Cleanliness & Purity - How ?

Cleanliness Concept

Cleanliness has great significance in Hinduism. Heaven (swarg) is a pure realm. The earth (bhu) and the mid-region (bhuva) are mixed worlds, and the underworld (patala) is an impure place. They only can reach the heaven (svah) who are pure like the heavenly beings. Therefore, Hindu scriptures emphasize the importance of cleanliness and purity in the physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing of humans upon earth, and prescribe self-purification for salvation.

Mortal life is an impure life. The mortal world is an impure world. Hence, whoever lives upon the earth and suffers from births and deaths is not free from impurities. In the mortal world, beings accumulate impurities for various reasons. They may arise due to one’s own actions, the actions of others or the acts of God. 

In Hinduism, cleanliness is an important virtue and the Bhagavad Gita describes it as one of the divine qualities which one must practice. The Sanskrit word for cleanliness is shauch. The importance of shauch can be clearly ascertained by the fact that Bhagavad Gita repeats this word in five slokas. 

But what is it that makes house cleaning a compulsory practice during Diwali? According to popular Hindu belief, Goddess Laxmi resides in cleanliness. So, the cleaner the house is, the greater are the chances for the deity to shower blessings on your house. Besides, Goddess Laxmi is also considered the goddess of wealth – and we all want to welcome her in our houses.

The Scientific Reason? It is not Diwali when people start cleaning or renovating the house. As soon as Chaumasa (Rainy Season) ends, several Indians starts cleaning the house. India is a tropical country where most of the dust is generated from heat and side by side, the rainy season produced several insects/germs. It was an old tradition that once the rainy season is over and humidity reached too low then we Indians starts cleaning the house either whitewash or applying cow-dung (old house) which was used as a disinfectant. This removed/killed germs/insects from houses. Further, a cleaned house is always good to maintain a healthy life.

How to Approach Cleaning the House
1. Some of these tips shared by Marie Kondo come in handy home light and bright.
2. Keep only those objects which bring out the excitement in us.
3. When we start organizing our things, rather than going room by room, or space by space, we attempt to do item by item, like books first, then utensils then clothes etc.
4. It's important to finish a task that we started to ensure that we reach a sense of completeness.
5. The drawer or the box where we keep all extra is a good place, to begin with. generally, these are the places where we keep our extras, which never come in use.
6. While beginning it's difficult to even imagine myself doing this. So I begin with the simple stuff which I can finish easily and fast. Can look at the order to be: clothes, books, papers, miscellaneous, and, finally, memories.
7. Arranging clothes by type will help in easy arrangement and finding as per need.
8. A certain way of keeping clothes comes in handy in identifying as they become visually appealing. it's called Vertical Folding of items.

Marie Kondo shared with us the Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing - We have so many things in our house which we do not use in years. We bought them in anticipation that we like them and may come in handy at some point in time. To make our surroundings lighter and more congenial for us to stay, we need to get rid of things which are not useful. Easier said than done. Only because we have no idea how to choose the things we need from those which we do not.
Simple, discard what does not make us happy.

Cleaning in Business

We cleaned our House – How to clean our workplace? Everything I Have is important – after all – I MEAN BUSINESS!

Red tags are a simple, but critical, tool used in the first step of 5S which is an integral part of the Lean and KAIZEN™ process. A red tag system is simply a communication tool used to identify items that a person has flagged for removal from a work area. While the tagging is most frequently done during kaizen events, it can be done at any time.

In a nutshell, when a person finds an item that they either don’t know what it is or is not needed in a process, they tag it. The red tag acts as a signal to everyone else in the area that someone intends to move the item out of the work area at some point in the near future. This leads to a discussion about the item, and ultimately, a decision about whether or not the item stays or goes.

Cleaning Body & Soul – How to?

Shuddi Kriyas are detoxifying/cleansing practises that remove dietary/ emotional/ environmental toxins as well as waste by-products of metabolic processes, to cleanse, detox and make pristine your body, mind, spirit, soul and energy. This is a great way to wellness and prevents a host of diseases. 

Sometimes however yogic practices alone may not suffice, especially in chronic conditions or if a diseased state is already in an advanced stage - in which case one would have to undergo a much deeper, more comprehensive cleansing in the form of Ayurvedic Panchakarma.

The six cleansing processes are Neti, Kapal Bhati, Dhauti, Basti (Enema), Nauli and Trataka. These kriyas clean the eyes, respiratory system, food pipe and tone up the abdominal viscera and the intestines. They also build up resistance to diseases, sharpen the mind and wash the colon.

The Sudarshan Kriya of the Art of Living school of yoga is for cleansing negative emotions and stress that gathers within the body.

CONCLUSION

The body is cleansed by water, the internal organ is purified by truthfulness, the individual soul by sacred learning and austerities, and the intellect by (true) knowledge. Manu Smriti (1.109)

 

The Purity of  Karma is brought by Seva, Dhan By Daan, Mann By Saadhna.

Let us take up something for each of the aspects of our life – HOME – BUSINESS – BODY & SOUL to succeed in our aspirations. Cleanliness / Shuddhi holds a special place as the civilizations have grown and become established. It becomes more important when godliness is unlikely.