Quotes by Swami Krishnananda (a Self-Realized sage; a disciple of Swami Sivananda)

1. Brahmacharya, or continence, the other great rule, is as difficult to understand as satya or ahimsa. In every case of moral judgment, common-sense and a comprehensive outlook are necessary. Many students of yoga think thatbrahmacharya is celibacy or the living of an unmarried life. Though this may be regarded as one definition of it, which has much meaning, yoga morality calls for brahmacharyaof the purest type, which has a deeper significance. Yoga considers brahmacharya from all points of view, and not merely in its sociological implication. It requires a purification of all the senses. Oversleeping and gluttony, for instance, are breaks in brahmacharya. It breaks not merely by a married life, but by overindulgence of any kind, even in an unmarried life, such as overeating, talkativeness and, above all, brooding upon sense-objects. While one conserves energy from one side, it can leak out from another side. Oversleeping is a trick played by the mind when we refuse to give it satisfaction. Overeating and overtalking are, results of a bursting forth of untrained energy. Contemplation on objects of sense can continue even when they are physically far from oneself.
2. Brahmacharya is to conserve force for the purpose of meditation. ‘Do you feel strong by the conservation of energy,’ is the question? Brahmacharya is tested by the strength that one recognizes within. The virtue is not for parading it outside, but for the utilization of the conserved power towards a higher purpose. Unnecessary activity of the senses wastes energy. The Chhandogya Upanishad says that in purity of the intake of things there is purity of being. In the acts of seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling and touching, we have to contact only pure things. Any single sense left uncontrolled may nullify the effects of control over the other senses. As the Mahabharata points out, we become that with which we associate ourselves, which we serve for a long time and which we want or wish to become, by constant thinking. Brahmacharya is therefore an act of all-round self-control. The brahmacharin is always cautious. And no one should have the hardihood to imagine that he is wholly pure and safe.
3. The practice of brahmacharya as a vow of abstinence from all sense-indulgence, particularly in its psychological aspect, and a rigid fixity in personal purity, generates a unison in the vibratory functions of the body, nerves and mind, and the brahmacharin achieves what he may look upon as a marvel even to himself. Brahmacharya is often regarded as the king of principles, which embodies in itself all other virtues or moral values. In its observance, care has, however, to be taken to see that it comprises not merely avoiding of sense-indulgence and mental reverie but also freedom from the complexes that may follow, as well as satisfactions which one may resort to as a consequence of frustration of desire.
4. Conservation of Energy for Brahma-Sakshatkara.
   1. Here is the basic foundation of the great admonition by the Yoga teacher that we have to conserve energy. We generally understand Brahmacharya to be celibacy, a very poor translation of the word, and a misdirected meaning also. By celibacy we mean abstinence from marriage, and we associate or identify celibacy with Brahmacharya or continence in the light of the requirement of Yoga, especially as mentioned by Patanjali. But, nothing of the kind is Brahmacharya. It is not non-marriage, and it is not celibacy in its popular meaning. A person who has not married need not necessarily be a Brahmacharin. And a person who has married need not cease to be that. Because, what we have to be careful in noting in this context is the intention behind this instruction, and not merely the following of it in social parlance. The intention is the conservation of energy, and the directing of the whole of one’s personality towards the great objective of universal consciousness. And the energy of the system is required for any kind of concentration, not merely for God-realization or Brahma-Sakshatkara. We require energy even to solve a mathematical problem. Even to build a bridge across a large river, even to study the minute particles of nature in a physical research laboratory, one requires a tremendous concentration of mind. Even to walk on a wire in a circus requires concentration. So, wherever there is a necessity to hold one’s breath and concentrate one’s attention, as in walking on a very narrow passage, tremendous energy is required, concentration is necessary. A two-feet wide bridge without any protection on either side and spanning a stream flowing in a deep gorge below—we know how we will walk on that bridge, holding our breath and thinking only of that narrow passage and nothing else. Certainly we will not be thinking any other distracting thought in our mind. Like that, the fixing of the mind on the great ideal of Yoga requires a complete surrender of oneself, in every part of one’s being, in the form of concentration. This cannot be done, says Yoga, if we have got other interests.
   2. So, a lack of Brahmacharya means nothing but the presence of interests other than the interest in Yoga. The distracting object may be anything. If we have got a strong interest in something which distracts our attention, the energy goes. Any kind of leakage of energy in any direction, caused by any object or any event or context, is a break in Brahmacharya. A burst of anger is a break in Brahmacharya, though one does not normally think so.No one condemns a man because he is angry. We may even think him to be a wonderful person in spite of his burst of anger, but the truth is that he has failed utterly in his Brahmacharya. He is broken down totally. Because most people are tradition-bound, they go by the beaten track of social tradition and custom, and think that religion is nothing but what society sanctions. But, it is not like that. Religion is not merely the requirement demanded by a Hindu society or a Christian organization. It has nothing to do with these things. What the universe expects us to manifest from our side, in respect of it, is the great religion of mankind, the religion of God or the religion of the universe. Nobody is going to save us, merely because we are religious in the eyes of the people. In that case, we may well go to dogs with all our religion. What will help us, what will guide us, what will take us by the hand and lead us along is the great law which we obey, in the manner in which we are required to obey it, under the circumstances of our relationship with all things in the universe. So, in every way, we have to conserve our energy without any kind of distraction.