Yes, the foundation of brahmacharya is based on food, lifestyle and your company and more especially your thoughts. If these are controlled, one can easily adopt brahmacharya.
I had once gone through the book by Mahatma Gandhi “The Law of Continence”.
I have mentioned below extracts in support of brahmacharya alongwith other experiences to make you understand better way about the Brahmacharya
True Definition of Brahmacharya
Brahmacharya is not to be treated as mere mechanical celibacy. Rather it is complete control over all the senses and freedom from lust in thought, word and deed. Mere control of animal passion is not enough.’, Mahtama Gandhi defines in this way.
Notice the words of Mahtma Gandhi “complete control over all the senses” - not one or two senses, but all the five - Karmendriya as well as gyanendriya. Gandhiji does not mean it by suppression of the senses but complete mastery.
Further, Gandhiji continues to say, “to hear suggestive stories with the ears, to see suggestive sights with the eyes, to taste stimulating foods with the tongue, to touch exciting things with the hands, and then, at the same time, expect to control the only remaining organ, is like putting one’s hands in a fire and then expecting to escape being burnt.”. So, it is suggested to practice simultaneous self-control in all the directions, if one has to be successful in attaining celibacy. Self control in all the directions means to keep vigilance on each senses/sense organs -on eating (taste), on speaking (tongue), listening (ears), smell (nose) and skin.
We are very conscious of pure air, pure water and wholesome food, that is no doubt necessary for better health.. But we forget one thing that is more important above these - that is Brahmacharya. This is the way of conserving the strength that the God has given to us. It should not be that we sacrifice, in an instant, all the stock of vital energy that we have laborously accummulated, just for sake of a momentary pleasure. People very rarely realize that incontinence is the root cause of most of the vanity, anger, fear and jealousy in the world. Sexual enjoyment is injuriously to health. All the strength of body and mind that has taken long to acquire is lost all at once by a single dissipation of the vital energy and it then takes a long time to regain this lost vitality and that not to the fullest extent, just like the broken mirror can be mended and made to do its work, but can never be anything but a broken mirror.
It should be that the older we grow, the keener should be our intellect, the longer we live, the greater should be our capacity to communicate the benefit of our accummulated experience to our fellow-men, but it is not such that as observed today. Though there are very few brahmachaaris who have no fear of death, and they do not indulge in vain desires. They die with a smile on their lips and boldly face the day of judgement.
Present Scenario is Poisonous
Our diet, our ways of life, our common talk, and our environments are all equally calculated to rouse animal passions, and sensuality is like a poison eating into our vitals. This is to such an extent that many people doubt the possibility to free themselves from this bondage.
What to do when encounters the craving of lust
- Gandhiji suggested to take a cold bath, whenever one feels a craving for sexual indulgence so that the heat of the passion may be cooled down and be refined into the energy of virtuous activity.
- Craving is the outcome of our rigid mental patterns which are bound to be broken in order to get out of the craving’s vicious circle. Check other answer on breaking this mental pattern.
Start observing Brahmacharya ( Celibacy ) with control of the Palate
As suggested earlier, brahmacharya appears to be difficult because we do not control the other senses. Take for example, organ of taste which leads the rest. Brahmacharya comes easy to anyone who controls his palate. Zoologists tell us that Brahmacharya is observed by the lower animals, as for instance cattle, to a greater extent than by human beings, and this is a fact. The reason is that cattle have perfect control over the palate, not by will but by instinct. They subsist on mere fodder, and of this, too, they take a quantity just sufficient for nutrition. They eat to live, do not live to eat; while our case is just the reverse.
So, control of the palate is the first essential in the observance of the vow of brahmacharaya. This makes the observance very easy to maintain. Diet should be very limited, simple, spiceless and if possible uncooked. The ideal food as mentioned by Mahatma Gandhi in the book ‘Law of Continence’ is fresh fruit and nuts. Food has to be taken as we take medicine, that is, without thinking whether it is palatable or otherwise, and only in quantities limited to needs of the body. Just as medicine is taken in too small dose does not take effect or the full effect and as too large a dose injures the system, so it is with food. Overeating injures the body and this injury can partially be repaired only by fasting. So, we need to break the slavery to palate and so long as one has not acquired mastery over taste, the observance of Brahmacharya has been found extremely difficult.
