Friday, February 20, 2009

Ramana Maharshi - Isn’t Brahmacharya (celibacy) necessary for Realisation of Self




Question : I believe celibacy is necessary even for a householder if he is to succeed in Self-enquiry. Am I right?
Ramana Maharshi : First find out who the wife and husband are. Then the question will not arise.
Question : Isn’t Brahmacharya (celibacy) necessary for realisation of the Self?
Ramana Maharshi : Brahmacharya means ‘living in Brahman’; it has no connection with celibacy as commonly understood. A real Brahmachari is one who lives in Brahman and finds bliss in Brahman, which is the same as the Self. Why, then, should he look for other sources of happiness? In fact, it is emergence from the Self that is the cause of all misery.

Question : But isn’t celibacy necessary for yoga?
Ramana Maharshi : It is one aid to realisation among many others.

Question : Then is it not indispensable? Can a married man realise the Self?
Ramana Maharshi : Certainly. It is a question of fitness of mind. Married or unmarried, a man can realise the Self, because the Self is here and now. If it were not, but were obtainable by some effort at some future time, if it were something new to be acquired, it would not be worth seeking, because what is not natural cannot be permanent. What I say is that the Self is here and now and that IT alone is.

2 comments:

  1. Yes! As we human being we always try to yawn for things which we do not posses. That is why everyone is attracted to material things. But Bhagavan says you do not have to acquire anything new to realize self. The path is so simple and straight forward. This is also the reason why we do not believe that the "self" can be realised by us. But the last but the sure way is to surrender to "Bhagavan" as he did to Arunachala.

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  2. Yes...
    we cling and try to possess things because we are empty with in and we want to fill our inner emptiness with things so we start
    running after things.

    but it brings no change to our inner reality.
    in the end one has to look with in and let inner light shine in all our actions.

    Way is alwys inward never outwards

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