Code of conduct of the Brahmacharyashrama 

1.  Balance in diet and activities

Priest and the participants:

Priest: One who is temperate in food and activity. One who is restrained in his actions, and whose sleep and waking are regulated, he finds this Yoga (behavior) destroying all sorrows.

Priest and the participants:

Priest: On the path of knowledge, the organs of senses and action tempt the aspirant to commit all sorts of sins.

Priest and participants:

Priest: This craving, this wrath, born out of passion, is all devouring and most sinful. Know them to be enemies.

Priest and the participants:

Priest: Lord Krishna says, ‘O Arjuna, knowledge is obscured by the gluttonous fire of insatiable desire and wrath, which is always the enemy of wise people.

Priest and the participants:

2.  Control of organs of senses and action

Priest: For the pursuit of knowledge, secular and spiritual, control of senses is necessary, says Lord Krishna.

Priest and the participants:

Priest: Therefore, O Arjuna, control your sense from the beginning, and slay this sinful destroyer of knowledge – spiritual and secular.

Priest and the participants:

3.  Daily prayer and meditation

Along with the temperate food and activity and control of senses, it is necessary to do daily meditation and prayer for self – development. This habit of meditation and prayer is to be inculcated in Brahmacharyashrama and to be continued to the end of one’s life. One should get up early in the morning, and, after toilet, should squat inquiet, clean place, and then –

Priest and the participants:

Priest: Taking one’s place on the seat, concentrating the mind, and controlling the thought and senses, one should practice Yoga for the purification of the soul.

Priest and the participants:

Priest: In a stable posture, with concentrated mind, and in equamious state, some mantras should be chanted, and some meditation should be practised. During meditation, one tries to be in silent dialogue with the Supreme consciousness in one’s own mother tongue. After some time, in place of dialogue, one should try to be one with the cosmic vibrations. When such a dialogue and the absorbing meditation is over, the Gayatri Mantra should be recited and the prayer should be concluded. Every morning this prayer is to be practiced. However, during the daytime, whenever possible, even while engaged in other activities also, this dialogue with God should be continued.
 Lord Krishna says in Geeta –

Priest and the participants:

Priest: Thus keeping the self ever harmonized with Brahman, the guileless Yogin experiences easily the infinite bliss of merging with the Eternal Brahman.

Priest and the participants:

4. Self-study and Discourses

Priest: Practicing the rules of Brahmacharyashram such as being temperate in food and activity, controlling sense, and offering daily prayer, what else is to be observed? Knowledge is to be acquired through self-study and listening to discourses of the preceptor. Without wasting a single moment, one should learn, and, at times, teach also, and thus continue the pursuit of knowledge. Is there anything also, and thus continue the pursuit of knowledge. Is there anything that can not be achieved by self-study and discourses? Taittireeya Upanishad says –

Priest and the participants:

Priest: What is Dharma or righteous conduct? Dharma is realizing the all-prevading Truth or the cosmic law. But this is not enough. Selfstudy and discourse have also to be there. Dharma is not only practicing penance. Self-study and discourse are also necessary. Only peace of mind and human happiness are not enough. Self-study and discourse should be there. Control of senses is not enough. Self-study and discourse have to be there. Self-study and discourse are the real penance. They are the real penance.

Priest and the participants:

5.  Service to the Preceptor

In order to profit fully from self-study and discourses, it is important that the disciple learns to revere the preceptor who gives him knowledge. When the preceptor accepts the disciple for imparting knowledge, he, as if, gives the second birth to the disciple. Those who are thus accepted as disciples are Dwijas (twice born). The preceptor who loves the disciple like his own son, is as good as his father, The disciple should also have love for the preceptor. The disciple has to have reverence for the preceptor, though he may be critical at times. Love alone is not enough, reverence also is greatly required. Parents are the first Gurus. Further, the preceptors giving the knowledge of the Brahman are the greatest Gurus. Let us stand up and venerate such Gurus.
 (All stand up and join hands for Namaskara.)
Priest and the participants:

Priest: Guru is Brahma – the creator, Guru is Vishnu – the controller, Guru is Maheshwar, Shiva – the destroyer. Guru is Brahman – the Supreme Self. I venerate that Guru.

Priest and the participants:
6. Developing personality and consecrating it in the service of the Nation

Priest: What is the purpose of observing the rules of Brahmacharyashrama such as being temperate in food and activity, control of senses, offering daily prayer to God and self-study and discourses? This is in order to achieve a healthy growth of body, mind and intellect, leading to a fully blossomed personality. That is the real meaning of Brahmacharya – development of a noble personality. The greatest happiness of human life lies in consecrating such a fully developed personality for the cause of the kith and kin, the society, the nation and ultimately for God. The highest ideal is to worship the nation and God with such a blooming flower as life Worship and the consecration is the only way to eternal bliss.

Priest and the participants:

Priest: Not by progeny, not by wealth, only by sacrifice, one attains eternal bliss and immortality.

Priest and the participants:

Priest: Mahabharat, the great epic, says –

Priest and the participants:

Priest: Desire is never satisfied by the enjoyment of the objects of desire. It grows more and more as does the fire by fuel.

Priest and the participants:

Priest: There is no happiness without controlling desires. That is why the Upanishands enjoin again and again. – by sacrifice alone one attains eternal bliss and immortality. Understand that God has given us this body as a precious gift. Let us keep it clean, healthy and chaste, so that the Eternal may descend to it and manifest itself more and more. May every day bring newer and newer enlightenment to us? May the psychological and intellectual abilities such as finer observation. Sharp comprehension, photographic memory, penetrating insight, dissecting intellect, ready astuteness, ever-blossoming creativity, clairaudience, clairvoyance and the ability to transfer energy become more manifest in us.(For Marathi – speaking people)

Priest and the participants:

Priest: We have in brief viewed the conventions and code of conduct of Brahmacharyashrma. As you have resolved to enter this Ashrama, accepting to be temperate in food and activity, controlling senses, offering daily prayer, self-study and discourses, and service to the preceptor, please take the vow.
(The priest reads it phrase by phrase and the disciples, especially the new aspirants, follow)