Fear

Hello John,

Good to hear from you. To begin with, I will request you to put fears and worries aside and compose yourself with positivity. There is no problem or obstacle on earth capable of overpowering a man who puts in constant, sincere and focussed efforts accompanied by devotion to god to reach his goal. Just as a dark, cold night gets replaced by a bright, sunny morning, life's dark moments will eventually get replaced with positive, happy times. So offer not a seat to faith in the negative. Now lets get to your queries,

Q: Is there a relationship between the domain of negative emotions and abstinence?
A: Let us get to the root of things and try to sort them out efficiently. First and foremost every man is blessed with enormous energy from within by default. This is represented by his 'Prana' or vital energy. Through his thoughts and actions man converts this basic, vital energy into various other forms of currents.
* If he constantly ponders over objects related to sexuality he converts this basic energy into sexual energy, sexual duress and sexual passion.
* If he lets people and situations around him to cause infuriation and gets enraged, he converts this basic energy into anger, hatred and frustration.
* If he starts practicing for the Olympics with persevered, dedicated efforts at his training and practice to the point of excellence at the highest level, he wins a gold medal for his country...

A normal man leading a non-celibate life, has say 'X' units of this basic energy.

A man that has started to transmute his vital essence into constructive force has say '1.5X' units of basic energy.

A celibate who is reasonably established in Brahmacharya has say '2X'  units of basic energy.

An ardent celibate who is well established in the conversion of his vital essence into 'Ojas' or divine energy has say '3X' or three times the ability and power of a common man to succeed in a given task.

A complete Urdhvareta who is beyond the vagaries of human nature, self-realized, content in the self by the self and resting in the supreme bastion of divine bliss has virtually infinite units of this basic energy. He can direct this great force on the object he wishes and achieve his ideal with seamless success. He can solve the most impossible of problems easily and casts tremendous influence on the world by virtue of the large reserves of universal force that reside within him.

This final state mentioned above is the state every celibate will eventually reach if his efforts at Brahmacharya in thought, word and deed are honest, true and persistent.

Coming back to the question on hand, a celibate who has had some success in the process of transmutation stands at an energy level much higher to that of the common, non-celibate man. If he becomes a victim of negative vibrations by letting them fire up within him for whatever external reasons, he also succeeds in letting his '2X' units of energy get converted to '2X' units of lust, anger or passion. The power he has started to derive from celibacy is similar to sitting behind the wheel of a high powered race car. If the driver gets careless and crashes the car at speed, the resulting destruction is much more in magnitude than that of an ordinary commuter car. As a celibate progresses in the transmutation of his vital power, he needs to be all the more cautious in not only staying away from  objects of lust but also objects that could generate anger, passion, hatred, fear, worry or other negative emotions, for the birth of any one of these causes dissipation of the vital essence he has saved and nurtured with so much difficulty down the drain.

When you let the occurings at your workplace envelope you with negativity and cause duress, the vital energy within that you had conserved with great difficulty and effort got converted into unproductive anger and fear and with the birth of one negative emotion, eventually come along the sister negative emotions. They are never far behind. They are all like close knit members of the same family. The presence of one fuels the others. It is for this reason that a celibate should be ever vigilant not only against lust alone but also against anger, jealousy, hatred and frustration. It is very important for a celibate not to court them, lest they deprive him of the great energy he is damming up in his quest to achieve a great objective which they will always eventually do.

When a wise man is carrying a precious large carat diamond in his pocket on the street, he is ever cautious against getting into meaningless squabbles with riffraff at the street corners. He knows the value of what he has and just wants to do one thing - Put the diamond into a safe place where he can cherish if for the rest of his life.

While it remains a fact that all of us get overpowered by these negative emotions at some time or the other, the smart man wishing to do good to himself, tempers these negative currents with positivity, counts to ten and calms himself down, for he knows that letting these emotions rake up their heads is a recipe to disaster and that converting these very same emotions back into vital power is the sure shot road to spectacular success. In case of the celibate, this works all the better, for he has the best of energy at his disposal to be harnessed into success.

The road to absolute celibacy is one stricken with downfalls, obstacles and tests, for the destination is one which is extremely lofty, splendid and beautiful. But it is a destination reserved for the indefatigable man who knows not to give in or give up. To achieve something great calls for great sacrifice, hard work, patience and perseverance. But the results will be more than worth the effort. The secret of success is to convert these weaknesses into strengths by not letting them rake up their heads at times when they show signs of surfacing. Life is a journey that always has its share of failures and pitfalls but one need not loose hope or get scared even a little bit, for success always comes to to the persevering, proficient few who are bold and daring and seldom to the mild and timid.

When we analyze the cause of our failures, we ultimately come to only one source - 'Us'. Our success or failure stems from what is within us. It is wholly internal. We need not waste our time searching outside for who caused us to fail. We ourselves offered a seat to external factors to come and spoil our well being and they did the only thing they are meant to do - Cause trouble. Just as a seed sown takes time to germinate into a plant and takes many more years to become a full grown tree that offers shade, fruit and flowers, the seed of celibacy takes its own time to bestow the great benefits it will eventually give as a tree. But till the time it becomes a tree, one needs to fence it against dangers, water it and guard it day and night, lest it be eaten by a grazing animal or trampled under ignorant hooves.

Fear not and worry not. There is not one person who hasn't had failures at the start of celibacy and depending on the evolutionary level from person to person, each takes his own time to get established into absolute chastity, and even then one has to be ever alert in guarding this plant. But with honest efforts, sincerity and prayer to god, success will undoubtedly come and as it starts to come, it will more than compensate for all the trouble and effort one has taken. Stick to the basic rules and foundations of practicing celibacy in thought, word and deed with adequate physical, mental and spiritual activity to ensure transmutation, firm on the assumption that it is the boat that takes man across troubled waters and safely makes him reach the shore of success, bliss and happiness. Some of the greatest achievers in history were the ones who tasted bitter failure step after step, but today we remember them not for their failures but only for their achievements!

This should help. Revert for clarifications if any.

May god bless you with success in celibacy and reward you with the fruition of all your goals and aspirations.

Dhananjay :-)