Staying clean
The Five Niyamas: Shauch (Cleanliness)
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Om Sri Gurubhyo Namah. Salutations to all the teachers.
The limbs of Yoga move systematically from the outside inwards, stabilising the more external aspects so that the Yogi can move further inwards with ease. In this vein, while the Yamas (the first limb of Yoga, which we have discussed at length over the past several weeks) deal with the Yogi’s interactions with the external world, the second limb - the Niyamas - deal with the Yogi’s personal conduct.
The word “Niyama” (pronounced knee-yum) means “observance”, “stipulation”, “rule”, or “convention.” In Yoga, the Niyamas can be viewed as guardrails - designing one’s life in such a way that thoughts about personal conduct (ie. the “things you need to do”) are no longer a distraction for the Yogi. Practising the Niyamas (using the four keys to practice) results in less vrittis, weakened kleshas, and a generally more joyful, calm, and clear mind.
To make this clear, consider a time when you tried to sit for meditation, or a time when you had to concentrate on anything at all. It is a matter of direct experience that thoughts like “I need to do the laundry”, “I need to prepare for that thing at work”, “I need to wash the dishes”, and so on, arise continuously. The purpose of the Niyamas is to clear up these thoughts from the mind by dealing with them at the level of our daily life.
So what’s the difference between the Yamas and the Niyamas? The Yamas, are abstinences - things that the Yogi must avoid or desist from. For example, ahimsa is to desist from violence, satya, or truthfulness is to desist from speaking lies, ill of others, too much, etc., asteya is to desist from stealing, and so on.
As opposed to this, the Niyamas are positive actions - things that the Yogi must actively do. For example, the Niyama of shaucha - the topic of this article - means that the Yogi must actively cultivate cleanliness, not just desist from uncleanliness.
P: Wait a second. Isn’t this just a play of language? Isn’t desisting from violence the same thing as cultivating non-violence?
Jogi: Not exactly. The status quo is non-violence - that is your natural state. Due to avidya, however, one may commit violence. It is the same way for the other Yamas as well. The natural state is to speak truthfully (consider the innocence of a child), but due to conditioning, one may tell a lie.
P: How is it different with the Niyamas?
Jogi: With the Niyamas, the status quo (doing nothing) is a violation. For example, unless you make an active effort to cleanse the body, it will automatically become unclean. Unless you make an active effort to be content, the mind will run outwards towards objects. Unless you make an active effort to do your tapas, you will fall prey to the dualities of heat, cold, etc.
An additional difference is that while the Yamas are to be practised at all times, in all places and circumstances (ie. The Yogi always avoids violence, always avoids stealing, and so on), the Niyamas can be qualified by time and place. That is, while they can certainly be practised as mahaavrats - at all times, in all places, etc. - they are also specific activities that you can actively do at particular times and places (e.g. you shower regularly, but you are not always showering). The Niyamas are the first place in the eight-limbed Yoga where a formal routine is prescribed.
However, there is also a similarity. Just like the Yamas, the Niyamas are a method to weaken the four confusions of avidya, increase vivek, and clear the mind using one’s daily life and activities as a tool.
Note: If you would like more context on any of the words used above, click on any of the words coloured green to open the related article.
There are five Niyamas:
Shauch: Cleanliness
Santosh: Contentment
Tapah: Self-discipline
Svaadhyaay: Self-study
Ishvarpranidhaan: Self-surrender
Notice, the last three on the list are identical with Kriya Yoga, which can be practised independently from the eight limbs, and form an excellent preliminary practice to weaken the kleshas and increase will-power. If you missed the articles on Kriya Yoga, you can find them here and here.
This week, we will discuss the first Niyama - shauch, or cleanliness.
Shauch: Cleanliness
Shauch (pronounced shaw-chuh) means cleanliness, and is divided into two categories - internal and external cleanliness. Additionally, it can be practised in two ways - as a mahaavrat (in all times, in all places, with all people, and in all circumstances), and as qualified by time and place.
External shauch
External shauch has a few aspects to it. The first is the cleanliness of the body.
The Yogi must take care of their body and make sure that it is free from dirt, grime, excrement, and bodily fluids that may accumulate over the course of one’s daily activities. In practice, this looks like taking regular showers, washing one’s hands regularly, brushing one’s teeth, and using soap, water, and other cleansing substances to make sure that the physical body is free from impurities.
This has the effect of clearing the mind.
As with everything in Yoga, don’t just take it on faith - try it for yourself. As an experiment, you can try sitting for meditation immediately after your shower, and compare this to another day where you sit for meditation while the body is still dirty.
You will likely find that the cleaner the body is, the clearer the mind feels as well.
As a matter of fact, numerous studies have shown that cleanliness of the body and the space around a person results in better physical and mental health outcomes. Higher levels of clutter and dirt result in higher cortisol levels (the stress hormone), and may result in a higher likelihood of depression. Additionally, a lack of cleanliness makes it more difficult to focus, and even affects sleep quality.
In terms of the gunas, this apparent “clearing” of the mind is a clearing of rajas and tamas, which cover up the underlying sattva as dirt covers a mirror, thus perpetuating avidya. In this way, physical cleanliness is a method to weaken the kleshas and reduce avidya, thus helping the Yogi to move further inwards with ease.
There is a deeper meaning to this as well. By the practice of constantly cleaning the body, it becomes clear that the body is ultimately unclean, and that no amount of cleaning will cleanse it completely. In this way, it uncovers the illusion of cleanliness of the body, thus reducing avidya.
But that’s not all. External shauch also includes eating clean food, and not consuming intoxicants.
P: What? Why?
Unclean food leads to disease, and this is a hindrance to the practice of Yoga (if you recall, vyaadhi, or disease, is the first of the nine obstacles to Yoga).
P: Sure, I get that, but what about intoxicants?
Intoxication leads to tamas in the mind. When we drink, smoke, or otherwise consume any intoxicant, we can directly experience this tamas as the lack of mental clarity and lucidity we feel. In fact, we often make the excuse “I was just drunk” or “I was just high” - which indicates that the decisions made at that point in time were not of a sound mind. In Yoga, the entire goal is to clear the mind, and so it is no surprise that intoxication is contrary to the goals of Yoga.
Rishi Charaka, who is this widely considered to be the father of Ayurveda (the ancient Indian science of medicine), says in his work the Charaka Samhita:1
प्रेत्य चेह च यच्छ्रेयः श्रेयो मोक्षे च यत् परम् | मनःसमाधौ तत् सर्वमायत्तं सर्वदेहिनाम् ||५२||मद्येन मनसश्चास्य सङ्क्षोभः क्रियते महान् | महामारुतवेगेन तटस्थस्येव शाखिनः ||५३||मद्यप्रसङ्गं तं चाज्ञा महादोषं महागदम् | सुखमित्यधिगच्छन्ति रजोमोहपराजिताः ||५४||मद्योपहतविज्ञाना वियुक्ताः सात्त्विकैर्गुणैः | श्रेयोभिर्विप्रयुज्यन्ते मदान्धा मदलालसाः ||५५||मद्ये मोहो भयं शोकः क्रोधो मृत्युश्च संश्रितः | सोन्मादमदमूर्च्छायाः सापस्मारापतानकाः ||५६||यत्रैकः स्मृतिविभ्रंशस्तत्र सर्वमसाधुवत् | इत्येवं मद्यदोषज्ञा मद्यं गर्हन्ति यत्नतः ||५७||For the human being, all things worthwhile in this life and the next, as well as the capability for Moksha depends upon the concentration of mind.
Alcohol causes significant agitation of the mind, as a storm agitates a tree. An ignorant person being influenced by rajas and tamas gets easily addicted to alcohol, and goes willingly towards obstacles [to Yoga] and disease.
Intoxicated by alcohol, with weakened sattva, one becomes blind through alcoholism and is easily addicted, thus depriving themselves of all things worthwhile in life.
Alcohol causes confusion, fear, grief, rage, death along with psychosis, intoxication, loss of consciousness, and spasms of the tendons.
Even when just memory is lost, everything can be lost; therefore those wise ones who know the disadvantages of alcohol intentionally stay away from it.
- Charaka Samhita, 6.24.52-57
P: But I like to have a beer every now and then!
Jogi: Good for you, just know that every time you do this, you are clouding your mind.
P: But isn’t that important? To cloud your mind a little so that you can relax?
Jogi: Can you relax without the beer?
P: (pauses) Not really.
Jogi: Why do you think that may be?
P: Without it, the mind feels restless. I need it to relax.
Jogi: We have found the root of the problem. The restlessness becomes clear when the mind is not intoxicated. The beer is not calming the mind, it is only shrouding the restlessness. In this way, the restlessness will continue to exist, hidden, and will reveal itself the moment the effects of the alcohol wear off.
It is like there are snakes in a pond, but you don’t want to see them, so you pour in some dirt to cloud the water, and then say “the snakes are gone!”
When the dirt settles, the snakes will seem to magically reappear, but they were there all along.
P: So should I not drink?
Jogi: That’s not what is being said. Drink if you want to, there is nothing “wrong” with it. However, know that it is not solving your problem. Rather, it is only giving you temporary respite by covering up the restlessness for a short while. The more you prolong solving the underlying restlessness, the harder it will be to solve. But ultimately, the decision is yours, there is no compulsion.
The Result of External Shauch
As with each of the Yamas, each Niyama also has a companion sutra which describes the result when the Yogi is completely established in its practice.
शौचात् स्वाङ्गजुगुप्सा परैरसंसर्गः।shauchaat svaAngaJugupsaa parairAsamsargahWhen [the Yogi] is established in [external] shaucha, the distaste for one’s own physical body arises, along with the distaste for physical contact with others.
- Yoga Sutras 2.40
Through the practice of keeping the body and surroundings clean, the Yogi develops a clarity of mind about the reality of the body. That is, no matter how much you try to keep the body clean, it will continuously produce substances and smells. It becomes viscerally clear that keeping the body clean is a Sisyphean task.
When this happens, the desire of the Yogi to realise their true nature as Purusha, independent of the body, increases. What’s more, it becomes more and more clear that the body is an object in your experience - something to take care of and maintain - rather than oneself. This direct experience propels the Yogi towards furthering their practice of Yoga.
Additionally, seeing that the body requires tremendous effort to keep clean, and seeing it clearly as a decomposing bag of skin filled with blood, bones, and other abhorrent substances, the desire to come in contact with the bodies of others also decreases.
This can be clearly seen in our lives today, where due to the pandemic, most of us have created a habit of regularly washing our hands regularly. Notice, how do you feel when you touch door handles, elevator buttons, or other common property? How do you feel about shaking hands with another person? How is it different from before the pandemic when you may not have washed your hands as frequently?
This phenomenon is described in a traditional story:
Once, there was a king who went hunting in the forest. As the hours went by, he began to get thirsty, and started wandering in search of water. As he searched, he eventually came upon a secluded hermitage, and was greeted by a beautiful young woman. As it turns out, she had been raised by the Yogi who once lived in the hermitage, and was a Brahmagyaani herself (a knower of Brahman, aka Enlightened).
Seeing her, the king was overcome with desire. Unable to control himself, he propositioned her for sex. Hearing this, and seeing the lust in the king’s eyes, the woman decided to awaken him to the reality of the body. She asked the king to return after a month, after which she would accept his proposal and allow him to taste the nectar of her beauty, if he still wanted. The king readily accepted this idea, and headed back towards his palace.
As the month went by, the woman took laxatives and purges, and collected all of her vomit, urine, faeces, and other bodily discharges in clay pots, placing them all around the hermitage. When the time came, the king returned, and was greeted by the woman, who now looked dishevelled, dirty, and mere skin and bones. When he asked her what had happened to her beauty, she presented the king with the clay pots in which she had stored all of her bodily discharges, indicating that therein lay the nectar of her beauty, which had been promised to him.
Seeing this, the king immediately realised his foolishness, and overcame his avidya. He fell at the feet of the woman, and recognised her as his Guru.
If you stop for a moment to consider, one has to work tremendously hard to make the body seem attractive. What’s more, no matter how much work one puts in, if the attention slips momentarily, the body can easily make embarrassing noises, or release gas or other discharges that immediately break the spell of eroticism. The veil of ignorance (or rather ignore-ance) is so thin that even just speaking or thinking about the truth of the body’s unclean nature can pierce it.
In this way, by the continuous practice of external shaucha, the Yogi stops fantasising about sexually enjoying or exploiting others. However, this doesn’t mean that they stop enjoying the body. The body can still be appreciated in other ways as a vehicle for Yoga, as a temple for Realization, and as a tool to fulfil one’s will.
Note, in today’s culture in the West, this may be viewed as a bad thing. However, in terms of Yoga, a weakening (or rather a mastery) of the sexual urge is extremely useful in that it leads to the mind being less scattered, and allows more of the Yogi’s energy to be diverted towards increasing will-power, concentrating the mind, and practising Yoga.
Internal shauch
Internal shauch consists of the clearing of rajasic and tamasic influences in the mind. This includes things like jealousy, vanity, hatred, ill-will, anger, delusion, sense-desire, and so on. The term for these kinds of mental happenings is chitta-mala, literally “mental dirt”, and clearing these is a preliminary aspect to the practice of Yoga.
The method for internal shauch is the four attitudes - friendliness, compassion, gladness, and equanimity, applied in specific situations so as to keep the mind calm. This aspect of shauch is an excellent example of how Yoga systematically builds upon itself.
We have already gone over these in some detail in this previous article, so we will not go over them again. However, as a reminder, here are the four situations, and how they map to the four attitudes:
Cultivating these particular attitudes in these specific situations leads to mental calm and clarity (aka sattva), where cultivating any other attitude will lead to mental turbulence, rumination, and agitation.
The result of internal shauch
सत्त्वशुद्धिसौमनस्यैकाग्र्येन्द्रियजयात्मदर्शनयोग्यत्वानि च।sattvaShuddiSaumanasyaEkaagryaIndriyaJayaAtmaDarshanaYogyatvaani chaWhen the mind of the Yogi is cleansed, [five consecutive results occur. They are:] increase of sattva, cheerfulness, intentional focus, mastery over the senses, and fitness for Self-realization.
- Yoga Sutras, 2.41
As mentioned previously, clearing out rajasic and tamasic influences such as jealousy, vanity, pride, and so on reveals the underlying sattva in the mind. This results in feelings of pleasantness, cheerfulness, gladness, and general high-mindedness.
Another way to look at this is that the buddhi is strengthened (another word for buddhi is sattva)2. This means that the Yogi now has complete control over what goes on in their mind, and can focus their attention on what they choose, rather than following where the senses and the manas decide they want to go. This can be likened to a charioteer who was once not strong enough to control their horses, and so had no choice but to be dragged around at the horses’ pleasure. Once the charioteer exercises and practices to gain muscle and skill, however, they are able to control the horses and travel to destinations of their choice, rather than following the whims of the horses.
This ability to control attention with the buddhi enables the one-pointedness of mind, which is critical to the later limbs of dharana, dhyaan, and samadhi, and thus enables the Yogi to have a direct experience of the Self3 - the Ultimate goal of Yoga.
Until next week:
Try keeping the body and surroundings as clean as possible at all times, making a habit out of physical cleanliness. This also includes limiting (or eliminating) your use of intoxicants.4 Once the initial cravings and difficulty have passed, notice how the mind feels. You can use the three categories of sattva, rajas, and tamas to categorize your mental state. Take notes to keep track.
Apply the four attitudes throughout your day, and notice how the mind feels. Does it feel more sattvic? Take notes.
Finally, if you have a regular meditation practice, make sure to take your shower just before. Additionally, as you sit down for meditation, notice any rajasic or tamasic mental dirt, and clear it up using the four attitudes. Notice how these practices affect your meditation.
Next time: The Great Thirst: Trishnaa
In the same work, Charaka also discusses the positive mental and physical effects of a moderate use of alcohol. However, for the purposes of Yoga, intoxicants delay samadhi - the eighth and final limb of Yoga - due to their inhibiting effects on the mind.
Technically speaking, the Self can never be an object, just as a fire cannot burn itself or an eye cannot see itself without a mirror. The method of Yoga is to maximise sattva so that the mind becomes like a clean mirror, and reflects the Self back to the Self, thus triggering Realization (aka Moksha) in a sort of “aha moment.”
This is a lot easier said than done. If you feel that the urge to consume alcohol, or any other intoxicating substance is too strong to get rid of, this is a sign that you should start with the preliminary practices of Kriya Yoga, Ek-Tattva-Abhyaas, and the Brahmavihaaras. Feel free to reach out directly by responding to this email or on the subreddit at r/EmptyYourCup.