CHAPTER III. Shaucham.
SOHAUCHAM , or Shaucha, consists of the rules laid down for keeping bodily purity, and thus ensuring physical health and strength. Disease is a sign that some law of nature has been disregarded, and the Rishis—knowing that the laws of nature are the laws of God, the expression of His being, and that the Jiva is a portion of God enveloped in matter— have treated obedience to the aws of nature as a religious duty.
The visible body, with its invisible double, the Pranamayakosha, being made of physical materials, it is necessary to use physical means to make them pure, and to keep them pure, and we need to understand them in order to do this.
The visible body, the Annamayakosha, is com[1]posed of particles drawn from the food we eat, the liquids we drink, the air we breathe, and from a constant rain of minute particles, too tiny for us to see, that falls upon us continually from the people and the things around us. This last statement may sound a little strange, but it is true. Our bodies are not made of dead matter, for there is no such thing as dead matter. Matter is made or tiny living things called atoms, and of other tiny living things that are collections of atoms. A grain of dust is a collection of myriads upon myriads of tiny living creatures, and there are grades upon grades of these minute lives, till we come to what are called microbes, that can be seen with the help of microscopes. Now these microbes and the other smaller lives are all floating about in the air, and our bodies and all things are made up of these. Stones, plants, animals, human beings and all the manufactured things round us, houses, furniture, clothes are constantly giving off clouds of these particles. Everything near and still more, everything we touch, gives us some of its particles and we give it some of ours. If we are to be healthy, we must only take into our bodies pure particles and drive away impure ones, the rules of Shaucha are intended to show us how to[1]do this.
The food we eat must be pure. Now all things are becoming more alive, or are getting nearer death; are being built up, or are being destroyed.
Pure food is becoming more alive, has life in it which is unfolding : its next natural stage is one of “ higher integration,” that is, of greater complexity. Fresh leaves and fruits, grains and roots, are full of life which is unfolding; we take that life into our bodies, and it builds them up. These things become impure if they are stale, for the life is then departing; they are on the way to death. All flesh is more or less impure, because its indwelling life has been driven from it, and it is ready to decay; its next natural stage is one of “disintegration,” that is, of breaking up into simpler forms; the body built by it is more liable to disease than the body built of plant-products, wounds heal less quickly, and fevers run higher.
Of liquids, pure water is necessary to health, and infusions of herbs in it, such as tea, coffee and cocoa, taken in moderation, are harmless and often useful. Milk is at once food and drink of the purest kind. Every form of drink into which alcohol enters is impure, and most harmful to the body. It is fermented liquor, that is liquor in which decomposition has begun, and it injures the tissues of the body, and is a distinct poison to the brain. Especially it is mischievous in a hot cli[1]mate, bringing about premature decay and early death. So also are drinks impure into which enter such stupefying drugs as Indian hemp— the popular but health destroying bhang.
Pure air is as necessary to health as pure food and drink. As we breathe, we send out a gas. called carbon dioxide, which is stupefying, and if we shut ourselves into a confined space, all the air in it becomes laden with this, and unfit to breathe, further the breath carries out with it waste particles from the interior of the body, and unless the fresh air blows these away, they are breathed in again into our lungs and those Of others, and are poisonous in their effects. We must not only build up our bodies out of clean materials, but we must keep the surface of the body clean by frequent washing and bathing. The whole body must be bathed, at least once everyday, and well rubbed in bathing, so that all loose particles may be washed away, and the skin kept clean and fresh. Any part of the body that becomes soiled, feet, hands, etc., should be washed and washing before and after food must never be omitted. To eat with unwashed hands is to run the risk of soiling the food with dust and other injurious particles, and the washing after food is obviously imperati%7e. The garments next the body should also be washed daily.
The Hindu, ever accustomed to look at the outer world as the symbol of the inner, has joined to his outer ablutions the idea of inner purification. As he washes the outer body, he repeats mantras for the purifying of the inner bodies, and thus weaves his religion into the commonest incidents of daily life.
Students will now see why the Rishis were so particular about cleanliness. A person with a dirty body, or with dirty clothes, fills the air round him with impure particles, and poisons the people round him. We must be clean, not only for our own sakes, but for the sake of those around us. A dirty person, dirty clothes, dirty houses, are centres of poison, public dangers.
The purity of the Pranamayakosha depends on the magnetic currents in it. It is quickly affected by the magnetic properties of surrounding objects, and we have therefore to be careful on this point also. Thus some plant-products and plants, while harmless to the Annamayakosha, are very injurious to the Pranamayakosha, such as onions and garlic. Their magnetism is worse than that of flesh. This kosha is also most seriously affected by alcoholic emanations, and by the Pranamayakoshas of others.
What is still more important is that it is affected ; his own Manomayakosha and, through it, by those of others. Hence the dangers of bad company. Now the purity of the Manomayabosha depends on the purity of its owner’s thoughts and desires, and herein lies the most fertile source of impurity in the Annamaya and Pranamayaboshas. These two physical koshas cannot be pure and healthy if the thoughts and desires are impure. A man may observe the rules of Shaucha to the last point of Strictness, but if he be proud, passionate, harsh, vain, suspicious, he is pouring impurity into these koshas faster than any rules can wash it out. In the eyes of the Rishis and the Jevas such a one is ever ashuchi.
“Far from his dAvelling let him remove excre[1]ment, far the water used for washing his feet, far the leavings of food, and bath water.”
Being purified by sipping water, he shall always daily worship in the two twilights with a collected mind, in a puce place, performing Japa according to rule.”
“Having washed, the twice-born should eat food always with a collected mind; having eaten, let him rinse well and sprinkle the sense-organs, with water.”
“Wisdom, austerity, fire, food, earth, mind, water, plastering, wind, rites, the sun and time are the purifiers of bodies.”
“The body is purified by water, the mind by truth, the soul by knowledge and austerity, the reason by wisdom.”
“Verily there is no purifier in this world like wisdom.”
“Even if the most sinful worship Me with undivided heart, he too must be accounted righteous, for he hath rightly resolved ; “Speedily he becometh dutiful and goeth to everlasting peace. Know thou, 0 Kaunteya, that my devotee perisheth never.”
