Darshan of Swami Krishnananda in 1998

by Swami Krishnananda

19. Brahmacharya

(Darshan given on May 11th, 1998)

Swamiji: Anything that depends upon the validity of perception of the external world will not take you to eternal life. It is a very serious matter. But everything that you do – study, tapasya, activity, dana, charity – everything is depending upon our acceptance of the reality of an external world which we perceive through the sense organs. If that world is not there, then the whole thing will be defeated.

Just think for a moment: The world is not external to you. It cannot be external because the externality is a false projection created by the outgoing sense organs. The very simple thing is, we are not outside the world, and therefore, who are you to perceive the world like this?

An ashramite: Yes, Swamiji. But the scriptures say Brahman created the senses with outgoing tendencies. Why should He do this?

Swamiji: Finally nothing will work.

Ashramite: But why should He do that, Swamiji?

Swamiji: Every passage says something. Finally it is some terrible truth, which you cannot stomach.

Brahmacharya, he was bringing a book about it. I said what is brahmacharya? Do you know? Brahman is the Absolute. Charya is the conduct. The conduct of the behaviour of Brahman is called brahmacharya. If you can behave like Brahman you are a brahmachari.

Ashramite: But Brahman created the senses with outgoing tendencies, Swamiji.

Swamiji: Your mind should think of that comprehensive force. Then power, terrible power, you will get. And it does not take time to achieve it. It is the simplest thing that one can understand.

Ashramite: I have at least finally, Swamiji, nothing but grace. That is my conclusion, Swamiji. I depend only on that.

Swamiji: That is true. The capacity even to understand this truth is a grace only; otherwise, you will struggle, struggle, struggle, and nothing will come. The mind will refuse to accept this statement. It is like a wife telling the husband, “You keep quiet. I don't want to hear anything from you.” So the feelings are telling the intellect, “You keep quiet. Don't give any sermon to me.” The feelings revolt. The feelings are the generators of energy for the sense organs, which always convey wrong information. It cuts off the world from you. The world is cut off from you, and you are cut off from the world, whereas creation is one whole completeness in which there is no perceiver of the world. This is Brahman thinking. There is no perceiver of the world because the perceiver is part of the world only, so what is he perceiving? Then the senses immediately get absorbed. You need not struggle to control the senses. Have a conviction that there is no such thing as seeing the world, perceiving the world, because you are inseparable from the world itself. You just open the eyes and think: What is the situation? The senses will stop immediately. They have no function to perform because the outside things do not exist. They don't exist because you are inside them. So what is the problem?

But the old habit is inveterate prejudice, and impossible to describe. A human being is a human being. He cannot become a God. Therefore, that nature which is human presses, presses, and pulls you down. Every day you must think, think, think, think, think: If the world is not outside me and I am not outside the world, where am I just now? A shocking result comes. You are in the place where the world is. Immediately there will be a change in the body. The vibrations will change. If you are honest in thinking like this, not as an experiment, the world will melt inside you, and you will melt and go. You immediately become a cosmic thinker. That is brahmacharya. That's why ancient brahmacharis have such power. If they say anything, finished. Om tat sat. Brahmacharya shakti – terrible shakti, a brahmachari's. You should not hurt him or insult him. He will say something, and then it will happen. Like that, Parikshit was cursed by a boy. One boy had such a power. Brahmacharya is a highly respectable spiritual force. The world is thinking, because the person who says 'I' has gone into it. So you should not say 'I', and all that. It is the world that is saying 'I'. How will you think like that? The whole thing will tremble by thinking like this.

Immediately Lord Krishna revealed this great force in the Kaurava court. He simply entered the whole cosmos. Oh, the earth shook. The waters of the ocean lapped with force, and people thought the world is coming to an end because of the energy that he generated at that time. That is the case with you also. You can also do that. So confident you will be, so happy, and you will never get disturbed by anything. Even if you walk on the road, people will come and touch your feet. Your greatness is not in your study and your cloth and your money. Your greatness is the extent to which you are united with Truth. Everywhere you go, namaskar, the whole world will do like this.

Another ashramite: That means one with God only, completely effacing the individuality.

Swamiji: There is no individuality because you are part of the world, or you may say part of God – whatever it is. But what is the problem in thinking like this?

Ashramite: No, it is good. Cessation of all sorrows, Swamiji, in thinking in this way.

Swamiji: Then there is no need of reading anything. It requires satsanga. You require to be told like this again and again. We go on discussing this every day, this is the most powerful satsanga. The building will shake like this. Oh, twenty people are thinking the same thing! You generate a tremendous force. Brahma shakti will manifest itself. Your joy will be incalculable.

So that is brahmacharya.