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Hare Krishna and PAMHO to all devotees.

As you do know, leading a life of Brahmacharya is Lord Krishna's wish for us as it is stated in the Bhagavad Gita chapter 16 verse 21 : there are three gates leading to this hell – lust, anger and greed. Every sane man should give these up, for they lead to the degradation of the soul. as well as in bhagavad gita chapter 4 verse 26 purport: 

Sex life, intoxication and meat eating are general tendencies of human society, but a regulated householder does not indulge in unrestricted sex life and other sense gratification. Marriage on principles of religious life is therefore current in all civilized human society because that is the way for restricted sex life. This restricted, unattached sex life is also a kind of yajna because the restricted householder sacrifices his general tendency toward sense gratification for higher transcendental life." \

 also, in the srimad bhagavatam canto 5 chapter 5 verses 10-13 :

"As long as one is situated in the material world, there must be pleasure and pain arising from the material body. As Krsna advises in Bhagavad-gita, tams titiksasva bharata. One has to learn how to tolerate the temporary pains and pleasures of this material world. One must also be detached from his family and practice celibacy. Sex with one's wife according to the scriptural injunctions is also accepted as brahmacarya (celibacy), but illicit sex is opposed to religious principles, and it hampers advancement in spiritual consciousness.

so let us bask in the spirit of Brahmacharya by looking at some ways on how to become a great Brahmacharya: 

1. Do not break physical celibacy even if visual and mental celibacy gets completely broken due to slips. This is possible by a strong application of will-power and self-dialogue that if you end up breaking even physical celibacy, then what is left of your celibacy efforts of the past – literally nothing from spiritual perspective or even intellectual perspective if you are chasing 12-years’ continuous celibacy practice for developing good intellectual powers. If you can save even your physical celibacy despite getting exposed to wrong visual or physical environment, it will strengthen your will a lot for lifelong celibacy practice. We grow through stages. Saving physical celibacy is the first step – saving visual and mental celibacy are later stages. First perfect physical celibacy stage along with sincere efforts for visual and mental celibacy as well – surely you will reach the final goal of perfection in celibacy in thoughts, words and deeds one day. But, if you fail in even physical celibacy on regular basis, there is no hope left then. Hence, this is an all-important suggestion for all celibacy aspirant.
2. Visual and physical environmental control from now onward. Even physical break in brahmacharya practice happens due to some visual and physical environmental triggers. So, how can one practise brahmacharya from now on without bringing changes in one’s visual and physical environment when it is so clear in the teachings of all sages that everyone, except those who are already born almost Self-Realized, is prone to break in brahmacharya practice during the first 12 years of brahmacharya practice? One has to apply lots of mind for visual and physical enviromental control and learn from the successful example of others. Here is the list of suggestions (please read section “Balance male and female energies in order to awaken sushumna channel and have a natural, blissful state of brahmacharya.” above to understand why continuously doingnadi shodhana pranayama in case of brahmacharya failure for a long time that day is so strongly recommended below: it will also help as continuously doing nadi shodhana pranayamafor a long time is a bit uncomfortable for one’s hands and is definitely a very intelligent and fully contructive self-punishment. Of course, you will have to switch the hand for closing nostrils whenever one hand gets tired of doing so – also, feel free to do some reading of spiritual literature or other good study materials some time or even all of the time while practising this technique. You need to do only nadi shodhana basic stage without involving any internal or external retention as breath retention cannot and should not be done for too long time like 30 min or more and also because with basic stage, you are fully free to do some self-study also in case you want to do.):Maintain a brahmacharya diary. Write down your lessons from positive or negative experiences in brahmacharya practice in this diary in this format: “Story: blah, blah, blah. Lesson: Blah, blah, blah.” This will help you a lot as you will know under what particular circumstances, you succeed or fail in brahmacharya practice and also, what techniques have worked the best in the past for you to deal with strong attacks of lust. Whenever you find the mind assaulted with strong bouts of lust, read your brahmacharya diary – you will get clues on how you were able to successful deal with such strong bouts of lust in the past and just use those techniques now to succeed in dealing with lust successfully. Also, never forget to read this brahmacharya diary once every month (like every 1st day of each month) as strong assault from lust has its monthly biological cycle and you need to keep all your brahmacharya lessons from past fresh in your mind to deal with this monthly cycle of strong lust successfully. Do so at least in the first 12 years of your unbroken brahmacharya practice. In case of serious problems with lust in the past, do read your brahmacharya diary at least once every week like on every Sunday morning.

