Untitled

Hello.. Today I will talk about the four Ashram in Indian philosophy. You might think it is irrelevant today but it is not and I will come to that point later. These are four spans in man's life which tells about the way of living in a right way. The four Ashrams are Brahmacharya, Grihastha, Vaanprastha and Sannyasa which to be followed in the same sequence. Yes, it seems much difficult to follow in today's world with such an hectic lifestyle and merely impossible, so and as per my understanding (in present society) it is more of a symbolic system. So you dont need to be adhared to this inflexible system of living but, by and large, could adopt this four ashrams in flexible terms. Lets talk about Brahmacharya. Literally Brahmacharya means charya (conduct) to attain Brahma. It is the first ashram in man's life and extends approximately upto 25. Though it is about Education aquired in Ashrams away from home, the concept of Celebacy is more prominent here. Celebacy means self-restraint from any sexual activity. Since it is the first Span in man's life it is to regulate discipline and his sexual acts. This makes it explicit that sexual feeling arose in very early age. So today with MTV, Playboy literature, and easy access to internet, childrens are more prone to develop such degenerative fellings. Other thing which is also more explicit is since Brahmacharya put Education and Celebacy together, the two have a wider connection. Coming to my first point since there are no restrictions over a man who attained puberty, to maintain Celebacy and society with atmosphere favourable to excite sexual fellings, sexual crimes are natural (the prepators of Delhi rape case of dec 16 were wathing blue film which excite them to commit the crime and thats why I said it is relevent today as well). Therefore the Indian Saints put Brahmacharya as the first Ashram. If we could develop such system in our society which incorporates some basic ideals of Brahmacharya Ashram (not hardcore) sexual crimes can be prevented. There are others benifits too. Gandhji said 'Nothing in this world is unattainable for a true Brahmachari'. One thing which this system lacks is that it is exclusively for men only. May be exponents of this ashram system were complacent about women being pure. But today this must be follwed equally by both (atleast patrly..).