I have covered 2 aspects of Yama in my earlier posts - Satya or truthfulness and Ahimsa or Non violence. Today, I take up another aspect of Yama - Brahmacharya.
To a typical Hindu, the word Brahmacharya conjures different images. For the traditional Hindu, Brahmachari means a young male who has got his initiation to the holy world through a ceremony called Yajnopaveetham and is now ready to receive the Vedic knowledge. Another common daily meaning of Brahmachari is a male who is celibate. More often that not, Brahmacharya is associated with celibacy. A celibate is supposed to stay clear of any passionate physical activities. This is not true of the Hindu world alone. Celibacy is valued as a virtue in many other religions. But have we not seen the impact of forced celibacy? There are enough reports about child abuse and many other worse acts done by those claiming to be celibate. So, how can Brahmacharya be one of the Yamas of Astanga Yoga? To a skeptic of Indian spiritual thought, this is sufficient to proclaim the hollowness of the philosophy.
Let us try and understand the meaning of the term in the context of the Astanga Sadhana. Brahmacharya (/ˌbrɑːməˈtʃɑːrjə/; Devanagari: ब्रह्मचर्य) literally means "going after Brahman (teacher, guru [1])". So, anyone pursuing the goal of going after Brahman is a Brahmachari. This is irrespective of whether the person is man or woman, is celibate or not etc. We will see soon, how the pursuit of Brahman leads not just to celibacy, but much more.
Let us use our 3 fundamental principles:
a. Brahman is the ultimate Reality or Truth or God.
b. There is nothing other than Brahman.
c. Since the only reality is Brahman, we are nothing but Brahman. But because of Maya, we assume we are the puny individual.
The only purpose of human life is the pursuit of Brahman and realizing the Truth and becoming the Truth. Now, how does the pursuit of Brahman square up with concept of celibacy? Let me tell a story and then we will proceed.
A thief was caught and brought before the king. The king told the thief he will give a challenge to the thief. If he passes the challenge he would be free to go. Else, he would be punished. At night he was taken to a dark room and at the far end of the long room was a small light and there was a narrow wooden plank across the room. The thief was given a small candle. The challenge was that the thief had to walk across the plank ensuring the candle would not be blown off and if he reached the far end, he would be free. The thief totally focused on the candle and carefully minding his step so that he would not fall off, started walking. As the wind blew, his only focus was to ensure that the candle would not be blown. He moved slowly step by step and finally came to the other end. The king received him and took him back to the room which was still slightly dark and asked the thief to observe what was around . The room was full of gold and diamonds. In pursuing the goal of freedom, the thief had simply not even observed the things that he craved so much for.
It goes to show that when focus is on a particular thing that is important in our life, the less important things are not even missed or observed. There is no need for a affirmative action to be taken to not be attracted by other things. If I am a serious student preparing for my exams, i will not be bothered by a movie of my favorite star. If I am a tennis player training for the Wimbedon, I will not even be tempted by that delicious calories filled sweet.
In exactly the same way, once we realize the futility of the glossy world and are trying to find a higher meaning, for some of us, the higher concept of Brahman surely appeals and if we are serious in that pursuit, we become Brahmacharis and as a matter of habit, we are not distracted by the flashy illusion based objects of the world. It is this concept of Brahmacharya that is part of the Yamas of Astangayoga sadhana.
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