1. If the break in brahmacharya was triggered due to intentionally seeing a particular member of opposite gender, then have a vow – if I do this mistake, I will give up next meal and/or continuously do minimum 30 min nadi shodhana pranayama – and follow this vow today for today’s brahmacharya break. Additional note: If the break is not merely visual, but also physical, in that case rather than 30 min, continuously do minimum 60 min nadi shodhana pranayama. If that member of opposite gender is none but your spouse, please try to avoid meeting him/her alone and in private place – meet him/her in the open place for any talk and not in the bedroom and try to meet when at least someone else (your kids, parents or any other person) can watch both of you. This is exactly the method which Mahatma Gandhi used whole life when he realized that he was getting repeated brahmacharya failures due to private meetings with his spouse. And there is every reason for all householder yogis to use this rule in at least first 12 years of brahmacharya practice.
2. If the break in brahmacharya was triggered due to intentionally seeing romantic/adult pictures or movies or reading romantic/adult materials, then have a vow – if I do this mistake, I will give up next meal and/or invest the same amount of time spent in seeing romatic/adult pictures/movies or reading romantic/adult materials in continuously doing nadi shodhana pranayama – and follow this vow today for today’s brahmacharya break. So, if you spent 1 hr in seeing romantic/adult pictures/movies or reading romantic/adult materials, spend 1 hr continuously in doing nadi shodhana pranayama. Additional note: If the break is not merely visual, but also physical, in that case rather than same amount, invest twice the amount of time, which you spent in lustful activities, in continuously doing nadi shodhana pranayama. Also, use a good internet filter if you have been a victim of romantic/adult material on internet – see more in “Use internet filter – take no risk in the first 12 years of brahmacharya (celibacy) practice.” section above.

3. Have a spiritual attitude towards opposite gender. Consider every person of opposite gender as mother, sister or daughter (father, brother or son for female aspirants) depending on the age or consider every person as Self or Consciousness. If you are already married and have children, consider the spouse as just a friend, sleep separately and practice complete brahmacharya despite being a family-person – that is a must if you want to have a decent chance for the ultimate spiritual success of Self-Realization or the good-enough spiritual success of kundalini reaching 5th centre (Vishuddhi Chakra).

4. Wake up during brahmamuhurtha. Waking up at 3 am or latest by 4 am (3 am – 7 am is most suited for reaching more joyous state during  practice, as the entire atmosphere is free from thought vibrations and hence peaceful/sattvic, thus naturally deeper and more joyous state of thoughtless awareness – which is 100% peace/sattva – is realized during this period.”) and doing thoughtless awareness practice for as many hours as possible. Since lust is a rajasic (passionate) quality, with more increase in sattva, brahmacharya automatically becomes more easy and natural. Sushumna awakens automatically during this period and kundalini automatically ascends up the spine. Anyone aiming at full celibacy must develop the solid routine of waking up between 3 am – 4 am and utilizing time till 7 am in yoga, meditation (thoughtless awareness) and other creative activities like self-study, etc. This alone will solve more than 90% of difficulties one faces in the practise of full celibacy. No wonder, all our true sannyasins wake up during 3 am to 4 am. Most people find celibacy so hard because they sleep even in this golden period of 3 am to 7 am when the whole nature is supporting the awakening of sushumna, raising up of kundalani and hence, a natural, fast-paced evolution of our awareness. So, this rule is exceptionally important for all sadhaks. This is Brahmamuhurta which is extremely favourable for Sadhana. Do all your morning spiritual Sadhana during this period from 4 a.m. to 6:30 or 7 a.m. Such Sadhana gives quick and maximum progress.” I wrote “wake up daily during 3 am to 4 am” because some effect of brahmamuhurtha is present even before 4 am and even after 6 am (Brahmamuhurtha has different definitions on internet, but one can consider 4 am to 6 am as the reasonably accurate brahmamuhurtha period). For detailed tips on how to develop early morning routine,

