Monday, January 10, 2011

Greatly inspiring brahmacharya (celibacy) quotes

Contents:
  1. Have a spiritual attitude towards opposite gender.
  2. Wake up during brahmamuhurtha.
  3. Practice brahmacharya (celibacy) at mental level also by using these means.
  4. Use internet filter – take no risk in the first 12 years of brahmacharya (celibacy) practice.
  5. Avoid all visual stimulation for lustful sanskara to manifest.
  6. Regularly read greatly inspiring brahmacharya quotes to strengthen the brahmacharya sanskara (impression of subconscious mind) and resolve whole life.
  7. Eat only sattwic food.
  8. Balance male and female energies in order to awaken sushumna channel and have a natural, blissful state of brahmacharya.
  9. How to bounce back from brahmacharya failure and take steps to ensure unbroken brahmacharya practice from now on?
I alphabetically sort below names for the convenience of the readers. The sorting is done only in below table: the contents may not be sorted as per the sorted names below.
  1. Quotes by Baba Lokenath (a 19th century enlightened sage)
  2. Quotes by Dadasri (an enlightened sage from Gujarat)
  3. Quotes by Jesus Christ
  4. Quotes by Mahatma Gandhi
  5. Quotes by Sai Baba of Shirdi
  6. Quotes by Sri Adi Shankaracharya
  7. Quotes by Sri Aurobindo
  8. Quotes by Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa
  9. Quotes by Sri Sri Ravishankar (the founder of “The Art of Living” organization)
  10. Quotes by Swami Brahmananda (an enlightened disciple of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa and a Gurubhai/brother-disciple of Swami Vivekananda)
  11. Quotes by Swami Chidananda (a Self-Realized sage; a disciple of Swami Sivananda)
  12. Quotes by Swami Krishnananda (a Self-Realized sage; a disciple of Swami Sivananda)
  13. Quotes by Swami Samartha (Akkalkot Swami)
  14. Quotes by Swami Sivananda (a Self-Realized sage; the founder of Divine Life Society, Rishikesh)
  15. Quotes by Swami Turiyananda (an enlightened disciple of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa and a Gurubhai/brother-disciple of Swami Vivekananda)
  16. Quotes by Swami Vivekananda (the chief disciple of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa)
  17. Quotes from Spiritual Scriptures and Internet
Hi friends,
This post is a collection of greatly inspiring brahmacharya(celibacy) quotes which I use for reading of brahmacharya(celibacy) quotes for 10 min everyday just after finishing my early morning meditation. When I do this reading I also practise “Nadi Shodhana Basic“ (involving no internal or external retention) as there is no point in doing spiritual reading without doing “Nadi Shodhana Basic” pranayama. One should use time intelligently and hence, one should definitely do “Nadi Shodhana Basic” also while doing any type of spiritually reading – this is called ”killing two birds with the same arrow” in Hindi and shows how intelligently one can spend one’s time if only one applies one’s mind a bit more than one usually does :) . I do recommend 10-15 min of brahmacharya reading in morning for every serious spiritual aspirant in at least first 12 years of their unbroken brahmacharya practice. Why? Because lust is present in even deeper layers of our subconscious mind and hence, we need to wash our mind daily with the water of brahmacharya quotes so that the dirt of lust gets removed from the mind and our brahmacharya sanskara becomes fully strong. This rule is most important in the first 12 years of brahmacharya practice as during first 12 years, everyone faces great chances for downfall and hence, everyone needs to strengthen brahmacharya sanskara daily by reading brahmacharya quotes for 10-15 min.) Please Click here to go to quotes section directly, but in case you want to learn more about my quest for Samadhi (and hence, “akhand brahmacharya”/”unbroken celibacy”) and my approach for being in akhand brahmacharya whole life, continue reading below. And in case you have some doubts on the benefits of brahmacharya, then please do read this post as well.
Since akhand brahmacharya (unbroken celibacy) for minimum 12 years at-a-stretch is a sine-qua-non (an absolute must) for awakening Kundalini and realizing Self-bliss, every spiritual aspirant needs to use all tricks of mind to achieve this state. Brahmacharya was quite challenging even in old times when there were no glossy newspaper, magazines, television, movies and internet, so what to say of present times. The problem becomes particularly tricky in light of huge bombardment of mind in today’s world with all kinds of lust-exciting images – combine that with mind’s automatic fascination with any intense sense-pleasure and you get a perfect recipe for Action-thriller movie like Spiderman/Rambo playing inside the mind of every spiritual aspirant, where the hero faces overwhelmingly tricky situations and obstacles, which he/she must surmount at all costs to realize the eventual goal of Self-bliss.
Also, in order to be a Sarvodaya Sannyasin, a sarvodaya sadhaka will need to practice unbroken celibacy for at least 12 years continuously, apart from doing >= 1 year fulltime secluded yoga-practice total 6 times (with some years of gap between two secluded fulltime yoga-practice) combined with vow of silence and not spending time in reading spiritual books or any other things during seclusion-period and utilizing entire seclusion period for only yoga-practice.
Why at least 12 years of unbroken brahmacharya/celibacy rule for becoming a sarvodaya sannyasin?
Because, nature requires a fixed quantum of energy for any major change. For example, water has a tendency to flow downward. If it gets heated, it does not boil unless and until heat energy increases water’s temperature to 100 degree centigrade. And once that happens, water starts boiling and getting converted into vapor. Now, see the contrast between water and vapor: water flows downward, whereas vapor flows upward; water is liquid and visible to eyes, whereas vapor is gaseous and becomes invisible after merging into atmosphere. Exactly the same happen with pranic energy – when it manifests at the level of lust, the tendency of this energy is to move outward and downward, degrading our consciousness level to animal level – this state is comparable to the water state. But, when after gathering pranic energy for (at least) 12 years without any break in celibacy is achieved, the pranic energy manifests at higher levels of creativity and spiritual bliss, moving more inward and upward – compare this state to the vapor state. And compare the 12 years’ practice of unbroken celibacy to gathering enough heat to make water temperature 100 degree centrigade in order to convert it into the vapor state.
