Brahmacharya tips ( the list is quite comprehensive and immensely practical)

1. 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).

2. Wake up during brahmamuhurtha. Waking up at 3 am (3 am – 7 am is most suited for reaching more joyous state during yoga practice, as the entire atmosphere is free from thought vibrations and hence peaceful/sattwic, thus naturally deeper and more joyous state of thoughtless awareness – which is 100% peace/sattwa – is realized during this period.”) and doing meditation practice for as many hours as possible. Since lust is a rajasic (passionate) quality, with more increase in sattwa, 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 at 3 am and utilizing next 4 hrs (till 7 am) in yoga, meditation and other creative activities like self-study, etc. This alone will solve more than 90% of difficulties one faces in the practice of full celibacy. No wonder, all our true sannyasins wake up at 3 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 shushmna, raising up of kundalani and hence, a natural, fast-paced evolution of our awareness. So, this rule is exceptionally important for all sadhaks. For detailed tips on how to develop early morning routine, please read this.

3. Practice brahmacharya (celibacy) at mental level also by using these means. Whenever lustful thoughts manifest, do some meditation practice or 5-10 round maha bandha or 3-5 min sarvangasana. This will transform the excess energy of lust into intellectual energy by pulling up the nerve currents up the spine towards brain centres, thus giving us more mental powers of thinking, concentration and memory. If doing so does not remove lust completely, do one or some of the following:

1. 10-15 min maha bandha (or uddiyana bandha) continuously. During maha bandha, one can vigorously chant some mantra also and focus the mind on the sound of mantra by trying to listen the sound – then, the effect will be more. (Set up some alarm or timer of 10-15 min so that you can focus 100% on technique.) This will transform the excess energy of lust into intellectual energy by pulling up the nerve currents up the spine towards brain centres, thus giving us more mental powers of thinking, concentration and memory.
2. 10-15 min continuous & rigorous chanting of some mantra preferably aloud and if that is not practically possible, then do it mentally. Try to listen to the sound of the mantra throughout the process – that will concentrate the mind on the sound of mantra. (Set up some alarm or timer of 10-15 min so that you can focus 100% on technique.) This will transform the excess energy of lust into intellectual energy by pulling up the nerve currents up the spine towards brain centres, thus giving us more mental powers of thinking, concentration and memory.
3. rigorous physical exercises like running fast, jogging, dand-baithak, muscle building exercises, etc. till you feel quite tired. (Excess energy of lust will get spent usefully in physical work then.)
4. indulge in your dearest hobbies like music, swimming, dancing, painting, writing blogs/articles, etc. (Excess energy of lust will get spent usefully in enjoying your hobbies then)
5. indulge in mental work on most interesting topics (Excess energy of lust will get spent usefully in enjoying the process of learning and development then)
6. talk aloud for 10-15 min or so till you become completely exhausted – this talk can be in the form of reading a good book/magazine aloud or practicing oratory skill by giving long lectures on some topics so till you are fully exhausted. (Excess energy of lust will get spent usefully in practice of reading or oratory then. )
7. as a last resort, have a cold bath or give up 1-2 meals. Cold bath will cool the nerves and giving up 1-2 meals will reduce the energy level of the body, which is excess right now, making it normal again.
8. My guess is above things can be used to channel excess energy of anger also into constructive channels – like I feel great anger on something, I can give lecture for next 10-15 min or so on that issue aloud till I get exhausted or do physical exercises or indulge in hobbies or mental work on interesting areas. Both, lust and anger are excess energy in us which if not given a constructive channel, drag us to the sewer of crudeness and beastliness. But, when they are given a constructive channel, they will get utilized effectively in positive work.

4. Use internet filter – take no risk in the first 12 years of brahmacharya (celibacy) practice.Make internet “brahmacharya-friendly” by installing suitable internet filters on your computer. Please watch this site http://internet-filter-review.toptenreviews.com or search for “internet filter reviews” in your favorite search engine and do a thorough review. Buying the commercial filter is better as the company will keep on updating it continuously and hence, all its flaws will get removed. Even if one has to pay $50 per year, it is just $4 (close to Rs. 200) per month. When one can pay Rs. 200-300 per month for electricity, what is the problem for paying Rs. 200 for keeping oneself free from the possibility of watching adult materials while using internet – take no risk in the first 12 years as even advanced yogis have a nasty downfall in the first 12 years of brahmacharya/celibacy practice if they expose themselves to wrong environment, what to say of less advanced spiritual aspirants then? When using any filter, use search engine for “best setting for <filter>” and “getting the most out of <filter>”. For example, if you buy “Safe Eyes“, do search in your search engines (google,bing,yahoo,etc.) for “best setting for Safe Eyes” and “getting the most out of Safe Eyes” type search to find out the most powerful settings to create a brahmacharya-friendly internet environment. But, before you decide to buy a filter, do trial with a couple of them (trial is often free for 15 or 30 days) and then, buy whichever appears to be the most effective filter. “Safe Eyes” is considered the most powerful internet filter in terms of blocking harmful sites according to many independent surveys (http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?s=3509166) and is almost impossible to bypass because they keep on working on their product and block even websites where any instruction on bypassing/disabling it is present. Also in Internet Explorer browser, you can block any website on-the-fly without needing administrative password. The cost is $50 per year (annual renewal of the software license is required), but the quality of the software is incomparable. Give it a try. Some more important notes below:

1. You should create a very difficult password (so that you cannot bypass the filter) and make any of your friend or filter.gye@gmail.com (ref: to http://www.guardyoureyes.org/?p=24) or sarvodaya.mission@gmail.com as the administrator for the filter.
2. Additional Note: In case you visit a cyber-cafe, it may not have installed any such filter to earn more money by getting more customers to visit internet for adult content. The best thing for you to do then is to pick a publicly visible place in the cyber-cafe for your internet surfing.

5. Avoid all visual stimulation for lustful sanskara to manifest. Avoid looking at exciting images in books and magazines. All precautions should be taken in first 12 years of brahmacharya practice. After that, so many precautions will not be needed as mind will become strongly embedded with brahmacharya sanskara.

6. Regularly read greatly inspiring brahmacharya quotes to strengthen the brahmacharya sanskara (impression of subconscious mind) and resolve whole life. This will inspire you a lot and intensify your motivation. A low motivation is not enough for brahmacharya practice. Only a fully motivated person succeeds in maintaining unbroken celibacy (“akhand brahmacharya”). One may choose any pattern of reading depending on one’s success level of brahmacharya practice in the past. But, I think spending some time at least once every week is good for every spiritual aspirant till his/her Kundalini reaches Vishuddhi. My personal recommendation for everyone is to spend 20 min every day in the morning on spiritual reading – 10 min on brahmacharya and 10 min on meditation and Self-Realization topics from scriptures like Gita, Upanishads, Patanjali Yoga-Sutra and life-stories of great sages. This is because our mind needs the spiritual food of soul-elevating thoughts daily as much as our body needs daily the material food for its nutrition needs. Meditation and brahmacharya are two wings of spiritual success. One has to achieve perfection in both to realize the ultimate goal of Self-Realization. Perfection of one helps the other. With more growth of brahmacharya practice, meditative experiences become deeper. With deeper meditative experiences, the mind starts remaining in the state of brahmacharya more naturally and much longer. So, both go hand-in-hand and lead us to Self-bliss. Hence, this recommendation of 10 min reading for both of the two on daily basis in the morning itself (because a calm mind in morning will get easily impressed with these strong thoughts of brahmacharya and Self-Realization which, in turn, will substantially speed up our spiritual progress.)