Brahmacharya in The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali

 The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali

Translation and Comentary by Sri Swami Satchidananda

2.38 By one established in continence, vigor is gained.

By getting established in continence or celibacy, we save energy. Virya means vital energy. Labha means profit. When there is no loss of virya we gain energy.  What we gain by this saving is worth knowing. In the name of loving and giving, many times we lose this energy and become mentally and phisically depleted. If we are not strong mentally and phisically, we can never gain real spiritual wealth. Them main cause for the present chaotic condition among the young is ignorance about vyria. Young people say, "When you love somebody, how can you stop giving?" But , out of love, they do not know what to give. Sometimes they even give veneral disease. They lose their health and spoil the health of the ones they love. Can you say you love me and completly drain my blood and poison my system? No. If you love a child, will you make the child eat a box of candy? That isn't love. It is mere thoughtlessness. If you really loved the child you would say: "Candy is not good for you. Once in a while you can have some, but I won't buy you an entire box." Even thought the child is unhappy about it, you are proving yourself to be a loving friend. The case of brahmacharya is like that. The seminal fluid gives strenght and stamina to the brain and nerves. Nervous debility is caused by a lack of stamina because it has been detained away.

 If sex is the only form of loving, then how can a brother and sister love one another? A son and a mother, a dougher and father? Sex is not the only way to show love. If love is based only on physical contact, the mind will never be satisfied with just one person. Today there will be this honey, tomorrow, that honey, the third day, another honey. Where is the limit?

Seminal fluid is our life. If stored properly, it can bring a lot of energy. When absorbed into the system it gets transformed into prana. Conserved sexual energy in women also gets transformed. It is that vital force that allow you to really help people and have good relationship. Without much prana, we can never give anything to anybody just as only a fully-charged battery can give power, never a weak one. In observing brahmacharya we build up this energy.

A Yogy should always keep this in mind. Teaching Yoga is not like teaching history or geometry. Teachers must impart a life force - a little current - into others. How they can do this if they are weak, if they have roundown, discharged batteryes? So keep your batteries full of energy.

That does not mean to stay away from sex. Instead, be moderate. Preserve as much energy as possible. Have sex only in the proper way in a marital relationship. Have one or two children. Until you have a regular partner for life, store the energy. After all, when can you ask a partner to go into a business with you? Only if you've saved enough capital.

The Hindu system has fore stages in life: brahmacharya, grhastha, vanaprashta, and sannyasa. Until one finishes his or her education that person is brahmachary, strictly celibate. With this saved energy he or she can grasp things well. The brain power is more dynamic. In high schools and colleges now, most students learn sex and nothing else. But instead, finish your studies and then go into partnership with another person.

This is the grhastha stage. Brink your knowledge and strenght together. You should not come together because of beauty; because how long will much make-up you wear, physical beauty will nnot last. The real beauty is inside - in your character, your noble ideas, your aim in life. With noble ideas  a noble child can be one of your contributions to the  world. Expressing your love and affection without overindulgence is not wrong. It is part of nature. Even couples who don't plan to have children should have limitations. Even animals have restrictions. Once a female dog is pregnant, no male can come near her. A lioness brings forth a cub once a year. Certain animals won't even make love in front of others-elephants, for example. So in your own way, according to your stage in life have limitations.

In the Hindu tradition, the grhastha stage is followed by vanaprashta, where the husband and wife have finished their wordly responsabilities and become totally involved in spiritual pursuits. They take pilgrimages or stay in an asram somewhere. Then, at a certain point, they take sannyasa and drop all wordly ties completly. They are no longer husband and wife. in certain cases, if an individual has that much discrimination, he or she may take sannyasa direct after the brahmacharya stage.

But these days many people are interested only in pre-marital "tests". That is something like going to a shopkeeper and asking the price of a few apples. "A dollar", the shopkeeper says.  "Are they any good?" you ask.  "Sure". "I think I will try one." Shopkeepers will never do that. They'll let us smell an apple and check its size and shape, but they'll never let us sample it before buying.

Are people inferior to apples? Should they allow everyone to come and take a bite before buying? So, if you want to offer yourself to someone, do it purely chastely. You are offering  something very sacred and holy. Why should you let someone pollute this offering? If people want to know one onother before marriage, they can become friends. That is how our ancestors lived. But today, in the name of freedom, people go to extremes.

By observing celibacy, we preserve not just physical alone but mental, moral, intellectual and, ultimatelly, spiritual energy as well. Sexual energy that is preserved gets transformed into a subtle energy called ojas. This is similar to personal magnetism. It tones the entire personality, builds the nerves, improves brain power and calms the minds. There is a similar word to ojas in English: ozone. In the early morning , before sunrise, we go out and breathe the ozonic wind, which has a special vibration and energy to it. But once the suns's rays fall, this effect is lost. That's way the period between four and six in the morning is called the Brahmamuhurtha, the  Brahmic time, ore divine period, and is a very sacred time to meditate.

And ojas, when stored, creates tejas. Tejas is the aura or the glow. A newspaper reporter once wrote an article about me called, "The Swami Makes the People Glow". How can the Swami do this? It is some peculiar yogic make-up? No. Everyone can glow and transmit that energy they preserved a lot of ojas. Even ordinary carbon left under the earth in an eartight chamber for a considerable time gets hardened, changes its colourand becomes a diamond. If you preserve honey it gets crystallized. In the same way, the semen gets transformed and diffused. 

This is why continence is a very important part of  Yoga. If a handfull of people come forward with strong wills, nothing is impossible. One Buddha  changed half the globe; one Jesus, three quarters of the world. We all have that capacity. Let us know the value of brahmacharya; that it certainly will make us strong, happy, healthy and blissful.