LESSON 2

Today is the 2nd day of the seminar on Brahmacarya.
Again, brahmacarya is not just celibacy, or remaining single and unmarried.
Actually, it means to be situated on the spiritual platform, upon which
celibacy becomes a side-effect.
Brahman means the spiritual world, and acarati means to act accordingly,
living in such a way that one attains the spiritual platform. To review
yesterday's class, there are 2 things, matter and life. Matter is inert, but
due to the presence of the spirit soul, matter becomes alive. Matter is the
body, and the soul makes the body alive. 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 a baby. Like this, the soul develops a body made of
matter. Then he functions through the body. There, the growth of the body
depends upon food. What is food? Food is the juice that a tree extracts from
the earth. Basic food is derived from trees and plants. Meat is just the
flesh of animals that have eaten grass. So actually the trees are
transforming the juice of the earth into its fruits and leaves and nuts etc…
then the human being eats that. Our stomach extracts the juice of the food
we eat. Then the juice transforms into blood, into flesh, into bone, into
bone marrow, into Virya, or semen. So this virya is the ultimate material
substance that carries the spiritual energy. Therefore this element is very
important for one's spiritual growth. So semen keeps one's spiritual
energy, and also it carries a soul into a mother's womb. So semen is the
storehouse of spiritual energy. Therefore one must retain that spiritual
energy. Not only the Vedic scriptures say that, but all religions say that.
The catholic monks and nuns had to be celibates. The jews also, the suphis
also. The fact is that it is a scientific subject. Who can deny the
importance of this vital energy in the body?
Butter is separated from milk. Then it is not milk anymore. Similarly, virya
spreads throughout our body. But through sexual agitation, it is churned and
ejected of the body. So for some fleeting pleasure, it should not be wasted.
It is essential for our spiritual progress. One must retain this valuable
spiritual energy.

It is a matter of consciousness. Take the spirit soul and consciousness:
consciousness comes out of the soul. Where there is light, there is fire. In
the same way, consciousness comes out of the soul. According to the
direction of the projection of our consciousness, our spiritual energy will
flow in that direction. In Bhagavad Gita, Krsna says, dhyayato visaya
pumsah ETC………. that is how the consciousness becomes effected. First it
flows through the mind, then through the senses toward the objects of the
senses with a desire to exploit them: that is lust. So when consciousness
goes toward material sense objects, virya also goes towards that. In the
same way, if consciousness is directed to Krsna , this vital energy will
flow toward Krsna. Therefore all importance is put on fixing our mind on
Krsna, fixing our mind on Him. If we project our consciousness on matter, we
will run after sense gratification, and we will loose our vital energy. Loss
of this energy causes death. Again, consciousness can go toward matter or
toward Krsna. If it goes to matter, we loose everything. If it goes to
Krsna, this vital energy becomes even further spiritualized, just like a
mothers' blood is transformed into milk. It becomes transformed into nectar.
What does nectar do? It inundates our heart with joy. therefore the real joy
and bliss comes from developing our joy from Krsna. This vital energy, which
is apparently matter, becomes nectar. How does it happen? It happens due to
our love for Krsna. By transformation, it causes something to our heart that
gives us an experience of transcendental joy and bliss.
Therefore again, we are discussing something far beyond celibacy. I will
repeat, again, that brahmacarya is not exclusive for brahmacaris, but it is
meant also for householders. When the householders engages in sex for
procreation, one is also a brahmacari. Even the householders can become pure
devotees. There are so many householder pure devotees in our sampradaya.
Srila Prabhupada was a householder, so was Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Gaura
Kisora das Babaji Maharaja, and most of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's associates
were householders. So everyone in Krsna consciousness is a brahmacari.
Ultimately, our material body is secondary, as part-and-parcels of Krsna.
When Brahma realized that it was his duty to create, he created the 4
Kumaras, who were perfect brahmacaris. Then he created 10 sons, 9 of which
became progenitors. The last one, Narada Muni, wanted to stay brahmacari. He
became a very detached person, and eventually he became a pure devotee of
Krsna. He was eventually approached by the daughter of time, and he did not
accept her. He decided to remain a celibate. As a result of that, he
attained eternal life. So we can see that when one becomes a brahmacari, one
does not become subject to death. Also, when Bhisma got to know that his
father wanted to marry the daughter of the fisherman who would only offer
his daughter to him only if his daughter's son would become the successor to
the throne. So Santanu refused, saying that he already had a successor. When
Bhisma got to know that, he told the fisherman that he would forgo his right
over the throne. He said, "I take a vow that I will never get married." For
a ksatriya to remain a celibate for one's whole life is so difficult that
the demigods showered flowers, saying "Bhisma, Bhisma, what a terrible vow!
What a terrible vow!" When Bhisma went back, his father blessed him 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 therefore see 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 old either. The 4 kumaras, for
example, look like 5 year old boys although 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 that thousands of
soldiers could not conquer him.
Hanuman is another ideal brahmacari. He had the form of a monkey. He
is a perfect brahmacari because he is a devotee of Lord Rama. What sorts of
feats he performed! He carried a mountain from middle India and jumped
across the ocean to Lanka. These are not fairy tales. It took place! We can
consider that because he was a brahmacari, he was also an extremely powerful
personalities.
Also, we can remember Vedavati. She was performing austerities to
get the Supreme Personality of Godhead as her husband. She was performing
severe austerities on top of a mountain. While Ravana was passing by in his
airplane, he approached her. First she told him what she wanted. He forcibly
tried to molest her. She was so powerful that threw Ravana far away. She was
so chaste that because he had simply touched her, she considered herself
contaminated, and so she generated a fire to burn up her body with the vow
that she would cause Ravana's death. She came back as Sita.
In India there were many others like Gargi, who challenged
Yajnavalkya in the assembly of Janaka. She was a brahmacarini. Maitreyi
also. In the recent past there is the example of Queen Mirabai. When she was
given away in marriage, she could not associate with him because she had
already accepted Krsna as her husband in her youth. Her husband finally
decided to kill her and gave her poison to drink, which she did without
dying. Later she went to Vrindavan and became a devotee of Sri Caitanya
Mahaprabhu. These are examples of brahmacarinis in our heritage.
So the goal of our life is to become situated on the spiritual
platform, which will lead us to endless Srila Prabhupada joy. therefore let
us all become fixed up. Let us realized that this is our goal. If we don't
fix our goal with intense seriousness, then we will become frivolous. Today
in ISKCON, today somewhere else. That is not good. We came here to achieve
the mission to become situated on the spiritual platform 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 we think
that we are Westerners and that that culture is from India, then we are
making a mistake. We are souls, and in ISKCON, everyone who wants to make
spiritual progress has a place. So brahmacarya is a question of developing
Krsna Prema, not suppression. When you develop love for Krsna, then you
will not be affected by sex attraction. He will deal with women in a very
reverential way, full of respect. Another point is that in ISKCON many
members are married. When both husband and wife are in Krsna consciousness,
then both help each other.

Question: Is Virya also there in women?
Answer: Yes. There are some anatomical differences, but in summary the
answer is Yes.
(Text COM:3850656) -----------------------------------------

------- End of Forwarded Message ------