Practice of Continence

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March 23, 1884  

MASTER: "To be able to realize God, one must practise absolute continence.  Sages like Sukadeva are examples of an urdhvareta.   Their chastity was absolutely unbroken.  There is another class, who previously have had discharges of semen but who later on have controlled them.  A man controlling the seminal fluid for twelve years develops a special power.  He grows a new inner nerve called the nerve of memory.  Through that nerve he remembers all, he understands all.

"Loss of semen impairs the strength.  But it does not injure one if one loses it in a dream.  That semen one gets from food.  What remains after nocturnal discharge is enough.  But one must not know a woman.

"The semen that remains after nocturnal discharge is very 'refined'.  The Lahas kept jars of molasses in their house.  Every jar had a hole in it.  After a year they found that the molasses had crystallized like sugar candy.  The unnecessary watery part had leaked out through the hole".

Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
Chapter 20, Rules for Householders and Monks

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