Illustrious sages, like those that are of the Paramhansas level, like Swami Vivekananda, Ramkrishna Paramhansa and Vedmurti Shriram Sharma Acharya have all left us a legacy of great literature that is simply invaluable. Their Lives are living examples of how to be Spiritual? Therefore it is pertinent to ask what defined their Spirituality? How did they live such exemplary lives and accomplish tasks of such extraordinary magnitude?
Each of them individually in their own lifetimes were voracious readers of great books. Those who lived in close proximity with Pt.Shriram Sharma Acharya know that he would read through multiple large texts in a short span of time and remember it all.
Pt.Shriram Sharma Acharya wrote Literature greater than his own body weight. All his texts are scientific in content and research validated. How was this possible in a time when then internet was absent ? Similar was the prowess of Swami Vivekananda. He could read through volumes the size of Encyclopedia Britannica and remember it all !
In the words of these great sages themselves - sexual continence is a great enabler of energy, vitality and also of memory and concentration in people. Sexual continence helps retain and enhance the vital "Prana" or energy in the individual and that enables the accomplishment of a large body of work of extra ordinary magnitude !
The enclosed passage emphasising this point is captured in a conversation between Swami Vivekananda and his fellow disciple....
Quote of a Conversation between Swamiji and a Disciple:
"Despite his spare food and scanty sleep, Swamiji is very active. A few days ago, a new set of the Encyclopaedia Britannica had been bought for the Math. Seeing the new shining volumes, the disciple said to Swamiji, "It is almost impossible to read all these books in a single lifetime." He was unaware that Swamiji had already finished ten volumes and had begun the eleventh.
Swamiji: What do you say? Ask me anything you like from these ten volumes, and I will answer you all.
The disciple asked in wonder, "Have you read all these books?"
Swamiji: Why should I ask you to question me otherwise?
Being examined, Swamiji not only reproduced the sense, but at places the very language of the difficult topics selected from each volume. The disciple, astonished, put aside the books, saying, "This is not within human power!"
Being examined, Swamiji not only reproduced the sense, but at places the very language of the difficult topics selected from each volume. The disciple, astonished, put aside the books, saying, "This is not within human power!"
Swamiji: Do you see, simply by the observance of strict Brahmacharya (continence) all learning can be mastered in a very short time — one has an unfailing memory of what one hears or knows but once. It is owing to this want of continence that everything is on the brink of ruin in our country.
Disciple: Whatever you may say, sir, the manifestation of such superhuman power cannot be the result of mere Brahmacharya, something else there must be.
Swamiji did not say anything in reply."
The subject of Chastity occurs frequently in Swami Vivekananda's Lectures and Speeches. Enclosed below is a seperate excerpt from a letter written in 1894 -once again emphasizing the connexion between chastity and spirituality.
"I come back to the one, fundamental, vital point: 'Find God. Nothing else matters.' He emphasized morality as the basis of the spiritual life. Without truth, noninjury, continence, non-stealing, cleanliness, and austerity, he repeated, there could be no spirituality.
The subject of continence always stirred him deeply.Walking up and down the room, getting more and more excited, he would stop before someone as if there were no one else present. 'Don't you see,' he would say eagerly, 'there is a reason why chastity is insisted on in all monastic orders?
Spiritual giants are produced only where the vow of chastity is observed. Don't you see there must be a reason? There is a connexion between chastity and spirituality. The explanation is that through prayer and meditation the saints have transmuted the most vital force in the body into spiritual energy. In India this is well understood and yogis do it consciously. The force so transmuted is called Ojas, and it is stored up in the brain. It has been lifted from the lowest centre to the highest. "And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me."'
He would plead with the students as if to beg them to act upon this teaching as something most precious. Further, they could not be the disciples he required if they were not established in chastity. He demanded a conscious transmutation.'The man who has no temper has nothing to control."
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