Day 88
With personal hygiene and cleanliness, your attachment to the physical body is lifted up. You become more aware of your inner Self - the light and inner body that you are, craving for certain parts of the body begins in our mind, because one does not understand this body totally.
Underneath this skin, it is all bones, flesh, nerves, etc. This lack of total understanding of the body brings up different forms of obsessions and mania in people. They cannot be satisfied with anything but their obsessions and they become violent.
That is why there are many crimes of sex are committed. It is lack of understanding of one's own body. Shaucha, cleanliness establishes sattva shuddhi - the mind becomes sattvic, the brain, the buddhi and the intellect gets purified. Saumanasya - the mind becomes even and harmonious.
There is one-pointedness and control over one's sense organs. It is the ability to realise one's Self comes to you because of this purity. When you are unhappy or depressed, you avoid being in contact with anybody. This is natural. It is inbuilt in our system.
At such times, you want to be away from everybody and just be by yourself. This is very natural. Not being in contact with anybody can bring about a certain amount of purity in you. It can awaken the ability to realize yourself. It can make your brain and mind more one-pointed.
It can bring clarity in thinking. That is why most of the Great works in the world have come up in solitude. A person has to be alone to write a great poem. A great painter wants to be alone when he wants to paint something. However, sometimes people take this to extremes.
They feel that having no contact means not even being touched. People shy away from others. This science has been misused, in various ways. But this is a truth. If you so not touch anybody or are not be in contact with anybody for a day or two, your mind will get back to its shape. These are the effects of shaucha.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji
PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS
