Modern medical opinion

Eminent European medical men also support the statement of the yogins of India. Dr. Nicole says: “It is a medical and physiological fact that the best blood in the body goes to form the elements of reproduction in both the sexes. In a pure and orderly life, this matter is reabsorbed. It goes back into circulation ready to form the finest brain, nerve and muscular tissues. This vital fluid of man carried back and diffused through his system makes him manly, strong, brave and heroic. If wasted, it leaves him effeminate, weak and physically debilitated and prone to sexual irritation and disordered function, a wretched nervous system, epilepsy, and various other diseases and death. The suspension of the use of the generative organs is attended with a notable increase of bodily and mental and spiritual vigor.”

If the spermatic secretion in men is continuous, it must either be expelled or be reabsorbed. As a result of the most patient and persevering scientific investigations, it has been found that whenever the seminal secretions are conserved and thereby reabsorbed into the system, it goes towards enriching the blood and strengthening the brain. Dr. Dio Louis thinks that the conservation of this element is essential to strength of body, vigor of mind and keenness of intellect. Another writer, Dr. E. P. Miller, says: “All waste of spermatic secretions, whether voluntary or involuntary, is a direct waste of the life force. It is almost universally conceded that the choicest element of the blood enters into the composition of the spermatic secretion. If these conclusions are correct, then it follows that a chaste life is essential to man’s well-being.”

Mind, Prana and Virya

Mind, prana and virya are the three links of one chain. They are the three pillars of the edifice of the jivatman. Destroy one pillar–mind, prana or virya–and the whole building will fall to pieces.

Mind, prana and virya are one. By controlling the mind, you can control prana and semen. By controlling prana you can control the mind and semen. By controlling semen, you can control the mind and prana.

Mind, prana and virya are under the one sambandha or connection or circuit. If the mind is controlled, prana and virya are controlled automatically. He who suspends or restrains prana restrains also the working of the mind and the movement of the virya. Again, if the virya is controlled, and if it is made to flow upwards into the brain by pure thoughts, the mind and the prana are automatically controlled.

The mind is set in motion or rendered active by two things–the vibration of prana and the vasanas or subtle desires. Where the mind is absorbed, there the prana is restrained; and where the prana is fixed, there the mind also is absorbed. Mind and prana are intimate companions, like a man and his shadow. If the mind and the prana are not restrained, all the organs of sensation and action keep actively engaged in their respective functions.

When a man is excited by passion, the prana is set in motion. Then the whole body obeys the dictate of the mind just as a soldier obeys the command of his commander. The vital air or prana moves the internal sap or semen. The semen is put into motion. It falls downwards, just as the clouds burst into rain water, just as the fruits, flowers and leaves of the trees drop down by the force of the blowing winds.

If the virya is lost, prana gets unsteady. Prana is agitated. The man becomes nervous. Then the mind also cannot work properly. The man becomes fickle-minded. There is mental weakness.