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<B><font size="4">Brahmacharya</font></B></p>
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<FONT SIZE=3>BRAHMACHARYA means the storage of energy in the body and
its sublimation. The energy in view is mainly physicovital energy,
the vital energy based upon and imbedded in the physical body.
Brahmacharya naturally meant a strict observance of certain rules and
regulations involving a strenuous discipline.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>Brahmacharya was the very basis of education in ancient
India: indeed, it was the basic education upon which Indian culture,
Indian civilization, Indian life was based and built up. Without it
there was no entry into the business of life.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>Modern education means storage of information, knowledge
of things-as much knowledge of as many things as it is possible for
the brain to contain. The older ideal, however, was not so much
knowledge, that is to say, packet of knowings, but capacity, first
capacity in a general way, and then as its application, the capacity
of knowledge. The problem was to locate, that is to say, find out the
source of energy then master it, increase it, harness it and <SPAN LANG="en-GB">utilise</SPAN>
it. The physicovital energy is the most elementary and elemental
energy that is nearest to us and most easily available. It is the
basic energy; man starts his life with that, a child possesses it
abundantly. The first problem is how to store it; evidently it is
most liable to be thrown or frittered away. The first form of the
discipline in the preparatory stage of early life is regularity in
habits, methodical physical exercises; even a fixed routine sometimes
helps much. Next comes self-control, continence, physical purity.
This is Brahmacharya proper. It means the exercise of conscious will.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>	We do <I>not </I>speak of Brahmacharya in relation to a
child. The discipline can be taken up only when the body and the</FONT><BR>
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<FONT SIZE=2>Page -  269</FONT><BR>
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<FONT SIZE=3>consciousness have attained a certain degree of growth
and development. A child grows in the full free play of its life
movements: the care or attention of others should weigh upon it as
lightly as possible, maintaining only an atmosphere of happy
influence and protection. The transition from the stage of free play
to conscious control is marked in Indian society by the ceremony of
<I>upanayana, </I>the first approach or initiation: it is the
beginning of the life of Brahmacharya.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>It must be understood that this discipline is not merely
for those who wish to follow a religious or spiritual life, but for
all without exception. Brahmacharya is the first ashrama, order or
stage of life with which one begins one's <SPAN LANG="en-GB">organisation</SPAN>
of life; one has to pass through it to others leading to greater and
higher degrees of <SPAN LANG="en-GB">fulfilment.</SPAN> It forms the
foundation, prepares the necessary ground upon which the life
structure</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>can safely be raised and maintained. It is the secret
fund of strength, the source of pure energies that <SPAN LANG="en-GB">vitalises</SPAN>
life, enhances its values, makes it worth living.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>The energy that one stores by continence, regular habits
and self-discipline increases also in that way. Sometimes special
methods - kriya - are adopted to help the process, Asana or
Pranayama, for example. But an inner and a more psychological
procedure is needed, a concentration of will and consciousness-a kind
of dhyana, in other words-in order to be able to take the next step
in discipline. For after the storage and increase of energy comes the
sublimation of energy, that is to say, the physico-vital energy
transmuted into the energy of mental substance, <I>medh<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">a</FONT>.
</I>Sublimation means also the increase of brain-power, an
enhancement in the degree and quality of its capacity. This has
nothing to do with the volume of knowledge enclosed (the mass of
information to which we referred before) the growth is with regard to
the very stuff of the mind from within, the natural strength of
intelligence that can be applied to any field of knowledge with equal
success and felicity.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>The basis and the immediate aim of education according
to the ancient system was to develop this fundamental mental
capacity: the brain's power to think clearly, consistently and
deeply, to undergo <SPAN LANG="en-GB">labour</SPAN> without tiring
easily and also a general strength and steadiness in the nerves. The
transference </FONT>
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<FONT SIZE=2>Page -  270</FONT><BR>
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<FONT SIZE=3>of nervous energy into brain energy is also a
secret of the process of sublimation. It is precisely this aspect of
education that has been most neglected in modern times. We give no
thought to this fundamental: we leave the brain to develop as it may
(or may not), it is made to grow under pressure-more to inflate than
to grow-by forcing into it masses of information. The result at best
is that it is sharpened, made acute superficially or is overgrown in
a certain portion of it in respect of a narrow and very <SPAN LANG="en-GB">specialised</SPAN>
function, losing thereby a healthy harmony and homogeneity in the
total movement. The intellectual's nervous instability is a very
common phenomenon among us.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>In recent times, however, we have begun to view
children's education in a different light. It is being more and more
<SPAN LANG="en-GB">realised</SPAN> that things are not to be
instilled into the child from outside, but that the child should be
allowed to grow and imbibe naturally. The teacher is only a companion
and a guide: he is to let the child move according to its own
inclinations, follow its own line of curiosity; he can open up and
present new vistas of curiosity, seek to evoke new interests.
Sympathy and encouragement on his side giving scope to freedom and
autonomous development for the child-this is the watchword and motto
for the ideal teacher.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>This new approach has rectified much of the wrong
handling of the problem of education to which we have been
accustomed. Even this new orientation, however, is not sufficient:
along with freedom and autonomy, the element of discipline and order
has also to be brought in, if not quite in the old way at least in a
new manner. It will not do to say simply that it must be
self-discipline and self-order, but the question is how it is to be
practically carried out. In ancient times it was done by living the
life of an aspirant, not merely by studying and going to school,
being only a student-but living in the hours of the teacher, in the
atmosphere of his direct presence and influence: the teacher too was
not a machine issuing mechanical instruction, but a Person who loved
and whom one loved, a warm embodiment of the ideal.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>In our days there has been this unhappy division between
the student and the aspirant. In the student life, life and study are
things apart. One may be a good student, study very</FONT><BR>
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<FONT SIZE=2>Page -  271</FONT><BR>
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<FONT SIZE=3>seriously and attain considerable eminence in
intellectual achievement, and yet in life one may remain quite the
ordinary man with very normal reactions. Along with the brain we do
not <SPAN LANG="en-GB">endeavour</SPAN> to educate the life instincts
and body impulses. This portion of our nature we leave all alone and
do not dare or care to handle it consciously. Sometimes we call that
freedom; but it is more slavery than freedom, slavery to our
commonplace animal nature. Because one follows one's impulses and
instincts freely, without let or hindrance one feels as if he were
free. Far from it.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>This hiatus in our nature, the separation between
intellectual culture and life movement has to be healed up; human
personality must be made a unified whole. The training given under
Brahmacharya will be of immense help in that direction. The deeper
purpose, however, of this discipline is not merely a unification of
the personality, but a heightening also, lifting it to a level of
consciousness from where it can envisage its spiritual destiny and
seek to <SPAN LANG="en-GB">realise</SPAN> it.</FONT><BR>
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<FONT SIZE=2>Page -  272</FONT></P>
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