friendships
Question
I have been striving for celibacy for years. although I slip at times. I am celibate most of the time. I have noticed that I can see filth in others, I can see the perverse and they make me sick at times. I can hardly stand to keep company with them. I find their conversations so uninteresting, harsh, and underdeveloped. Why is this happening. Should I rid myself of such friends. Could that be why i slip at times? I want to be completely chaste until marriage. I read a book that talks about falling in love with a girls heart, and that is what I am waiting for.
Answer
Hello Carr :-)
Trust you are keeping well. Coming to your queries,
Q: Does bad company affect Brahmacharya?
A: Most people indulge in base thoughts, words and deeds thinking them to be a source of pleasure. This is due to Avidya or maya an illusion. They go in search of sense stimuli and ultimately get caught in the web of passion which takes them deeper and deeper into sin.
A celibate who is firm regarding his goal for growth should by all means avoid such company and talk. Wrong company sends out wrong/ negative vibrations which upset celibacy. You cannot be celibate beyond a limit in such environment.
If milk is mixed in water, it dissolves completely without distinction. If your turn milk into yogurt and then yogurt into butter and then put butter in water, it floats with no mixing. We are all beginner celibates akin to milk with water comparable to bad company and temptations. Till we reach the state of butter, we should ever be alert against water!
It is an indication of your presence in the path of purity that you feel offended by such people and their company. You should uphold this tendency of yours and strive toward a life of celibacy without slips. Once you meet the right soul in the form of your wife as a life partner, you will be able to bring to life very special and talented offspring, following which you can continue in the path of celibacy.
Well, the right approach is to fall in love with a girls soul who is none other than the great lord! It is god who manifests as a soul in each and every one of us. The soul is beyond mind, body, intellect and consciousness, so see god in the person you love :-)
I wish you the very best in your path of celibacy and am sure that you will meet the right girl, who will give you happiness and spiritual growth as the right life partner should.
Trust this helps.
God bless and have a nice day :-)
Dhananjay