Suicidal arguments.

Suicidal arguments

Sometime ago, I received a letter. The gentleman had written: "Your Holiness said in a Satsang and it is also published in your books that one shouldn't smoke cigarettes, cigars etc, and should abstain from other addictions, as they destroy the strength, health and intelligence of the consumer. If it be so, why did God create tobacco?"

This gentleman is unable to abandon his addiction and he is making God liable for it. God has created roses as well as thorns. Then why do we pick up the roses and not the thorns? Why is a knife used to cut vegetables and not one's own throat? God has created fire. Why do we use it to cook food and not to bum our own houses? Why don't we use poisonous plants as vegetables? The answer is simple. In these situations we use our discriminative intelligence (Viveka) to select beneficial and to reject harmful ones. But in case of sex-indulgence, man does not control his mind and blames God. God has created almonds, pistachios, milk and many other nutritious eatables too. If we are discriminative, we would certainly choose such nourishing and energy-giving things rather than spending our money on energy draining and health injuring addictions. Man justifies his bad habits and addictions through hypocritical rationalisation. This is misuse of intelligence and energy. Smoking and other addictions debilitate the mind and make the intelligence dull and confused.

Preservation of seminal energy is the vital subject for those who want success in material or spiritual life. It is essential for strong body and sharp brain.

ब्रह्मचर्यप्रतिष्ठायां वीर्यलाभः ||37||

Maharisihi Patahjali has stated in his Yoga Aphorisms, "After becoming an urdhvareta (a Yogi who has accomplished perpetual sublimation of semen) through Yoga, a Yogi becomes all-powerful. That Yogi alone can realize the supreme truth. Since through celibacy the impossible becomes possible, the gain of fame, wealth and other material things is assured to the celibate."