Confidential talk to Young Men By Satyavrat Siddhantalankar
Sexual science reached the stage of perfection in ancient Aryavart [India] long before the time when the ancestors of the present-day civilized nations of Europe were groping in darkness and did not know even how to clothe themselves. According to Indian conception, sexual purity was the sine qua non of human culture and marriage was considered, in theory and practice, a sacrament and the act of procreation was one of the three religious debts which every house-holder was bound to discharge. The Brihadranyak Upanishad calls the Garbhadhan-vidhi [process of procreation], a Yajya [a sacred act] of the highest sanctity and lays down elaborate rules for its performance, which lay minds of the highest modern culture, such as Professor Max Muller, even did not dare to translate in English for fear of the so-called civilized perverted public opinion of the day.
It is only in recent times that the scientific medical scholars of Europe and America have begun to realize that sexual purity is the corner-stone on which individual and national character can be built up. And the freedom of action and expression which they enjoy have enabled them to engage in research work in this direction and lay the foundation of the science of a new life under the title of Eugenics. All that and more is included in the term brahmacharya [celibacy] which is the first stage in the life of human being according to the Veda, the primary guide of humanity. It was Dayanand the great, the true seer as he was, who laid his finger on the plague spot in the so-called civilization of the present day and preached by precept and practice that brahmacharya of body, mind, and soul was the means of salvation of humanity.
My former pupil, Pundit Satyavrata Siddhantalankar, has done a great service to the Motherland by writing out this book in the form of Confidential Talks addressed to the English-knowing section of the young community. As Acharya [Principal] of the Gurukula University at Hardwar, I had to deal with hundreds of our boys and had the privilege of watching and guiding them for full fourteen years of their lives. I found that in the life of every youth the period between the ages of thirteen and eighteen is the most delicate one, but, if handled properly by the Acharya, it might, instead of marring, make the life of a student rich in physical and mental health. Confidential (public) talks through literature might do good, but it is through the face-to-face talk of the Acharya, who watches the Brahmacharis in their daily avocations, that real teaching of sexual education could be imparted to them.
It is a tremendous responsibility which an Acharya who gives confidential talks to his pupils shoulders. Unless an atmosphere of sacred love and purity is created the talks might do more harm than good. I myself have had confidential talks with students who were in the transition stage and I know what a strain it is to keep them under proper frame of mind.
I would advise the readers of this book to purify their minds and to bring about an attitude of reverence before they begin to study it. Think of your loving mother, if you can not fix your mind on the Divine Mother of the Universe, and create an atmosphere of serenity before you go through the following pages.
When I left the Gurukula, on entering into the Sanyas ashram [renunciation], my idea was to give the result of my personal experiences to the student community without distinction of creed or race. But 'man proposes and God disposes'. I was led astray from my real work by other seemingly pressing demands. It is personal guidance that is wanted by young men and I exhort the principals and the professors of our colleges and the teachers of our schools to realize their Dharma [duty] and to become Brahmacharis [those who observe continence] themselves so that they might get strength to guide their wards aright.
