Connecting all thoughts to God is a perfect way to overcome temptations. Raising counter-thought may be considered an intellectual process. But something closer to one’s heart takes place when we earnestly remember the Divine or any holy personality that appeals to us. This remembrance fills our whole mind with God and naturally prevents it from rushing out towards sense objects. By daily dwelling on the pure life, character, and personality of divine incarnations and holy persons our ego slowly absorbs their noble attributes and undergoes a complete change. This has the power to create in our mind a shield that protects us from the influence of negative impulses.
Those who are always in a higher mood experience less
temptation. It is only when a person forgets the higher Self and dwells on a
worldly plane that temptations come upon him or her frequently. The moment one
slackens in the remembrance of one’s ishta devata, the Chosen Ideal, the mind
comes down and starts feeling worldly attractions. The practice of connecting
all thought to one’s personal deity is immensely beneficial for the observance of
brahmacharya or celibacy. When one develops intense love for the Personal Deity,
one is not troubled by lust.
How can we connect every thought to God? There are several
ways. For instance, if a person attracts us, we can set the image of our ishta
or chosen ideal against the image of that person, and then purposely and lovingly
think and meditate on the image of our ishta. In this way the passion we experience
towards a particular person is diverted towards God. Another method is to think
that our ishta is present in the person that attracts us and try to direct our feelings
towards the Divine rather than at the particular person.
Source - excerpts from article titled 'Brahmacharya and Its Practice' by Swami Yukteshananda published in the Prabuddha Bharata Magazine January 2010 issue.