“A Brahmachari (celibate-student) should have total sense-control. Before and after studies he should offer obeisance to his teacher’s feet. He should never earn his teacher’s curse. In this aspect extreme caution is to be exercised. Following the scriptural dictates, he should wear deerskin clothing, sacred thread, matted locks, hold a water pot (kamandala) and stick (danda). In his hand, he should hold the kuśa grass. These are rules for those who strictly abide by the scriptural procedures. Both morning and evening he should beg for alms and offer the food to his teacher (Guru)”.

**Swamiji explains: **Even when food is cooked at home for Guru, the student should say beg by saying ‘bhavati bhikshām dehi’. Simply serving food without this prayer is incorrect. Even when fetching food cooked by others for his teacher he should in principle follow this practice. The mind should be filled with such devotional feelings when fetching food for the teacher.

“Only with the permission of his Guru, he should eat. In other words, he should consume food only after his Guru has finished eating and after obtaining permission from him. On days when he commits mistakes and when the teacher does not permit him to eat, he should fast”.

Swamiji explains: On days when his actions bring displeasure to Guru, when he has lied or cheated his Guru he should fast. Even for small lies or for hurting the feelings of his Guru he should willingly fast. He should take self-punishment.

“The student should be of exemplary character. Food should always be in moderate quantities”.

Swamiji explains: A Brahmachari has no permission to eat as he pleases. Stealthily eating ice-creams, fried snacks, samosa are totally forbidden. Is it right to eat irrelevantly in this fashion? In many homes snacking through the day is a routine. Sitting idly in sofas they munch snacks all day long so much so that one fine morning they no longer fit into the sofa. They develop arthritis, knee problems, joint pains and will suffer due to obesity. When asked, they deny overeating. They say, “We eat snack occasionally.” The problem lies not in the quantity but in the frequency of the snacking. They would be eating throughout the day. Even when such patients are advised light, simple food they continue to chase the snacks.

“The Brahmachari should associate with women, and with those men who are infatuated by women only as much as is absolutely necessary. A person who is under the sway of a woman is an animal. He should maintain distance from women or any matters pertaining to women”.

He should not joke with women or about women. He should not even listen to such jokes. He should not watch movies in which women are portrayed derogatorily. He should not read books or novels that depict women in bad taste. Else, unable to control his sexual appetite he will fall to degradable levels. Thoughts about women should not arise in the mind. ‘I do not know why my mind has become like this’. The answer is, ‘You are responsible for it. You have spoilt it.’

“This is because the might of the senses is unimaginable. They have the capacity to overpower even the minds of great saints who have renounced the world. Each sense organ has in it the ability to completely destroy the person”.

Control your senses. Use your might to bring it back. If you wilfully control your sense organ for a few years you will become a true yogi.

“A Brahmachari should not allow his Guru’s wife, sisters or other women-folk to oil his hair, massage his body or bathe him”.

Only when these disciplines are strictly followed, it can be said that he has dutifully completed his Brahmachari disciplines.

“If woman is a fire, man is a ghee-pot. What happens when ghee is poured on fire? It burns fiercely. Since this is an undeniable truth a person has no right to spend time in solitude even with his daughter. Even in public gatherings, a Brahmachari should speak to girls only as much as is absolutely necessary. Beyond that he should not converse.

The human being should try to realize his true form and through this understand that this entire visible world including his body is purely illusory and that none of them have any real existence. Until and unless this ultimate truth is realized, the differences of man and woman continue to exist in him. It is only due to such differentiation that he feels drawn towards a woman!”

For this reason, the above-mentioned disciplines should mandatorily be followed! A lady may also decide to remain a celibate. Hence it is wrong to state that these stringent disciplines are applicable only to men. Unnecessarily talking to boys, maintaining friendship with boys, giggling and laughing with them without any reason are absolutely wrong. ‘I am only his sister. I am unaffected by him’- such claims are baseless. Ultimately the sense-organs drag and throw the person into a deep pit.

These rules pertaining to protecting one’s character is applicable to people of all stages of life and also to women. The householder who leads a household life together with his wife should lead life in accordance to dictates of the spiritual Guru. Both husband and wife should be engaged in Guru seva. Only then they obtain the resultant punya.

“Any person who takes the vow of celibacy (Brahmacarya vrata) should refrain from applying kajal to the eyes, taking oil bath, massaging the body with hands, seeing pictures of women, eating meat, drinking wine or liquor, wearing flower garlands, applying perfumes or decorating the body.

The Brahmachari (celibate) who has undergone the sacred thread ceremony (upanayana) should follow these disciplines while living in the Guru’s home for studies. To the best of his abilities he should master the 3 Vedas and Upanishads together with all their limbs. He should study even the meaning contained in the Vedas.

He should be vigilant at all times. He should spend all his free time contemplating about the meaning contained in Vedanta and Bhagawatam. He should hold on to the path of devotion. After completing education, he should give remuneration (Guru dakshina) or any gift as desired by his Guru and then, with the permission of his Guru, he should step into householder’s way of life (grihasta ashrama). If Guru does not permit then he cannot enter into married life. Or he can go to forests for meditation. Or he can renounce the world (sanyasi)”.

Govindaya namah