Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 7.12.7

varjayet pramadā-gāthām

agṛhastho bṛhad-vrataḥ

indriyāṇi pramāthīni

haranty api yater manaḥ

SYNONYMS

varjayet — must give up; pramadā-gāthām — talking with women; agṛhasthaḥ — a person who has not accepted the gṛhastha-āśrama (a brahmacārī or sannyāsī); bṛhat-vrataḥ — invariably observing the vow of celibacy; indriyāṇi — the senses; pramāthīni — almost always unconquerable; haranti — take away; api — even; yateḥ — of the sannyāsī; manaḥ — the mind.

TRANSLATION

A brahmacārī, or one who has not accepted the gṛhastha-āśrama [family life], must rigidly avoid talking with women or about women, for the senses are so powerful that they may agitate even the mind of a sannyāsī, a member of the renounced order of life.

PURPORT

Brahmacarya essentially means the vow not to marry but to observe strict celibacy (bṛhad-vrata). A brahmacārī or sannyāsī should avoid talking with women or reading literature concerning talks between man and woman. The injunction restricting association with women is the basic principle of spiritual life. Associating or talking with women is never advised in any of the Vedic literatures. The entire Vedic system teaches one to avoid sex life so that one may gradually progress from brahmacarya to gṛhastha, from gṛhastha to vānaprastha, and from vānaprastha to sannyāsa and thus give up material enjoyment, which is the original cause of bondage to this material world. The word bṛhad-vrata refers to one who has decided not to marry, or in other words, not to indulge in sex life throughout his entire life.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness