One of the most important things I have realised is that, to achieve any real progress, a constant and concentrated effort is required and more often than not, the lack of which has been the case of downfall of aspirants. Tendencies of the mind keep wavering – when at the trough, one feels the need to be uplifted and starts putting effort and goes up to the crest. Now, this is where a great man differs from ordinary men. A few great men hold on to the crest through constant practice, which is what makes them great in the first place.

When I tend to feel low, I grab one Swami Vivekananda’s or Shri Ramakrishna’s book and live and weep with it and the mind begins to return to normal – I begin to feel the detachment towards the body and other earthly entanglements. But for how long ? I begin feeling overconfident and all the effort starts declining and the same process repeats.This applies to my yogasana practice as well. The intensity of effort varies like a wave, with very slow convergence, which defeats the whole purpose of yoga.

Especially in religion, it is extremely difficult to keep the progress rate with sparse practice. Its impossible I would say. So, how do I solve the problem ? I must have a daily schedule with slotted time for religious activities, with no variable component. Sounds good for sure.

But with my current erratic sleeping habits, food habits, it gets very difficult ? No, its just an excuse I feel. I just pray lord to give me the power to carry on my plans. Now I realise why the importance of ‘Satsang’ (Company of holy people) is talked of so highly in the holy books. With the help of such a company, regular practice can be achieved with relative ease.

Om Namo Narayana.

Yoga is extremely helpful in giving me strength to practice brahmacharya. I have been doing yoga for around 4 years now. After a good session of yoga, I feel very relaxed and powerful. I tell myself that I should never give up yoga, not even for a single day. But somehow due to other “important” commitments, i had stopped my routine yoga practice for about a month.

It resulted in me being lethargic, feeling sleepy all the time, drowsy etc. So, I’ve firmly resolved that I shall practice yoga every single day. I’ve listed out 27 asanas which I plan to do daily. I’m mainly oriented towards postures that help me maintain my chastity, such as Shirsasana (head stand), Vrkshasana (Hand Stand), Brahmacharyasana etc. An hour long yoga session gives me such energy and zeal that I’m unable to describe.

Shirsasana is the king of asanas. It’s a cure for innumerable diseases. It causes the semen to move down into the brain and helps formation of Ojas. It sharpens memory and the intellect. I pray god for keeping in me alive, the motivation and enthusiasm to practice yoga daily.

I’ll post about each posture in the blog entries to come. Stay tuned.

Yes, I’m talking about the 300 – the movie. You are probably wondering what would a brahmachari find interesting in it. Here’s my the observation from the movie.

King Leonidas from the movie was no doubt a very valiant warrior. But what does he do before going to the battle ? He has sex with his wife for no real purpose. And what happened because of that ? He couldn’t aim accurately at Xerxes and he was killed. Had he been continent, he probably would have come home victorious. He got ruined by dissipating his most precious energy.

Did you know that you are going to die ? Even I am going to die. Our dear and beloved ones are all going to die. The sun, earth and all planets are all going to be blown up into pieces. I hear you say, “Dont talk negative!”. If we don’t think about death, is it going to disappear ? One day or the other we have to give up everything. There will come one day when we have to come face to face with death. Merely to stop thinking about it is a solution for babies. It does not go too far. Its not a real solution.

If we know we are going to die, why should we be attached to things which we are anyway going to leave one day or the other ? Most people keep enjoying, having fun all the time, but does death leave them alone ? No! Death spares no one. It is inevitable. I have to leave away everything one day, linux kernel, my computers, my mobile phone, my money, my body!. Ah, imagine this for a moment. I’m not being pessimistic here. Its the truth. It won’t become false by denying it! So,lets get prepared. Shan’t we ? “Why so early!” – I hear you say. Early! ? We are at the edge of a cliff unsure about the future. The space time scale of the universe is so huge, wilder than our wildest imagination. Our life span is so trivial compared to this! We are growing old.. There’s not much time left. We could die any instant.

Everything gets straightened out in the face of death. We will no longer be selfish. We will no longer remain misers. All our fears will vanish! Ah, we’re all going to die, how does it matter! Physics, chemistry, computers, medicine, nothing will help us! No secular science will tell us the truth about death. It is religion alone that will help us. Religion tells us that God is the only object we ought to be attached to. God is the only unchanging aspect in the ocean of death. Only when we shall know God, all misery ceases.

Love towards god is the only way. If we begin loving god, we shall give up everything else. Only god shall be able to save us. Not wealth, not medicine, nothing. Only God is. All else is naught. So, lets sincerely pray our personal god to make us love him. Believe me there is no other way. Stop looking for “permanent” solutions like “My own house”, “A permanent job”, “A fixed deposit”. Its ridiculous!

If everything is going to vanish one day, why should we work is the question. We should work for work’s sake, not with the hope of reward. Work for work’s sake is a way to attain God (karma yoga) as preached in the Gita. as Lord Krishna saya “A man ought to live in this world like a lotus leaf – which stays in water but is not moistened by water. One should give his heart to god and put his hands to work.”. So brothers and sisters, lets not be attached to matter. Lets love god wholeheartdly. Only this is the way.

Om Namo Narayana.

Brahmacharya etymologically means “Moving towards god”. It directly means the control of sexual activity. But it means much more than that. Lets see why we need to practice it.

Animals find pleasure in the senses, Man finds pleasure in the intellect, God finds pleasure in spiritual contemplation. – Swami Vivekananda.

True civilization is a man making civilization. It brings men out of animals. So, first we need to become men. Real men – men, who are not timid slaves to sense pleasures, men who are free, men who are bold and strong. But unfortunately, the ‘real’ men who we see in movies are nothing but coward, weak slaves of sex, alcohol, etc. Those are our heroes! They’d better be heroes among lower animals – for they are not worth anything better. We want heroes like Vivekananda, Shankara or Shivananda.

Who does not want a strong body, sharp intellect and the like ? All men want it. But how many get it ? Only a few men who do not dissipate their energy in fruitless activities, men who are bold enough to resist temptation. Brother, it takes superhuman strength to resist temptation! It takes only a weak and a timid man to fall prey to temptations.

And what will brahmacharya give us ? What not! It is the penance of penances. Who can describe the glory of a perfect brahmachari! His body will glows like the sun! His voice will sound like the ring of a bell. His body will be strong. His presence will energise people around him! Just imagine all this. Don’t we want to be like that ?

Look at Swami Vivekananda who was brahmacharya personified, what a magnificient character! He had a perfect memory. He used to remember every single thing he read or saw once. Now tell me, which is higher ? Being the best of men, by conquering sense pleasures ? or being the lowest animal who cant resist temptation ? Look how a lion gets trapped, when it gets attracted to the lioness placed the cage! Aren’t you still convinced that yielding to sense pleasures is the royal gateway to hell ? Do you still want to pursue that path ?

I want to practice lifelong brahmacharya. They say I can conquer diseases, become a mystic, keep my body for hundreds of years, have adamantine hard body, get metaphysical powers, etc etc. i want to see it its really possible. This is an experiment. I shall see for myself what the great sages of yore have told us.

Follow this blog to follow my journey. I’m determined to post every day my thoughts, actions I take towards brahmacharya, etc. Please do post comments. Come brothers, lets be real men! Lets break the shackles and be free!