CLEANLINESS IS A WAY TO GODLINESS

 

 

 CLEANLINESS IS A WAY TO GODLINESS

                                                                     “HAPPY DIWALI”

                      

  “Cleanliness is next to Godliness” is a widespread proverb that signifies an importance of cleanliness in our day to day life. The paramount importance of cleanliness has been ingrained within us since our childhood and the various acts of practising cleanliness at home like washing hands before and after meals, before prayers and after outdoor plays etc. emphasises upon the similar fact. However, the limited understanding and the finite minds during our childhood have made us to feel that the practice of cleanliness is always synonymous with the maintenance of personal hygiene and surrounding cleanliness only.

                             Forget about the childhood understanding, even the brand ambassadors, celebrities and social workers with infinite minds and broader understanding have circumscribed the practice of cleanliness to a mere clean and neat physical state only. A clean India campaign and a central government initiative, Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, is a prime example of this fact. The prominent figures at the realm of affairs who were supposed to enlighten the masses about the real meaning of cleanliness have limited themselves to the mere photo ops with broom in their hands and raising slogans of keeping surroundings clean, a reflection of the same kind of mind-set and finite thought process that considers cleanliness equivalent to a mere physical cleanliness only.

                             

The clean surrounding, undoubtedly, is a key to healthy society as living in a clean environment has a positive impact on health, keeps people disease free, optimises psychological health and indirectly helps in promoting the socio-economic growth within the society. However, to become “Godly” it is not our physical bodies that need cleansing, but our soul and mind that must be washed of immorality. The actual importance of cleanliness in human life, therefore, should move beyond the physical cleanliness to the spiritual growth and purity of body, mind and soul. The main aim and the focus of any awareness programme, therefore, should be to purify the thought processes and clean the minds so that not only the surroundings, but also the humans themselves are made neat and clean. In fact, the first step towards cleanliness should be to purify our mind and body so to avoid the entry of evil and disturbing thoughts in our mind and then gradually move forward to cleaning our surroundings.

                                  In the spiritual approach to cleanliness, our mind is analogous to the holy shrine and the body along with surroundings are akin to the establishment around that shrine. It is our religious obligation to keep the shrine clean from both within and without while it is our social obligation to keep the surroundings neat and clean. The mere cleaning of surroundings and the whole establishment around shrine without keeping the shrine in itself clean is not religiously approved. Similarly, keeping the surroundings clean without working on self should not be socially acceptable. Every attempt should, therefore, be made to keep the body, mind, soul and surroundings clean so that one can get spiritually connected with God.  

                                Since the highest form of worshiping is purifying oneself, cleanliness is, therefore, a virtue and is as good as worshiping or performing religious obligations. It purifies the mind of immorality, inculcates the blissful thoughts and keeps body healthy in a backdrop of clean surroundings. Therefore, cleanliness is a way to Godliness rather than being next to Godliness and every human needs to strive to uphold this fact and understand that the God and religion will make sense only if our thoughts are clean and we carry a blissful mind; otherwise we all will fail miserably to understand them both.

Dr. Pawan Suri