Effects of brahamcharya

Hello Sandeep,

Hope you are keeping well. This is an interesting question that you have posed which would serve to clear the doubts of many people out there as regards to the need for Brahmacharya. Coming to the queries,

Q1: "Even after such a long period of purity and celibacy I notice no significant and positive change mentally or physically in myself"
 A: What do you think would be your physical, mental, emotional and karmic state if your last 10 years of life had been high on masturbation? On what basis can it be said that there have been no benefits? A strong & healthy man may say in a discontented tone - "There is nothing special about my health and well being". Ask a diseased, ill and debilitated man the meaning of health and he will say - " I'm prepared to give all my wealth, fortune and property if someone could fill this degenerated body of mine with health, robustness and well being. Oh! How I wish I could be happy and unmindful of my body like that child playing with abandon and cheer".

We often fail to recognize and acknowledge what we possess and do so only after we have lost it. A life devoid of evil habits such as masturbation goes a long way in establishing physical, mental and spiritual well being. Had you spent the last decade of your life high on this activity, the negative effects would have been very clear and transparent for you to see. Isn't it your good luck and God's grace that you didn't try out the nasty experiment?

Q2: " I sometimes just wonder, what is this big fuss about celibacy? The so called un-celibates too are doing fairly good (actually sometimes far better even) in this world."
A: It is a well known fact that alcoholism and tobacco consumption are bad for health. Does this mean that all people who smoke or drink become weak, degenerated and debilitated a few weeks or months down the line? No. Are the effects of tobacco and alcohol consumption seen vividly in all people soon after they start consumption? No. Some may get weaker in a few months, some in a few years, some others may develop lung or liver problems after a few decades while others may not show any negative symptoms at all for half their life only to be diagnoised with mouth and lung cancer due to excessive smoking or a damaged liver/kidney due to alcoholism in the evening years of their life...

The Practice of Brahmacharya and its effects run on a parallel note. The purpose of the sexual act is procreation and not recreation. If man were to limit his sexual activity at fathering children and conserve/transmute the reserve reproductive fluid through sublimation, it would target at building the finest bone, muscle, nerves and brain leading to a laudable intellect, memory, discriminative ability and overall well being.

If sexual activity on the other hand is used for recreation/entertainment the downside outweighs the pleasure by an incomparable margin. The sexual act shatters the entire nervous system. Since it creates great excitement, great agitation and such an intensity of feeling that as an aftermath it leaves the person exhausted and depleted. 'Dopamine' which is secreted during an orgasm and which is chiefly responsible for the 'high' that a person experiences during climax recedes soon after the act is complete. If man has to experience this 'high' again, he has to repeat the sexual act. Constant indulgence in the sexual act for enjoying orgasmic pleasure thus causes enormous loss of Prâna (vital life energy) leading to debility and disease over a period of time. In course of time, man gets addicted to the pleasure derived from orgasm but will soon find himself in a state where he can no longer perform sexual activity as he did before due to the enormous loss of vital energy which the body cannot regenerate through food.

Havelock Ellis, in his "Studies in the Psychology of Sex", quotes the observations of Dr.F.B.Robinson on this subject, as recorded in the New York State Medical Journal. He notes that when a stallion cohabits with a mare for the first time, after a short, vigorous coition, he is apt to fall down in a dead faint, which Robinson traces to brain anemia thus produced. He  mentions one case of a mare falling dead immediately after. Young bulls frequently faint away after the first connection with a cow, and it is very common to observe a young bull so exhausted further to seminal loss that he sneaks off to a quiet corner and lies down for a couple of hours.

Dr.Melville Keith, M.D, The following is quoted from his work, "The Marriage Law":

" We tell you that at every emission of semen you are losing the food and the best portion of the (blood) corpuscles, inasmuch as every particle of semen which is ejected will be replaced by more taken from the blood. This is enough to convince you that when you are ejecting the semen which should stay in the body and become reabsorbed so as to go and form the oil for the joints, new muscles, the brain material, as well as every other part of the body, you are really destroying or throwing away your life. "`You eject the substance of the synovial fluid. You send forth, to gratify a moment's passion, the very material of which the brain is made. This is a fact which you will acknowledge when you consider that all this semen is the material of which all these substances are made and supplied, and when the semen is ejected you have selected the best part of the body to go out and become to you a useless inert mass, which can never be restored to you under any circumstances. It is lost and gone.

Then, the semen being out of the body, the sexual penalty comes apace. The penalty for this loss of semen is so far reaching and so concealed from the body of people of the present day that we
do not know the exact spot to look for it.

