and intelligence, - these good qualities are displayed by

righteous persons observant of both kinds of religion. That which is

called Brahmacharya (religion of abstention or Yoga) is regarded as

the means of attaining to Brahman. That is the foremost of all

religions. It is by the practice of that religion that one obtains

the highest end (viz., Emancipation).

 

Brahmacharya is divested of all connection with the five vital

breaths, mind, understanding, the five senses of perception, and the

five senses of action. It is on that account free from all the

perceptions that the senses give. It is heard only as a word, and its

form, without being seen, can only be conceived. It is a state of

existence depending only on the mind. It is free from all connection

with the senses. That sinless state should be attained to by the

understanding alone. He that practises it duly attains to Brahman; he

that practises it half, attains to the condition of the gods; while

he that practises it indifferently, takes birth among Brahmanas

(Brahmins) and possessed of learning attains to eminence.

 

Brahmacharya is exceedingly difficult to practice. Listen now to the

means (by which one may practise it). That regenerate person who

betakes himself to it should subdue the quality of Passion as soon as

it begins to manifest itself or as soon as it begins to be powerful.

One that has betaken oneself to that vow should not speak with women.

He should never cast his eyes on an undressed woman. The sight of

women, under even different circumstances, fills all weak-minded men

with Passion. If a person (while observing this vow) feels a desire

for woman rising in his heart, he should (as an expiation) observe

the vow called Krichcchra and also pass three days in water.

 

[Note: The vow of Krichcchra consists of certain fasts. `Pass three

days in water', i.e., stand in water tank or stream with water up to

the chin.]

 

If desire is entertained in course of a dream, one should, diving in

water, mentally repeat for three times the three Riks by Aghamarshana.

 

[Note: The three Riks begin with Ritamcha Satyamcha etc. Every

Brahmana who knows his morning and evening prayers knows these three

Riks well. (These three Riks are reproduced at the foot of this

article.)]

 

That wise man who has betaken himself to the practice of this vow

should, with an extended and enlightened mind, burn the sins in his

mind which are due to the quality of Passion. As the duct that bears

away the refuse of the body is very closely connected with the body,

even so the embodies soul is very closely connected with the body

that confines it. The different kinds of juices, passing through the

network of arteries, nourish men's wind and bile and phlegm, blood

and skin and flesh, intestines and bones and marrow, and the whole

body. Know that there are ten principal ducts. These assist the

functions of the five senses. From these ten branch out thousands of

other ducts that are minuter in form. Like rivers filling the ocean

at the proper season, all these ducts, containing juices nourish the

body. Leading to the heart, there is a duct called Manovaha. It draws

from every part of the human body the vital seed, which is born of

desire.

 

Numerous other ducts branching out from that principal one extend

into every part of the body and bearing the element of heat cause the

sense of vision (and the rest). As the butter that lies within milk

is churned up by churning rod, even so the desires that are generated

in the mind (by the sight or thought of women) draw together the

vital seed that lies within the body. In the midst of even our

dreams, passion having birth in imagination assails the mind, with

the result that the duct already named, viz., Manovaha, throws out

the vital seed born of desire.

 

The great and divine Rishi Atri is well conversant with the subject

of the generation of the vital seed. The juices that are yielded by

food, the duct called Manovaha, and the desire that is born of

imagination,- these three are causes that originate the vital seed

which has Indra for its presiding deity. The passion that aids in the

emission of this fluid is, therefore, called Indriya. Those persons

who know that the course of vital seed is the cause of (that sinful

state of things called) intermixture of castes, are men of restrained

passions. Their sins are regarded to have been burnt off, and they

are never subjected to rebirth. He that betakes himself to action

simply for the purposes of sustaining his body, reducing with the aid

of the mind the (three) attributes (of Goodness, Passion and

Darkness) into a state of uniformity, and brings at his last moments

the vital breaths to the duct called Manovaha, escapes the obligation

of rebirth.