Now, the only issue is – in spiritual life, bliss comparable to (in fact, superior to, as per our yogis) lustful pleasure arises after 12 years’ unbroken, continuous celibacy, when kundalini reaches the 5th or higher centers of Vishuddhi/Agya Chakras – of course, once this happens, mind loses all interest in lustful pleasure as one would naturally prefer to enjoy more intense and permanent spiritual bliss over momentary and spiritually degrading lustful pleasure. Thereafter, one becomes firmly established in effortless, natural celibacy. But, till this happens, the mind continues to feel some attraction towards lustful pleasure and is always prone to an unfortunate break in brahmacharya practice – a downfall which makes one start all over again the process of 12 years’ akhand brahamacharya practice.
In fact, the role of brahmacharya is so important that it is proper to understood it with as much clarity as possible. For this, let us have a broad understanding of the science of kundalini:
  • Kundalini is the most refined form of vital energy (maha-prana) present in every being. It guides the physical, mental and spiritual evolution of all beings. Its activity is guided by nature in case of all beings except humans. In case of humans, there is freedom to guide the activity of kundalini because with humans conscious evolution through self-effort becomes possible.
  • When kundalini resides in the lower 2 chakras (Muladhara and Swadhistana), the mind is primarily tamasic in nature.
  • When kundalini resides in the 3rd chakra (manipura – navel center), the mind is tamasic plus rajasic.
  • When kundalini resides in the 4th chakra (anahata – heart center), the mind is sattwic plus rajasic.
  • When kundalini comes to the 5th chakra (vishuddhi – throat center), the mind is pure sattwic. The 6th chakra (agya) is also pure sattwic. And when kundalini reaches the 7th chakra, mind dissolves into pure consciousness and experience of samadhi (absolute oneness or pure silence) happens.
Kundalini gets activated through deep concentration of mind on any creative activities – be it art, music, games, mathematics, technology, etc. But, this activation is only partial and does not lead to enlightenment or samadhi. For samadhi, the whole science of yoga has been designed.
With regular yoga practice and keeping mind sattwic (and gradually and steadily eliminating all rajasic and tamasic thoughts, speech and actions from one’s life) through conscious self-effort and self-awareness, kundalini gets activated. Perfect brahmacharya is possible only when kundalini rises to the 5th center (Vishuddhi) or higher ones. In this state, even the production of reproductive elements stops in the body, so nocturnal loss (night fall) or monthly period (menstrual loss) stops completely. This is an irreversible stage – that is, once kundalini reaches the 5th center, there is no question of downfall to lower 4 centers/chakras. One can rise only higher from 5th center. Now, the trouble of lust is over and one is established in natural brahmacharya. This is a very very high spiritual state and not even 1 in a million are in this state. Now, the person is fully sattwic (and always remains peaceful and blissful in all kinds of trying situations). Swami Vivekananda remarked that he did not meet more than 20 sattwic people in his life despite travelling half the globe. This is the goal which I am chasing to achieve by the end of foundation phase of Sarvodaya Mission (2009-2033).
BUT, the great disaster is: till the 4th center (a selfless kindness for everyone is the peculiar mark of a person whose kundalini is in 4th center, whereas in lower 3 centers/chakras, one is mostly selfish with almost everyone), kundalini keeps on moving from 4th to lower and from lower to 4th center regularly, depending on one’s brahmacharya level. If brahmacharya gets broken, kundalini falls down to lower chakras and then after some yoga-practice, it again ascends back to 4th center.
And to make kundalini reach 5th center requires something which is a himalayana task – it requires absolute brahmacharya practice at the level of body (with the exception of loss through night fall and monthly period) and mind as well as strong yoga-practice for at least 12 years continuously. And the whole animal heritage of millions of past lives has to be faced during this process, which tries to disrupt brahmacharya practice in some way or the other. Many sincere spiritual aspirants also get trapped and get deceived by their own minds. But, this battle, which was extremely difficult for all past great ones and will continue to be difficult for all future great ones, has to be fought persistently and won ultimately by every spiritual aspirant. A good combination of caution,right strategy, will-power, honest self-analysis and regular yoga-practice is an absolute necessity to win this battle. I hope, I will be able to win it for myself and at the end of life, give a detailed guidance to others based on personal victory. Till that happens, I can offer ideas from what I learnt in various yoga books in a friendly sense without claiming any personal moral authority.
So, let us come to the point how to do away with such chances for brahamacharya break?
Brahmacharya is the movement from passion to peace and then, from peace to bliss.
Brahmacharya hai satya ka dwaar.
Isme milta hai anand apaar.
English meaning: Brahmacharya (celibacy) is the gateway to supreme truth: one enjoys infinite bliss through brahmacharya (celibacy).

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