But we tell you, when you see paralysis, palsy,apoplexy, rheumatism, brain softening, bent shoulders and haggard face; when you observe a young old man and the dried up young lady, in all of these cases, and in dozens of others, you may set it down that there have been sexual losses and a waste of the bodily substance from the sexual orgasm.

"`You will see this penalty all around you, and there is no place where you may go but you will see the fruits of this sexual indulgence to excess. The penalty may be denied, and all these diseases may be attributed to every other cause under the sun, but you will be right in laying it at the proper place and that is to the sexual drain which has sapped the blood corpuscles of the victim before you. We assure you nothing can be so very enervating as this sexual excess, and any sexual mating is an excess, providing it is not for the purpose of having children. "`The penalty for the disobedience of this law is in the shortened lives and the increased amount of disease which are everywhere around us." The resemblance of the sexual orgasm to the epileptic attack has been noted by many authors.

The sudden withdrawal of calcium produced by the seminal discharge biochemically produces the tetany-like symptoms of the orgasm, which are so similar to those of the epileptic attack which usually follows it in those who are constitutionally predisposed. According to Acton, the sexual
orgasm resembles the epileptic attack both in its phenomena and its effects. The mental hebetude and physical prostration following the discharge of nerve force characteristic of an epileptic attack also follow the sexual orgasm. The latter profoundly affects the whole nervous system with such intensity that Acton says that "It is only mature individuals who can bear infrequent acts of copulation without more or less injury for procreation. In young persons all the vital powers should be conserved for growth and development." -- End of quote.

The above article throws light on medical opinion. Brahmacharya at the start is like a little plant sapling that needs to be tended, nurtured and attended to with great care and devotion till it grows into a large, mature tree. Only after it has reached this state can the cool shade, fresh air, rain and fruits that a tree contributes to the environment manifest. As a little plant sapling, there is little benefit or profit but the same sapling becomes a priceless tree when nurtured patiently.

The effects of abstaining from a life of masturbation would already be manifest in a person without his knowledge. It is again not very rational to compare ourselves with others and say - " He does not practice Brahmacharya but he is more capable and efficient than me". Each person has his strengths and limitations. It wouldn't make much sense if a horse compared itself to the elephant and said - " The elephant is stronger and more powerful than me"; nor can the elephant say - "The horse is faster and more agile than me". Each animal is a manifestation of power and energy but in different fronts.

Similarly, one's success in education or carreer in comparison with another make little sense. For every poor man, there are millions poorer and for every rich man there are many more who are richer. Our rate of success or failure at a given task is the net sum of innumerable factors. Lack of sufficiency of even a single factor sometimes leads to failure while a single brilliant idea sometimes leads to stupendous success in spite of limitations. What one should remember is that a life of Brahmacharya will improve and better a person's life in all fronts if carried out rightly and honestly. If there is a sensuous man wasting his vital fluid and yet strong, capable and intelligent the practice of Brahmacharya will make him even more stronger, more capable and much much more intelligent!

It is good to know that you lead a lifestyle devoid of masturbation and high on purity. Stick to your life of clean habits and focus on leading a life of Brahmacharya in thought, word and deed with adequate physical, intellectual and spiritual activity in the form of God-meditation. This is very important. Mere celibacy or abstinence is different from Brahmacharya. Sexual abstinence is only one part of Brahmacharya and not Brahmacharya itself. The sexual abstinence followed by a Brahmachari is more a by-product of Brahmacharya. A mere celibate is one who desists from sexual intercourse and nothing more. His mind may wander and harp on sensual desires and thoughts. This does not amount to Brahmacharya. A Brahmachari is a person who gives up all forms of sexual enjoyment in thought, word and deed with an aim of winning freedom from and raising above what is termed as the 'sex need' and succeeds in realizing his own self (Âtman or the soul) thus completing the very purpose of human existence. The particular way of life that is required to accomplish the above mentioned objective is called as 'Brahmacharya'.

There might not be much apparent difference between a beginner Brahmachari and a man not leading a life of Brahmacharya at the start. But over the years and decades, the changes at the physical, mental and karmic levels become exceedingly apparent bestowing him with the ability to excel in his respective field and so much to the point that the Brahmachari delves deeper into the real knowledge of his own self, God and creation resulting in evolution of the highest degree; the very purpose of the human life.

Remember the words - " The Brahmachari raises above and eventually becomes free of the sex need itself by establishing himself in the Âtmic or soul state". This is not a task small and sundry. It involves undoing and resetting the very fabric of acquired human nature that has ingrained itself into man through millions of past births in the animal form.  It takes much time, efforts and devotion towards this mode of life along with the grace of God for one to reach this state. Till then, one has to guard, water and tend to the sapling and ensure that it grows into a full sized tree.

  ॐ तत् सत्
(That Supreme being is the absolute truth)