Brahmachari

There is much confusion about, and abuse of, the term brahmachari. Mostly the sannyasis who come to the Western countries from India are at fault for the misunderstanding because they use the term loosely.

Here I will discuss, brahmachari, brahmacharini, kumara and kumari. Kumara is a boy before puberty. Kumari is a girl before puberty. When brahmachari or brahmacharini is used, it means the same boy or girl but one who has a deep spiritual interest because of past lives of cultivating (achari) yoga in the pursuit of spiritual objectives (brahma).

A brahmachari is one who uses a body which has no carnal knowledge. This is a person who did not have sexual experience in the present physical body. He has no direct understanding of it. It does not ring a bell in his emotion. He has no memory of it in his intellect. He is ignorant of it.

Once someone has sexual experience and gains carnal knowledge, that person is not a brahmachari and cannot become one in the present body because the body has the memory or development which results from sexual indulgence. This includes sexual intercourse with someone of the same or the opposite sex. It includes self-sexing in the form of masturbation. It includes daydreaming about sexual intercourse, where the physical genitals are stimulated.

To be a brahmachari one has to be free of any sexual stimulation or involvement in the present body.

A bachelor or single man is not a brahmachari if he has sexual experience or if he masturbated at any time.

The Vedic system list four lifestyles which are brahmachari, grihastha, vanaprastha and sannyasa. I will discuss the second stage which is grihastha. This is the householder stage meaning that it is the state where a man or woman has children. Griha means house or residence. Two persons get a house for the privacy and resulting need for shelter of a family. The features of a grihastha is sexual indulgence and family life.

Anyone who was a brahmachari can move into the lifestyle of a grihastha to become a family man. He is expected to have children but he may not have any.

The next stage, which is vanaprastha, is that of partial renunciation of the family responsibilities. The idea is that after reaching about fifty years of age, a man’s children reached sexual maturity and would no longer be child dependents. This allows that family man to reduce his social responsibility and to focus on his upcoming death. Vana means forest. Prastha indicates residence. This person may leave his property and business to his children. He may go to the forest (vana) to live without having family responsibilities and business concerns. His focus should be on what to do about his upcoming death.

The next stage is that of sannyasa which is the stage of full (sam/san) renunciation (nyasa). This mean that the person has such a focus and occupation with his upcoming death that he is careless in everything but that focus. He is regarded as a full renunciation who has no concerns about family and business.

There is an exception to these fourfold stages of lifestyle where someone may have only two stages of lifestyle which are brahmachari and sannyasa. If someone moves from the brahmachari stage into the sannyasa stage without serving as a grihastha and a vanaprastha, he is regarded as a naishtika brahmachari, which means a lifelong celibate. It is assumed and it is assumption for the most part, that it is possible for a person to not have carnal knowledge or sex activity early in life and that this would continue for this entire life.

Is that possible?

Is it a sham?

Is it true that a male body which is born without the sex urge may never develop that urge even after puberty?