Milk diet makes the observance difficult to follow. So, one should give try to give up milk and see if any positive change happens in direction of Brahmacharya. Fruit substitute for milk which should be equally good muscle builder and easily digestible should also be searched for meanwhile.
Fasting is an aid to brahmacharya, as the senses become powerless without food. Therefore, fasting undertaken with a view to control of the senses is very helpful. But be careful, it should not be mechanical fasting, i.e. one’s mind should not be feasted with all sorts of delicacies thinking all the while what they will eat and what they will drink after the fast terminates. Such fasting helps them in controlling neither palate or lust.
Apart from the quality of food as discussed above which affects our mind, the vibration associated with the food - attitude of the person who has cooked also matters most. So, it is necessary that one should know who has cooked food - whether he is celibate or he is suffering from the attitude of lust.
Aid to Brahmacharya
A person who wants to subdue his passions has need to be calm. All commotion within him ought to cease; and so quiet and gentle is the motion of the spinning wheel, that it has been known to still the passions of those who have turned it in the fulness of faith.
Sexual desire has its root in one’s thought. Therefore, complete over thought is necessary. The way to achieve it is this: Never let your mind remain idle. Keep it filled with good and useful ideas. Keep thinking of whatever duty you have on hand. There should be no waste of thought. Waste thoughts are like weeds that kills other useful plants by eating their nutrition. So, always plan for future to keep yourself busy.
Japa (repetition of God’s name) is a great support when idle thoughts haunt you. Contemplate God in the form you have pictured Him, unless you know Him as formless. While Japa is going on, no other thought should be allowed to enter one’s mind. This is the ideal state.
The best prescription is non-resistance i.e. ignoring the existence of evil thoughts and a continuous preoccupation with duties that lie in front of one. Evil thoughts, much more devil deeds, are impossible when we are thus preoccupied. Strenous labour in accordance with one’s physical capacity is, therefore, absolutely necessary for those who observe brahmacharya.
To motivate oneself for brahmacharya, one should know the advantage of brahmacharya which is as follows:
- The nervous system is invigorated and strengthened.
- The special senses - the sight, hearing, etc are strong, delicate and acute
- The digestive system is kept normal and man knows not what a sick day is
- The growth of body is filled up and rounded out, and a full measure of years may come but old age never; for the last days, in their pleasurable enjoyment of good, healthy and a sound mind, are as were the days of his childhood.
- The brain is perfect, memory grows strong and perceptive and reflective faculties increase in power as shown in the ability to originate and execute, the calm, self-possesed strength to endure, and gentleness, courage, generosity, love grows and ripens and the soul in its exercise reaches up and commingles with the spirit of God.
Dos and Dont’s of Brahmacharya
A.One should avoid the following to have life of continence:
- Tobacco in all its forms.
- All manner of alcholic liquors
- Tea, coffee and chocolate
- Late suppers and over-eating.
- Sweetmeats, candies
- Pork and all fat and salt meats, sausages, pickles, etc.
- Salt except in moderate quantities, pepper, mustard, spices, vinegar and other condiments
- Mince and other pies and all manner of pastry
- Feather beds and pillows and heavy bed covering.
- Unventillated and unlighted bed-rooms.
- Remaining in bed in the morning after awaking.
- Uncleanliness of the body, turkish and russian baths.
- Idleness and inaction of body and mind.
- Avoid Erotic Literature, Theatres, cinemas, etc. which tend to stimulate passion should be shunned.
B. One should follow below list of things:
- The cultivation of a firm and determined will.
- The active morning and evening exercise of the religious sentiments.
- Fasting as an aid to brahmacharya.
- Early to bed and early to rise should be strictly observed.
- Every day heartfelt prayer for purity makes one progressively pure in the path of brahmacharya.
