Physical Celibacy
Question
Hello there,
I just wanted to ask, does physical celibacy increase physical athleticism?
Answer
Hello Williams,
Mere physical celibacy (Abstaining from sex or masturbation) has little benefits in the long run, though in the short run it does improve one's physical health to a certain extent. For celibacy to bear fruits, it must be converted into 'Brahmacharya' or spiritually based sexual continence. In other words, one must not suppress one's sexual urges but must annihilate these sexual urges themselves by rooting them out from their source (ignorance).
The words 'celibacy' and 'Brahmacharya' are very different in meaning and have little in common. A celibate is one who merely refrains from physical sex; but whose mind might be constantly pondering on the sex plane. Such a person cannot grow spiritually and become free from wet dreams or masturbation. 'Celibacy' is merely physical not spiritual.
'Brahmacharya' refers to freedom from and abandonment of all forms of sexual enjoyment in thought, word and deed at all places and times with constant devotion and surrender to God. A Brahmachari strives to revert to the default nature of his pure soul which is free from the concept of sex, desire and craving for sense pleasures. Through his constant striving he overcomes the acquired sexual conditioning the mind has grown accustomed to from his past actions and gradually reverts to the sex-free nature of the soul.
If a man or woman were to merely suppress their sexual urges physically whilst the mind constantly pondered on them, it would result in the advent of ill health and disease both at the physical and mental levels. Brahmacharya refers to a mode of life that aims at preventing the very birth of these sexual urges at the mental level and not at their suppression. Thus one gradually succeeds in reverting the mind to the pure, sex-free nature of the soul.
God bless and have a nice day :-)
Dhananjay