 

[Note: `With the aid of the mind' means Yoga Dehakarma means one

whose acts are undertaken only for the purpose of sustaining the

body, i.e., one who does no act that is not strictly necessary for

supporting life; hence, as the commentator explains, one who is free

from all propensities leading to external objects. Manovaham Pranan

Nudan, i.e., bringing to sending the vital breaths to the duct called

Manovaha or Sushumna. Though a physical act, its accomplishment

becomes possible only by a long course of penances consisting in the

withdrawal of the mind from external objects. " Reducing the (three)

attributes to a state of uniformity, " as explained by the

commentator, means arriving at Nirvikalpa, i.e., at that state of

knowledge which is independent of the senses.]

 

The mind is sure to gain knowledge. It is the Mind that takes the

form of all things. The minds of all high-souled persons, attaining

to success through meditation, becomes freed from desire, eternal and

luminous.

 

[Note: The Knowledge here spoken of is that knowledge which is

independent of the senses. What the speaker says is that such

Knowledge is no myth but is sure to arise. When it arises, its

possessor comes to know that the external world, etc., is only the

mind transformed, like the sights seen and sounds heard and thoughts

cherished in a dream. In the second line the results of that

knowledge are declared. The mind of a Mahatma is Mantra-Siddha, i.e.,

has won success by the meditation of the initial Mantra, or OM; it is

Nitya, i.e., eternal, meaning probably that through the result of

Maya or Avidya, it is no longer subject to rebirth; it is Virajas,

i.e., free from desire and passion, and lastly it is Jyotishmat or

luminous, meaning Omniscient and Omnipotent. The commentator cites a

passage from Vasishtha's treatise on Yoga, which declares the same

results as consequent on the attainment of Knowledge. It is, of

course, implied that in attaining to such a state, the mind as mind

must be destroyed or merged into the soul and the soul, with

knowledge only for its attribute, must exist. In the previous verse

emancipation after death has been spoken of. In this Jivan-Mukti or

emancipation in life is referred to.]

 

Therefore, for destroying the mind (as mind), one should do only

sinless deeds and freeing oneself from the attributes of Passion and

Darkness, one is sure to attain to an end that is very desirable.

 

[Note: " Freeing oneself from the attributes of Passion and Darkness " ,

i.e., by practising the religion of abstention from acts.]

 

Knowledge (ordinarily) acquired in younger days becomes weakened with

decrepitude. A person, however, of ripe understanding succeeds,

through the auspicious effects of past lives, in destroying his

desires.

 

[Note: Adatte from Da meaning to cut or destroy. Manasam Valam as

explained by the commentator, is Sankalpam, i.e., desires or

purposes. The man of ripe understanding, by doing this, attains to

that knowledge which is not subject to decay with age. Hence, such

knowledge is superior to knowledge acquired in the ordinary way.]

 

Such a person, by transcending the bonds of the body and the senses

like a traveller crossing a path of obstacles, and transgressing all

faults he sees, succeeds in tasting the nectar (of Emancipation).

 

Aghamarshana Mantra

 

(Prayer for destruction of sin)

Om ritam cha satyam chaa abhiddaat tapaso dhyajaayata. Tato

raatryajaayata, tatah samudro arnavah.

Om samudraadarnavaadadhi samvatsaro ajaayata. Ahoraatraani vidadhad

vishwasya mishato vashi.

Om surya chandramasu dhaataa yathaa purvamakalpayat. Divam cha

prithivim chantarikshamatho swah.

 

Meaning

 

This world was created by the luminous God who is the impeller of all

actions in accordance with the laws of creation and the laws of life.

Primordial matter, which was lying dormant in darkness, began to

evolve. By evolution the great expanse of sparkling particles of

matter began to gain momentum. This movement of particles brought

into existence place and time. Thereafter as a continuation of the

process of evolution the Creator of the world divided it into day and

night in accordance with His laws.

 

The support of the world made the sun and the moon; the stars and the

earth; the other heavenly objects and self-luminous worlds as in

previous cycles of creation.

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