Jagad Guru Chris Butler - Siddhaswarupananda - Practical Wisdom

Should we picture the very sad and deplorable mental and physical condition of the younger generation - the boys of schools and colleges? Ye guardians, parents and well-wishers of boys, how long will you wink at the stealthy undermining of the vitality of your dear ones and be cruel to them? While claiming a right over their mind and body for one's own enjoyment, is it not fair that one should look after their proper and natural development ? There is in every soul a strong ardour of religious zeal, which, though pent up, will gush and struggle out like rain from the throat of the over-flowing spout. How will the plants grow if the preserving fences devour them? Can anybody deny that the generation is going day by day to be mental and thus physical slaves to their senses? Mere artificial restraint and austerity on the body and the mind, a mechanical regulation of diet and living in a solitary place do not constitute Brahmacharya, for they change their sky not their mind, who scour across the sea. Then the animals in the 'zoo' would have been the best Brahmacharins. Brahmacharya is the powerhouse whence currents of Atma-jnana (knowledge of one's own self) are generated which illuminates his blinded self, withholds all his evil propensities and set the whole machinery in motion, so that this frail and rare but accidentally-got raft may get across the sea and anchor in the bay for eternity after carrying its passenger to his own home. As a barren cow looks exactly like a milch cow, but fails in giving milk to the keeper in return for his most attentive and faithful services which beget only further labour, so the so-called Brahmacharya, or a knowledge of the scriptures will, in no way, inspire Atma- jnana or real Brahmacharya in jivas. By means and ways a non-brahmacharin can never be a Brahmacharin. In essence, the mind and the soul (the jiva) are diametrically opposite - the former being restless, impetuous, changeable and ever busy in enjoying matter, while the latter is eternal, unchangeable, stable and incapable of enjoying matter. So real Brahmacharya rests in the soul, not in the mind.