fear and loneliness

Hello Bruce,

How are things your side?

Brahmacharya is essentially man's journey back to the domain of the glory and splendor of the soul. It is the soul in all of us that forms the source of all greatness, power, strength, will and achievement. The soul is beyond intelligence, the mind, the sense organs and the body.

However the soul or 'Atman' is eclipsed by various layers of ignorance and delusion (This prevents its great power and light to fully shine through). This degree of veiling differs from person to person and is the exact factor that determines what we call the evolutionary level of a living being. In an animal like say an insect or a worm who also have souls within, this ignorance is so thick and tough that the animal is beyond comprehending emotions which humans relate to. At this stage in the evolution of a worm or an insect, the comprehension that the body is everything and the fight to survival and life by gathering food and protecting itself is paramount. The veil is so strong that intelligence in the brain of an insect is minuscule and negligibly fractional.

Then again when we go to a comparatively higher being like say a dog, the 'veil' has slightly unwound itself and is present to a lesser degree as compared to the worm further to evolution. So you see the dog relate to man, display emotions such as affection and respond to man's communication. The intelligence factor is now automatically at a higher level in the dog (As the soul now has a few lesser layers blocking its power and light) so you have an animal that can be made to fetch a ball, guard the house and respond to basic instructions. But the veil around its soul is still dense enough to prevent the animal from understanding how a television set works, how an engine fires to life or how the internet works. These things the dog cannot be made to understand.

Next we come to the final stage in evolution -'Man'. A cave man or a jungle man is not much different from other animals that reside in a forest except that his spine has become erect (Which automatically aids the rise of consciousness or 'Kundalini' to some extent) thereby giving him a better comprehension of things around him and the ability to interact with nature at a much more refined level to his advantage.

The 'Atman' or soul we have been referring to in all the above beings is untouched by the veils of ignorance around it and has always had the same splendor, power and knowledge. It might be compared to a 1000 Watt bulb ever emanating light. If the bulb were to be covered with thick blankets, no light would shine through in spite of the bulb burning with all power. The covering of blankets however doesn't reduce the luminance or brightness of the bulb in actual terms. It only prevents us from seeing the light coming through. Now if we unwound a few blankets and there were say just two blankets around the bulb, a part of the light would seep through the fibers of these blankets and we would know that there was a bulb within that was ON. We however still cant fathom its full brightness and power. If one of these two blankets were to be further removed and only a thin blanket were to remain, we would now start seeing the outline of the bulb, the sharp rays poking through gaps in the thin covering and realize the fact that the bulb is in fact quite bright and powerful. We still don't know the actual power of its wattage and luminance... And if we really want to know this parameter, there is only one way and that is to remove the final blanket around the bulb and see the bulb in all its splendor shining like a bright star!

This is precisely what the celibate tries to accomplish through Brahmacharya. Indulging in sense pleasure can be compared to adding more blankets around the bulb thereby going further away from its brightness. Indulging in true celibacy helps man to unwind all these blankets (Ignorance) around the soul and thereby let the shine, absolute splendor and might of the soul to illuminate everything around.

And when man achieves this great feet, his greatness, power, ability and intrinsic beauty would go to unheard of heights be it in the materialistic or spiritual plane. All lofty qualities that the soul is in charge of such as bravery, valor, might, strength, intelligence, knowledge, compassion and innumerable lofty qualities would reside at man's command, for they are after all products of the soul. Man would become the star of stars and shine with incomprehensible brilliance. He would then realize that this 'Atman' or soul is in reality a derivative of the universal power whom we call 'The blessed lord', the father of creation and the only permanent entity, just as the billion rays of the sun are all really a part of the sun reaching us. The sun may be compared to the 'Paramatman' or the great lord and his billion rays could be compared to the billions of living souls in fleshy sheaths on mother earth. So here we are... having come from him, the blessed lord and having being blessed with all the qualities he himself stands for !!!

So all of us need to keep in mind the fact that we are all derivatives of the supreme entity and have within us the loftiest of qualities. As this awareness starts to increase, negative emotions would vacate man all by themselves finding not a place to stay within him.

Dhananjay :-)