5. Eat only sattvic food. This is very important for transforming the mind into sattvic state where celibacy becomes fully natural to us. Food has a direct and intimate connection with the mind and plays a vital part in the make-up of the mind. Food has been classified into 3 categories: good (sattvic), passionate (rajasic) and ignorant (tamasic), based on whether it induces good (sattvic), passionate (rajasic) or ignorant (tamasic) states of mind.

   1. Good diet (also known as sattvic diet in yoga): milk, cream, cheese, butter, curd, ghee, fruits, figs, vegetables, cereals like wheat, rice, barley, etc., peas, sugar-candy, gram, pulse, ginger, myrobalan, lemon, honey.
   2. Passionate diet (also known as rajasic diet in yoga): fish, eggs, meat, salt, chillies, chutney, asafetida, pickles, tamarind, mustard, sour things, hot, pungent things, tea, coffee, cocoa, ovaltine, white sugar, carrots, turnips, spices.
   3. Ignorant diet (also known as tamasic diet): garlic, tobacco, rotten things, stale things, unclean things, twice cooked things, all intoxicants, all liquors, all drugs.

   Good diet (sattvic diet) calms the mind. Passionate diet (rajasic diet) excites the mind. Ignorant diet (tamasic diet) makes the mind dull and lethargic. Mark the difference in nature between a tiger which lives on flesh and a cow which lives on grass. Food exercises important influence on the mind. One should try one’s best to eat good diet (sattvic diet) only. Also, even good diet (sattvic diet) becomes passionate diet (rajasic diet) if it is eaten too quickly, without chewing it properly. And even good and passionate diets (sattvic and rajasic diets) become ignorant diets (tamasic diet) if they are taken in excess quantity.

   1. In a narrow sense, Brahmacharya is celibacy. In a broad sense, it is absolute control of all the senses. The door of Nirvana (liberation) or perfection is complete Brahmacharya. Celibacy is to a Yogi what electricity is to an electric bulb. Without celibacy no spiritual progress is possible. It is a potent weapon and shield to wage war against the internal evil forces of lust, anger and greed. It serves as a gateway for the bliss beyond, and opens the door of liberation. It contributes perennial joy and uninterrupted bliss. It is the only key to open the Sushumna (the chief among astral tubes in the human body running inside the spinal column) and awaken the Kundalini (the primordial cosmic energy located in the individual).
   2. An Akhanda Brahmachari, who, for a period of twelve years, has not allowed even a drop of semen to come out, will enter into Samadhi without any effort. Prana and mind are under his perfect control. Bala Brahmacharya is a synonymous term for Akhanda Brahmacharya. An Akhanda Brahmachari has strong Dharana Sakti, Smriti Sakti and Vichara Sakti—power of grasping, retentive memory and power of enquiry. He need not practice Manana and Nididhyasana, reflection and meditation. If he hears the Mahavakya even once, he will at once achieve Self-realization. His intellect is pure, and his understanding is extremely clear. Akhanda Brahmacharins are very, very rare; but there are some. You also can become an Akhanda Brahmachari if you attempt in right earnest.

Hare Krishna.. that is all i have to share on Brahmacharya. May our dreams if becoming great Brahmacharis and Brahmacharinis become true. All with the Grace of The Guru and Krishna.