Raja Yoga Selection Number 89, for Thursday, June 7, 2012

[from Discourse II: "Sadhana Pada- On Spiritual Disciplines"]
II.30. AHIMSA-SATYASTEYA-BRAHMAACRYA-APARIGRAHA YAMAH.
'The Yamas consists of non-injury, truthfulness, non-stealing, continence,
and non-acquisitiveness'.

Commentary(continued):
'Brahmacharya', or sexual abstinence, is necessary for rapid progress
on the spiritual path. When sexual energy is under control 99% of one's
spiritual life is under control. This is very difficult, for, next to
breathing, it is the body's strongest impulse. Be humble, pray for
strength, and be regular in discipline, which will flatten out the sexual
thought waves. With continence comes spiritual powers. Ten months of
control brings tremendous energy, and the chaste mind develops enormous
will power.
It is wise not to acquire possessions, for they often have strings
attached, and tend to make the owner dependent. A person who has
possessions is a prisoner of those objects, and must expand energy and
time caring for them. The man who owns and desires nothing is absolutely
free. Possessions satisfy the body, encouraging identification with it,
and tend to muddy the mind.

* More Patanjali Yoga Sutra verses with
commentary by Swami Vishnu-devananda
available at:
http://www.sivananda.org/publications/quotes/rajayoga_quote.html