In a spiritually progressive Vaishnava community, everyone profits from a genuine program of monk apprenticeship, the brahmachari ashram. The men participating receive a solid foundation in sense control and discipline, in pursuance of scriptural study and its application. Necessary social advantages in a spiritual society, such as cooperation and voluntary selfless service, predominate. And of course, wouldn't it be nice that men at least learn courtesy, sensitivity, and good manners?
Knowledge and the distribution of knowledge is the hallmark of a man properly situated in the ashram. Needless to say, in ISKCON version 2.0, appropriating the monk manpower for a fund-rasing concentration is taboo, . The brahmachari ashram gives the man a "once in a lifetime" opportunity for substantial immersion in the sacred texts, their assimilation, and their distribution. "Love to read Srila Prabhupada's books, and love to distribute them, one way or another" is the motto. Striving to communicate effectively the timeless message of bhakti-yoga, according to the current world context, taxes the brain of the savvy and compassionate brahmachari. Especially outreach work at universities, so demanding of patience and determination, expands both the material and spiritual skill-set of the monk apprentice.
Bhakti is "the kitchen religion." Moreover, often it is said: "Just as women like to talk, men like to eat." The ashram serves as probably the only place these days where a Western male practitioner of bhakti can acquire sensational cooking abilities that will, regardless of his future choices, aid him lifelong. The tongue is the most powerful sense, and certainly--both in the ashram and out--tasty prasad rocks and rules. Lovingly prepared "monk food," saturated with bhakti, captures the sensory world of the cultivated.
Why keep the brahmacharis locked up, cloistered? For cultivating everyone except single ladies, a genuine monk apprentice is a strikingly impressive person--a gallant yet humble hero, as he circulates among guests and contacts who appreciate spiritual culture and integrity. Although the Western world has long discarded it--and the new India, lamentably, is racing to catch up--fundamental integrity is a prerequisite for a good and just human society. Brahmacharis and their abode should radiate this spiritual jewel.
"Who me--marry a former brahmachari?" Whether in the material or the ISKCON society, ladies know it's so hard these days to find a good man. Pulverized and vulgarized by today's hedonistic overload, men have lost their backbone, their stamina, their reliability. Indeed, racking up the hits in the girl-getting game, stripped of sober intelligence and fortitude, men have lost their very self. Lady devotees, please meditate upon Prabhupada's statement that the brahmachari ashram is the best training for both those renunciant candidates who remain lifelong as well as for those who choose to graduate. "Especially meant for training both the attached and the detached," the genuine program of monk apprenticeship generates an important and socially attractive by-product. It benefits Vaishnavis as a lucrative wellspring of future marriage candidates--that is, for the discriminating lady who has on her mind steady progress back to Godhead.
Obviously, outside of India, statistics show that a significant number of brahmacharis will eventually choose to marry. Lucky is the lady who gets a man who has practiced sense control, even at least for some years. A solid assurance that a potential husband will be Krishna conscious in the future is the time he has spent as an authentic, progressive brahmachari in the past. Realistically speaking, even if after marriage such a man dips in his practice, generally after some time, he'll eventually re-stabilize himself, remembering the sweet taste for bhakti knowledge and its practice, so heartily experienced during his apprenticeship days. Difficult it is, no doubt, to revive something never acquired.
The entire ISKCON devotional community can feel pride in a real brahmachari ashram. Householders, the vast majority in ISKCON, want to see monk apprentices who are industrious, competent, hard-working, morally upright, and psychologically wholesome. No one benefits from the negative: lazy, goal-less, irresponsible men, who seem to loiter in the ashram just to escape getting on with their life. "I don't want to get married now, and I don't want to work, so I think I'll be a brahmachari . . . ." That rationale won't get a man far, in a genuine ashram. Actually, that mindset should never even enter the ashram, from the onset. More on this later, in Part 3.