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As we saw in this earlier post about what it is that we are aiming to achieve by all these disciplines, let's move on to reflect about brahmacharya.  The word brahmacharya literally means "going after Brahman (Supreme Reality, Self, God)". If I aim to go in search of God, it is absolutely essential that I MUST purify the mind. So, let us see a little bit about the mind. What is the mind? The mind is an equipment or a vehicle of the self or the soul, just like the body. While the physical body is gross, the mind is extremely subtle. The power of the mind resides in its subtlety. I can't perceive my mind through the sense organs -I can't see it, touch it, taste it, smell it or hear it with my physical ear. But, the mind is powered by these exact sense organs. In the sense, the mind is the repository of ALL the perceptions that are gathered through our sense organs. The sense organs collect all the data about this physical world and submits it to the m

It is kind of overwhelming to write about Brahmacharya, the fourth of the yamas or restraints. Not because of the content, but because the gross misunderstanding of the context or the implication of the word brahmacharya in today's parlance. Brahmacharya does not mean celibacy alone. Celibacy is only an aspect of Brahmacharya. Then, what is brahmacharya? Why should one practice it? And why is a part of yogic discipline? Before I write more about brahmacharya, I feel that a little bit of premise setting is essential here. So let us start with what exactly are we trying to achieve by practicing these restraints and how it fits with yoga. The ultimate goal of yoga: At the risk of sounding repetitive and boring, let me reiterate that yoga is much bigger than the asanas and pranayama, as we know it. It is a path to self realization. It is a path through which the individual consciousness merges with God consciousness or Universal Consciousness. That is why all the major path

Image courtesy: Paulo Zerbato -https://fineartamerica.com/featured/self-expression-paulo-zerbato.html There are many times when I deeply regret that the best way for me to express myself is through words. They are the most gross and inadequate. I wish that I was a painter, who can color her thoughts and paint her feelings. The canvas nothing but an extension of my soul. A mirror that reflects that which is within me, now bright, now dark. Sometimes brilliant, sometimes full of shadows. Vibrant and sedate, pious and petty -an amalgamation of lines, colors and textures that talks directly through the mirror of another pair of eyes and reflects in their own soul. No interference from the mind or the brain. No processing of the clumsy letters and chunky words. No need of sentences and paragraphs, tiring the reader and boring their brains.   Sometimes, I wish I am a composer, where the notes are sufficient to convey the mood. A musician, where I can create magic from plain w

Astheya means non stealing. And I felt, wow! This is one observance that I have always followed. But, as always, there is more than what meets the eye. Of course, the most obvious meaning is not actually stealing things, money etc from others. Most of us don't do it, simply because it is not in our upbringing. It is beyond our capacities to even entertain thoughts of stealing. The masters say that even bringing stationary and other items from office for personal use is stealing. When I feel that someone is having something that I desire -be it money, jewelry, things, fame, power -and I don't have the capacity to fulfil this desire, I try to obtain the same by using shortcuts -the easiest one is to steal it from someone who already has it or who has it in excess, so that he won't notice that some of it is missing. As an extension, we can also interpret astheya to mean not cheating or manipulating others and use their possession (power, money, property etc) fo