Mail Archive
[Prev][Next][Alpha][Date]
Renunciation and Celibacy in Hare Krishna Movement
>I am exploring some Hindu ideas on celibacy. I wonder if there is some
>specific material in your archives on this topic. At present I am
>looking rules of celibacy as they apply in the Vaishnavite Swaminarayan
>movment among the Gujarati Hindus. My own hunch is that these ideas
>generally tend to be similar in most Hindu religious movements. However,
>if you have any comments to offer, I should be most grateful and use
>them with a proper acknowledgement to you.
>
>May I thank you in advance just in case if you have time to send a
>reply. Hare Krishna!
>
>Rohit Dear Rohit
Hello, Hare Krishna!
Yes. Celibacy is VERY helpful in spiritual life. It's even helpful in material
life and these ideas are common to any thoughtful person, not just the Hindu
religions. Srila Prabhupada said Mahatma Gandhi's strength and his success in
getting the British out of India was due to the strength he gained from being
celibant.
Semen is made from blood, lots of blood, so when we lose semen we are loosing
lots of blood, lots of energy. So it is not good. If the semen is retained
within the body it raises to the brain and enhances the finer tissues and
memory ability. A celibant person can work with great determination and without
distractions...
But in this age the mood is very much against celebacy. So to practice it is
generally quite difficult. But it is not so difficult in Krishna consciousness.
Basically this material world is based on sex life. That is the motivation for
99% of all activities we see around us. The economists know that a increasing
sex life increases economic development. So they are all for economic
development. That is the religion of the age... So they are all for increasing
sex... The results are very unfortunate. Everyone is disturbed, everyone is
distracted and it's very hard to find anyone interested in spiritual life...
But this is not human life. The dogs and cats are having sex too. They enjoy it
as well, they feel the same pleasure as the humans do. Human life is not meant
to be simply for fulfilling the basic animal instincts of food, sex, shelter
and defence. We have developed intelligence, we have nice brains, we can use
them to solve the real problems: birth, old age, disease and death. No
materialist wants to get old, to get sick and to die, but they all are forced
to. So human life is meant for finding the answers to these problems, not for
running after sex life like the cats and dogs.
The Vedanta-sutra starts with "Ahato brahma jijnasa", "Human life is meant for
questioning about brahman (spirit)". So that is our business, to question about
the spiritual nature of the self and our relationship with the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, Krishna. So to understand these subtle subject matters
one has to live a regulated life. Not eating too much, not eating too little,
not sleeping too much, not engaging in sex life other than for procreation
within religious marriage...
To todays modern world these things sound very difficult... But if you
experience a higher taste, a spiritual taste, automatically the "pleasures" of
the flesh loose their attraction. One can theoretically understand that illicit
sex is not good, but still it can be very difficult to stop it...
"Arjuna said: O descendant of Vrsni, by what is one impelled to sinful acts,
even unwillingly, as if engaged by force.
"The Blessed Lord said: It is lust only, Arjuna, whih is born of contact of the
material modes of passion and later transformed into wrath, and which is the
all-devouring, sinful enemy of this world.
"As fire is covered by smoke, as a mirror is covered by dust, or as an embryo
is covered by the womb, similarly, the living entity is covered by different
degrees of this lust.
"Thus a man's pure consciousness is covered by his eternal enemy in the form of
lust, which is never satisfied and which burns like fire.
"The senses, the mind and the intelligence are the sitting places of this lust,
which veils the real knowledge of the living entity and bewilders him
"Therefore, O Arjuna, best of the Bharatas, in the very beginning curb this
great symbol of sin [lust] by regulating the senses, and slay this destroyer of
knowledge and self-realization..." (Bhagavad-gita 3.36-41)
These things are covered in great detail in Srila Prabhupada's purports to
"Bhagavad-gita As It Is". I would suggest you study it carefully. It is a truly
amazing book. Every time you read it it is fresh and there are unlimited new
realizations... Srila Prabhupada has written so many books and reading them is
one sure way of conquering the enemy, lust...
There are so many other things. If you have any specific questions please write
and I will attempt to answer. Thanks for the letter. Chant Hare Krishna and be
happy.
Madhudvisa dasa
Alphabetical Index |
Date Index
[Home]
[Index]
[Articles]
[Prabhupada]
[Krishna]
[Archive]
[Links]
[Feedback]
madhudvisa@krishna.org
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy! All glories to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada!