सत्त्वशुद्धिसौमनस्यैकाग्र्येन्द्रियजयात्मदर्शन योग्यत्वानि च ॥२.४०॥
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śaucāt svāṅgajugupsā parairasaṃsargaḥ ||2.40||
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‍“Through cleanliness and purity of body and mind, comes a purification of the essence, a goodness and gladness of feeling, a sense of focus, mastery and union of the senses and a fitness, preparation and capability for self-realisation.”

Saucha is the first, and possibly the most important niyama. It translates as “purity”, “cleanliness” or “clarity”, referring to the purity in body, mind and spirit required to attain yoga. On a gross level, saucha refers to proper cleanliness of the body and surroundings, regular bathing and removal of stagnant energy from one’s body and environment. In the famous Hatha Yoga text called Gehrand Samhita, a seven-limbed system of yoga is expounded, which is slightly different from Patanjali’s yoga sutras in the sense that it begins with shat-karma, referring to the six physical cleanses of the body. Some examples of these are flushing the bowels with water, cleaning the tongue, irrigating the nasal canal etc. These practices are all physical, and are prescribed before any other practice, even prescribed before doing asanas. So, as you can see, even in other systems of yoga, cleanliness (an external form of saucha) is first and foremost. 

According to Patanjali, which is what we are studying here, shat-karmas are not prescribed, not even mentioned. Instead, he mentions the virtue of saucha as the be-all of physical, mental and spiritual cleanliness. Saucha incorporates all facets of cleanliness in its scope. 

In hindu philosophy, it is believed that one should have taken a bath prior to any spiritual practice. Arriving home from work to immediately sit for meditation is considered sacrilegious and inauspicious. First we must shower, clean the body, clean the mouth and put on fresh clothes before we may practise yoga. This way, we clear the work energy and start our spiritual practice on a blank canvas. In India, everywhere you go, people will tell you to take your shoes off before entering a home, a temple, a courtyard, many places! This is saucha, to maintain purity, to maintain the sanctity of a space. Actually, I feel, sanctity is the best translation of saucha, better than purity. Purity implies some people are impure, whereas sanctity simply means to recognize and be aware of the inherent goodness and sacredness of every object and every moment, and honouring that with our actions. To maintain sanctity. For example, if you can not take a bath before morning meditation, the guru will tell you to at least wash your hands, feet and mouth, for it is believed that we must only chant sacred mantras if the mouth has been cleaned first.  Saucha is the base of all successful sadhana (spiritual practice). 

Much in the same way that an artist starts their masterpiece on a pure, fresh, blank canvas, we must begin our spiritual discipline in a clean, pure, sanctified space. Trying to paint something new over something already existing leads to anxiety and confusion. So make sure you clean everything. Always start fresh. In the same way that you clean your kitchen utensils, one must clean our household utensils, furniture, desks, bedding, car, everything really. If you see something is unclean, even in the slightest way, fix it. If you have noticed it, you must do it. Seeing that the picture is hanging skew, fix it. Seeing that the desk and chair do not line up, fix it. If your intuition feels anything, listen to it. Do not suppress your intuition, no matter how small the thing is. Often, the smallest things carry the most potential for liberating our mind into perfect peace and joy in the present moment. There is so much satisfaction felt by interacting with proper things. Neat, clean and tidy things. Organisation is a source of energy. Saucha is organisation, thoroughness, attention to detail. Saucha is the ultimate expression of care. Perhaps you feel a slight cringe at the damp towel hanging over the chair. Do not ignore that cringe. Do not just leave it there, do something about it. Hang the towel outside. 

Make cleaning a ritual. Clean as an offering to God. Pick a day of the week for cleaning and stick to it. Even when you clean your body, think of it like you are cleaning God’s own instrument, so that we, as the instrument, may perform God’s work effectively. When you clean your house, imagine you are cleaning the house of God, of your beloved, and enjoy the process. You can play soothing music and sacred mantras, light incense and infuse your home with positive, spiritual vibrations. Pick flowers and place them around your home (and make sure to remove them when they die!). Keep the five elements around your house - earth (pot plants, rocks), water (vessels carrying pure water & flowers), fire (sunlight, candles, oil lamps, incense), air (fresh air, breeze) and ether (music, wind chimes, sound of running water). Keep these five elements in your environment and your mood will be healed of all negativity.

Never be focused on someone else’ practice. Do not fuss over what others do. Concentrate on your own practice. Everyone has a different understanding of saucha, of cleanliness. Do not criticise or complain about others. Put your head down and get on with your practice. Only if someone asks you a question, or if you want to know something important, then engage with others. Otherwise, do not be bothered by them. I once lived with a man who worked a lot in the garden, always with soil in his fingernails, matted hair, sweaty skin, body odour, covered in the elements of nature. We laughed at the difference of saucha between us, for he only liked to shower once a week, as his weekly ritual, meanwhile, I showered twice a day. He had a different understanding of saucha, he kept the kitchen very clean and pure, always washed his hands before cooking etc, his hygiene was good, but, when it came to his own body, he preferred the purity of the natural elements existing with him, rather than cleansing them off everyday. To him, being covered in nature was pure and was a blank canvas. He would not touch anything artificial, chemicals, soaps etc. But when it came to mud, sweat and dirt, he was fine with it all over him. So, for the external practices, we must find our own degree of saucha and maintain it. The external practices of saucha are simply there to help us develop saucha in the mind, leading to meditation. 

Everything has its proper place. Objects have spirits that must be worshipped. A table has a spirit, a book has a spirit, a glasses case has a spirit. To practise saucha means to respect and revere the spirit in all things. Do not be careless and throw things around. Place them nicely, care for them. Inanimate objects are not actually inanimate. Everything is living. Taking your glasses out of their case, do so with care, with devotion, with love. Every action is a meditation of devotion, of love. Walk as if this earth is asleep beneath your feet, so as not to wake her. There is a proper way to do everything. There is a proper way to water a pot plant, there is a proper way to pull a chair out from under a desk and sit on it. There is a proper way to tie your shoes, to serve a meal to a friend, to make a cup of tea. This is really saucha, to respect the spirit in all things, to respect the sanctity of all objects. Not just throwing our bag down at the end of the day, throwing the clothes on the floor, making a mess. Respect the spirit of the bag, the bag who wants to be emptied carefully and hanged nicely, taking the weight out of his straps and letting him rest for the evening. Respect the clothes, wash them, hang them, fold them, order them. Also let them rest in the cupboard, just in the same way you tuck a child in bed at night. 

This idea extends to respecting time, and taking the proper time for every activity and not rushing anything. Humans are intuitive beings, and we are so sensitive, all of us. The thing is, we have emphasised the thinking faculty over the feeling faculty, and now we are lost. We say “I think this” “I think that”. We are so stuck in the mind that we have forgotten to listen to our heart. We know that it takes half an hour to properly prepare our breakfast and enjoy it. So why do we allow ourselves to rush it? 

Every action is a ritual, known in Sanskrit as a puja. Washing your hands, dressing yourself, cooking a meal, planting a seedling, making a flower bouquet, shaking a hand, waving goodbye. Every action is a puja, and for any puja to be successful in the spiritualisation of consciousness, it must be infused with intention, concentration and devotion. All pujas, all actions, everything we do throughout the day moves us deeply, whether we are aware of it or not. All pujas, all actions leave deep impressions in our mind. If we do them properly, with intention, concentration and love, they bring spiritual growth and transformation. If we do them improperly, rushing, skipping steps, violating the sanctity of objects, they will bring us ruin, they will bring us very quickly into serious mental problems. Rushing is the worst thing you can do for your health. 

Thus, the deeper, spiritual definition of saucha means to maintain the sanctity of all our daily pujas, the way we do them, the ingredients we do them with etc. The spirit in which we do them. For example, stirring the soup with a fork because we're too lazy to get the right spoon. This is a violation, a misuse of the spirit of the fork, and thus, we have violated the puja. The action is improper, confusing and will leave deep unconscious impressions. Even if the ego mind thinks it's trivial and thinks it's funny, the unconscious mind will still be impressed. These things run very deep, you can not imagine the depth it reaches. You do not need to be religious or spiritual to practice puja. The truth is you can not escape from puja, even if you try. You can not escape action, and every action is puja, every breath is puja, whether you are aware of it or not. The only difference between religious people and non religious people is religious people do all actions, all their daily pujas with focus on their beloved God, whosoever the form, whereas “non-spiritual” people tend to do things without awareness of the function, the spirit, the intention and the ramification of the action. 

Another external aspect of saucha refers to purity of the diet & lifestyle, in the foods we eat and the energies we take in through the five senses; what we smell, taste, see, touch and hear. Showering often, putting on clean clothes, eating a healthy meal and then watching rubbish TV is not saucha. We must purify the input to all the senses organs, as well as the action organs. A real yogi eats through five mouths, and speaks through five gates. To practise saucha means to only take in pure food through all gates. This means smelling pure smells, not pollution, fuel, rotten things etc. What we taste with the tongue, this is obvious. What we see with our eyes, not looking at everything, but being discerning, and often choosing not to look. Do not look into the front window of the house as you walk past. You do not know what you will see, it is private, not for your eyes. What we touch with the skin, how we touch, what touches us (clothes, fabrics etc). What we hear, the words we hear, the music we listen to. When we are aware of these five gates, and we are discerning about what energy we allow in, then we can progress in saucha, in yoga. Similarly, we must be conscious of how we interact with the world around us through the five action organs. This means being aware of how and where we release wastes, how we use the genital organs, how we walk and move around, how we hold and touch others, how we use our hands, how we speak and what we say. Much in the same way that everything is a puja, all of these actions must be infused with love and devotion to attain saucha. 

There is no absolute end to any of these virtues, they are infinite. The yamas and niyamas come from the same eternal source, the same source of perfection which is God itself. As one evolves spiritually, saucha takes on deeper levels of meaning. Gradually, the sanctity becomes an internal virtue of the quality of the mind, the thoughts, the motivations and intentions we harbour. Saucha is perfected only when each and every thought reflects a pure and selfless motive, directed towards the good of all beings. Surrender is the ultimate expression of saucha, of purity. This refers to the total transcendence of greed, anger and selfish desire, to the point where the ego is deeply humbled (to the point of non-existence) and one rests in the original nature of God as the supreme being, free from the impurity of ahamkara, “I-consciousness”. In many schools of thought, the mind is considered impure, imaginary, unreal, abstract, tricky, bewitching, contraction, conditioning and limited. Thus, sublimation of the senses and mastery of the mind is perfection in saucha itself, allowing our real nature as eternal consciousness to transcend the mind and sport in its own bliss of unlimited vastness. 

This is the highest practice of saucha Actually, this is the final step of Patanjali’s yoga sutras, known as samadhi, meaning balanced intellect, free of thought. This perfection in saucha is samadhi, and ultimately, that is yoga. As we can see again, independently, all of these ten virtues culminate in yoga. We can follow any one of them as a spiritual path. Saucha is a good one to follow, to focus on, because it has many fun rituals and external practices that give immediate satisfaction, like sweeping the floor, after we see the result, and we feel better. Saucha bears fruit immediately and thus can be quickly realised as a valid path to self realisation.