Transcription and Editing : Vinod-Bihari Dasa (The Hague, Holland)

Today is the second day of the seminar on Brahmacarya.

Again, brahmacarya is not just celibacy, or remaining single andunmarried.  Actually, it means to be situated on the spiritualplatform, upon which celibacy becomes a side-effect.

Brahman means the spiritual world, and acarati means to actaccordingly, living in such a way that one attains the spiritualplatform. To review yesterday’s class, there are two things, matter andlife. Matter is inert, but due to the presence of the spirit soul,matter becomes alive. Matter is the body, and the soul makes the bodyalive. 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 ababy. Like this, the soul develops a body made of matter. Then hefunctions through the body. There, the growth of the body depends uponfood. What is food? Food is the juice that a tree extracts from theearth. Basic food is derived from trees and plants. Meat is just theflesh of animals that have eaten grass.

So actually the trees are transforming the juice of the earth intoits fruits and leaves and nuts etc. Then the human being eats that. Ourstomach extracts the juice of the food we eat. Then the juicetransforms into blood, into flesh, into bone, into bone marrow, intoVirya, or semen.

So this virya is the ultimate material substance that carries thespiritual energy. Therefore this element is very important for one’sspiritual growth. So semen keeps one’s spiritual energy, and also itcarries a soul into a mother’s womb. So semen is the storehouse ofspiritual energy.

Therefore one must retain that spiritual energy. Not only the Vedicscriptures say that, but all religions say that. The catholic monks andnuns had to be celibates. The jews also, the suphis also. The fact isthat it is a scientific subject. Who can deny the importance of thisvital energy in the body?

Butter is separated from milk. Then it is not milk anymore.Similarly, virya spreads throughout our body. But through sexualagitation, it is churned and ejected of the body. So for some fleetingpleasure, it should not be wasted.  It is essential for our spiritualprogress. One must retain this valuable spiritual energy.

It is a matter of consciousness. Take the spirit soul andconsciousness: consciousness comes out of the soul. Where there islight, there is fire. In the same way, consciousness comes out of thesoul. According to the direction of the projection of ourconsciousness, our spiritual energy will flow in that direction.

In Bhagavad Gita, Krsna says, dhyayato visayan pumsah. That is howthe consciousness becomes effected. First it flows through the mind,then through the senses toward the objects of the senses with a desireto exploit them: that is lust. So when consciousness goes towardmaterial sense objects, virya also goes towards that. In the same way,if consciousness is directed to Krsna , this vital energy will flowtoward Krsna.

Therefore all importance is put on fixing our mind on Krsna, fixingour mind on Him. If we project our consciousness on matter, we will runafter sense gratification, and we will loose our vital energy. Loss ofthis energy causes death. Again, consciousness can go toward matter ortoward Krsna. If it goes to matter, we loose everything. If it goes toKrsna, this vital energy becomes even further spiritualized, just likea mothers’ blood is transformed into milk. It becomes transformed intonectar.

What does nectar do? It inundates our heart with joy. therefore thereal joy and bliss comes from developing our joy from Krsna. This vitalenergy, which is apparently matter, becomes nectar. How does it happen?It happens due to our love for Krsna. By transformation, it causessomething to our heart that gives us an experience of transcendentaljoy and bliss.

Therefore again, we are discussing something far beyond celibacy. Iwill repeat, again, that brahmacarya is not exclusive for brahmacaris,but it is meant also for householders. When the householders engages insex for procreation, one is also a brahmacari. Even the householderscan become pure devotees. There are so many householder pure devoteesin our sampradaya. Srila Prabhupada was a householder, so was SrilaBhaktivinoda Thakura, Gaura Kisora das Babaji Maharaja, and most of SriCaitanya Mahaprabhu’s associates were householders. So everyone inKrsna consciousness is a brahmacari. Ultimately, our material body issecondary, as part-and-parcels of Krsna.

When Brahma realized that it was his duty to create, he created theFour Kumaras, who were perfect brahmacaris. Then he created ten sons,nine of which became progenitors. The last one, Narada Muni, wanted tostay brahmacari. He became a very detached person, and eventually hebecame a pure devotee of Krsna. He was eventually approached by thedaughter of time, and he did not accept her. He decided to remain acelibate. As a result of that, he attained eternal life.

So we can see that when one becomes a brahmacari, one does notbecome subject to death. Also, when Bhisma got to know that his fatherwanted to marry the daughter of the fisherman who would only offer hisdaughter to him only if his daughter’s son would become the successorto the throne. So Santanu refused, saying that he already had asuccessor. When Bhisma got to know that, he told the fisherman that hewould forgo his right over the throne.

He said, “I take a vow that I will never get married.” For aksatriya to remain a celibate for one’s whole life is so difficult thatthe demigods showered flowers, saying “Bhisma, Bhisma, what a terriblevow! What a terrible vow!” When Bhisma went back, his father blessedhim 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 thereforesee 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 oldeither. The Four Kumaras, for example, look like five year old boysalthough 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 thatthousands of soldiers could not conquer him.

Hanuman is another ideal brahmacari. He had the form of a monkey. Heis a perfect brahmacari because he is a devotee of Lord Rama. Whatsorts of feats he performed! He carried a mountain from middle Indiaand jumped across the ocean to Lanka. These are not fairy tales. Ittook place! We can consider that because he was a brahmacari, he wasalso an extremely powerful personalities.

Also, we can remember Vedavati. She was performing austerities toget the Supreme Personality of Godhead as her husband. She wasperforming severe austerities on top of a mountain. While Ravana waspassing by in his airplane, he approached her. First she told him whatshe wanted. He forcibly tried to molest her. She was so powerful thatthrew Ravana far away. She was so chaste that because he had simplytouched her, she considered herself contaminated, and so she generateda fire to burn up her body with the vow that she would cause Ravana’sdeath. She came back as Sita.

In India there were many others like Gargi, who challengedYajnavalkya in the assembly of Janaka. She was a brahmacarini. Maitreyialso. In the recent past there is the example of Queen Mirabai. Whenshe was given away in marriage, she could not associate with himbecause she had already accepted Krsna as her husband in her youth. Herhusband finally decided to kill her and gave her poison to drink, whichshe did without dying. Later she went to Vrindavan and became a devoteeof Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. These are examples of brahmacarinis in ourheritage.

So the goal of our life is to become situated on the spiritualplatform, which will lead us to endless Srila Prabhupada joy. thereforelet us all become fixed up. Let us realized that this is our goal. Ifwe don’t fix our goal with intense seriousness, then we will becomefrivolous. Today in ISKCON, today somewhere else. That is not good. Wecame here to achieve the mission to become situated on the spiritualplatform 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 wethink that we are Westerners and that that culture is from India, thenwe are making a mistake. We are souls, and in ISKCON, everyone whowants to make spiritual progress has a place. So brahmacarya is aquestion of developing Krsna Prema, not suppression. When you developlove for Krsna, then you will not be affected by sex attraction. Hewill deal with women in a very reverential way, full of respect.Another point is that in ISKCON many members are married. When bothhusband and wife are in Krsna consciousness, then both help each other.

Question: Is Virya also there in women?