Endless Bliss of the Pure Soul With the Vow of Celibacy

Dadashri : I keep warning you to pay attention to this but to take heed is not easy for you. Yet, by experimenting with celibacy (brahmacharya), say for three to five days or for a whole week in a month one will feel wonderful. If one has practiced celibacy (brahmacharya) for a week in a month, then by the middle of the week he will experience tremendous bliss. The bliss of the Self will express. This bliss is beyond description.

Some people say that they cannot get rid of sexuality. I ask, why are you acting crazy? Why don't you set some disciplined limit for yourself and then make sure that you stick to it. In this day and age, nothing can be achieved without discipline. Some flexibility is allowed.

Questioner: What does one do in a situation where a man wants to practice celibacy (brahmacharya) but his wife does not?

Dadashri: If she does not wish to, then try and make her understand.

Questioner: How should I make her understand?

Dadashri: You have to keep making her understand and gradually it will happen. It does not happen instantly. By continuous discussions and mutual understanding it will happen. Both of you will have to come to a meaningful compromise. You have to discuss and think about the harm of sexual indulgence (abrahmacharya) and thoughts related to this.

You will have to get rid of sex if you want liberation. There are about a thousand mahatmas who take this yearlong vow of celibacy (brahmacharya). 'Grant us a yearlong vow of celibacy (brahmacharya), Dada,' they say. They come to know all the benefits within a year.

Sexual indulgence (Abrahmacharya) is indecision. Indecision is not related to the unfolding of karma.

I was shocked after talking to four to five mahatmas. I told them that this falsehood of sexuality would not do. This is the indecision. You will definitely have to get rid of it. Celibacy (Brahmacharya) is needed first. You are really a celibate (brahmachari) by way of being the Self, but you cannot be in sexual indulgence (abrahmacharya) in worldly interactions. This is a clear conflict.

One who does not have any opinions about celibacy (brahmacharya) or sexual indulgence (abrahmacharya) is considered to be in celibacy (brahmacharya). To constantly remain the Self is my celibacy (brahmacharya). That does not mean that I do not accept the external celibacy (brahmacharya) of thoughts, speech and acts. As you are living a married life, I have to say that there is no problem with sexual indulgence (abrahmacharya), but your opinion for sexual indulgence (abrahmacharya) must not exist. Your opinion should always be for celibacy (brahmacharya). Sexual indulgence (Abrahmacharya) for you is a file that needs to be settled with equanimity. You are not able to experience the bliss of the Self because you are still stuck with your old opinions about sexuality and sexual indulgence (abrahmacharya). Once these opinions leave, you will be able to experience the bliss of the Self. The veil of opinion for sexual indulgence (abrahmacharya) obstructs your clear vision and bliss. The opinion must be exclusively that of, and for celibacy (brahmacharya) only. What is a vow? A vow is that which continues its experience effortlessly. When is the mahavrat of celibacy (brahmacharya) attained? It is the experience that there is not an iota of the thought of sexual indulgence (abrahmacharya), and no memory of it.

Quotes on Brahmacharya - Part 2

"There is a great difference between lust and love. Lust binds and love
liberates. The aim of married life is to attain Moksha or Freedom, but
never the satisfaction of lust. The married couple must lead the sexual
life only till they beget one or two children just to keep up the line of
heritage and after which, the wife must look upon her husband as her own
father or brother and the husband must look upon his wife as his own mother
or sister and thus both must eradicate lust completely. For every sexual
intercourse one has to take a new birth in this world."

"Where there is Rama (God) there is no Kama (lust), and where there is
Kama there is no Rama"

"If one can observe strict and perfect Brahmacharya without a break for
twelve years, then a particular Nadi (nerve) called Medha Nadi develops in a
person. With the development of this Nadi, one gets the sixth sense
(Super-consciousness), by which one can know of the past, present and the
future events."
- Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

"True dispassion does not arise in one by austerity, charity,
pilgrimage etc., but only by directly perceiving one's own nature.
...by right self-exertion firmly reject the seeking of pleasure. when
dispassion matures, the spirit of inquiry arises in oneself. The
spirit of inquiry strengthens dispassion. The two are interdependent,
even as the ocean and the clouds are. These two and also
self-realization are all intimate friends and always exist togather."

"When the self is seen, the mind comes under complete control. When
the mind is in complete control, only then the self is seen completely!"
"Therefore one's intelligent practise has to be simultaenously
twofold; to behold the self and to subdue the mind. By intense
self-effort and steady practice you can gain both these, and then you
will enter that region and never again experience sorrow"
- Yoga Vasistha

"The human energy which is expressed as sex energy, in sexual thought, when
checked and controlled, easily becomes changed into Ojas, and as the
Muladhara guides these, the Yogi pays attention to that centre. He tries to
take up all this sexual energy and convert it into Ojas. It is only the
chaste man or woman who can make the Ojas rise and store it in the brain;
that is why chastity has always been considered the highest virtue. A man
feels that if he is unchaste, spirituality goes away, he loses mental vigour
and moral stamina. That is why in all the religious orders in the world
which have produced spiritual giants you will always find absolute chastity
insisted upon. That is why the monks came into existence, giving up
marriage. There must be perfect chastity, in thought, word and deed.
Without it the practice of Raja-Yoga is dangerous and may lead to insanity."
- Swami Vivekananda

"One that observes Brahmacharya not only must avoid the company of the other
sex but also of those who are given to sexuality."
- From Srimad Bhagavata

"A wise man should avoid unchastity as if it were a burning pit of live coals. From the contact comes sensation, from sensation thirst, from thirst clinging; by ceasing from that, the soul is delivered from all sinful existence."
- Gautama Buddha

"God dwells in you, as you, and you don't have to 'do' anything to
be God-realized or Self-realized, it is already your true and
natural state." Just drop all seeking, turn your attention inward,
and sacrifice your mind to the One Self radiating in the Heart of
your very being. For this to be your own presently lived experience,
Self-Inquiry is the one direct and immediate way."
- Sri Ramana Maharshi

"Misery of dependency on sex is greater than the transient happiness
derived from it. When one realizes this, he will be free from the
false infatuation and vice grip of sex. "

"Millions of lives die in only one act of sex through the loss of
millions of living sperms. This is tremendous violence. Not realizing
this, people believe sexual act to be the highest pleasure. They do
not understand that a life is precious and must not be lost except as
a last resort. But what happens when there is no understanding? "

"When will a woman respect you and be deferential to you? If you were
very sensitive about sex, easily aroused by sexuality, then she would
control you. If you are sexual but not sensitive, not easily aroused,
then she will develop respect for you"
-Dadashri