Yama Brahmacharya

Yama Brahmacarya.  The term is derived from Brhama and Carati.  Brahma means to enlarge.  So Brahma is one who is great (i.e., the Collective Consciousness of the whole universe).  Brahma also has the qualityof making others great.  By constant thinking about Brhama the yogi or yoginii's mind expands until merger into the Cosmic Consciousness.  The root verb Car means to move while eating one's A'bhoga.  A'bhoga loosely translates as food but it mean that sustenance require to maintain our vitality (Ananandamurti uses the English word pabulum instead of food).  For example, carati is used to describe a cow grazing while walking.  Hence, Brahmacarya is to move through your day thinking of Brhama (here Brahma is food for the mind).  

 

Since thinking of Brahma expands the mind, the practice of Brahmacarya converts your "external" life into a meditation, no matter how mundane the task at hand or how much you like or dislike the what you are doing.  The upward and downward pointed triangles of the six-pointed star in our pratik become two aspects of the same meditation.  It is a beautiful image if you can practice it even for a short stretches.   It can be especially helpful in dealing with troublesome people or events that make you anxious.  It some ways it is both the simplest and hardest of all practices.  

 

If you are around yoga studios you will undoubtably run across Brahmacarya translated as sexual restraint.  This is the Westernized version of the Hindu dogma equating Brahmacarya with celibacy, actually with preservation of semen.  That is, only supposedly celibate monks were entitled to enlightenment.  This was done to inject a feeling of inferiority into the minds of family people.  Brahmin families responded by making Brahamcarii as a stage of life.  On key difference of Ananda Marga from many other traditional paths is defining  Brahmacarya as moving while thinking for Brahma and declaring that family men and women are as entitled to enlightenment as yogic monks and nuns.  It is two different paths to perform different functions in society.  Both are necessary and worthy of respect.  Furthermore, sexual relations are a natural part of marriage and not to be despised.  However, it is advisable for family people to exercise some restraint over sexuality on the basis of energetics.  So the Western guidance of sexual restrain has value, but it doesn't correspond to the root meaning of Brahamacarya.  

 

May you all experience moving with Brahma in the coming weeks.

 

Peace and Light to all,