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uzgl. ] . SPIRITUAL LIGHT.
Brahmacharya. Brahmacharya means abstaining from sexual passion and intercourse in all places and at all times, in mind, speech and body.
Rigid practice of this virtue by a sādhu means entire abandonment of sexual appetites. A layman is forbidden to commit adultery actual or in thought by refraining from indulging in sexual intercourse with women other than his own wife or unmarried girl or a widow, from cherishing ardent immoral love for others or by using indecent gestures and words exciting lust or using stimulants for the same purpose.
Brahmacharya is the foundation of the Grahasthashrama-the householder's stage. The influence of its preservation cannot be too much emphasised. If a man has preserved his own life-fluid, he would not generally remain a physical wreck.
Now-a-days we generally find even youths in weak health, and tender-framed skeletons ; the reason of their physical debility is that on account of their company and various other circumstances of civilized life, they have found it very difficult to preserve their virility.
Some young men, through the influence of their bad companions, indulge in various types of bad habits ultimately injurious and decreasing their vital stamina. Hence, they are quite unable to feel the . XL
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