Cleanliness is next to Godliness. Except for worship of God which is the primary duty of man, being clean is the next most important thing in our lives. We always give importance to bath, fresh clean clothes and personal hygiene. Cleanliness is a hallmark of a civilized man. Initially man learns to clean his body, clothes, his home and surroundings.
As man progresses, he learns to clean his mind and his emotions. He learns to watch and observe his thoughts, words and deeds and correct himself where necessary. He works on himself and gives up all negative qualities from within – anger, lust, attachment, greed, pride and vengeance. He first learns to control his negative actions, then his speech and finally learns control at the thought level where he does not think wrong of anyone.
Cleanliness is a matter of inner inclination. Some people are clean by nature. When we are clean, we are free from diseases. We are healthy and happy. We are cheerful. This helps us to work well and in a disciplined manner. Cleanliness is also a highly developed habit. Many people are very clean. And we find that many animals are also very clean and fastidious about personal hygiene. In order to be fully clean, we should also take care of the cleanliness of all our surroundings. This is an incident from the life of a royal horse which brings home the lesson of cleanliness:
Once upon a time, in a kingdom in India, a king had an excellent stable of horses. The finest horse was the King’s personal horse. The royal horse was bathed daily behind the palace. The grooms took him daily to the same shallow pool near the river and washed him. On a particular day, before the royal horse was taken for his bath to the shallow pool. Just a short time before, a very dirty horse had been washed in the same pool. He was a wild horse and had been just captured and never had a proper good bath in his life. The royal horse sniffed the air. He can smell the filth of the wild horse that had bathed there and fouled the water. He was disgusted and neighed and galloped back to the stables.
The grooms tried their best to get the royal horse back and bathe him but he did not cooperate. So they went to the King and complained that his favorite horse had suddenly turned rouge and was unmanageable and stubborn. The King was worried that his stallion had fallen sick and hence refused to bathe, be clean or obedient. He was definite that his noble steed would never let himself sink into dirtiness. So something was surely wrong. He sent his wise minister to look into the matter.
The minister went to the pool near the river. He saw the royal horse tied up there near a tree and the grooms trying their best to bathe him. The horse was in perfect health. He noticed that the horse was trying to breathe as little as possible. So the minister sniffed the air and found a slight dirty smell. He traced this dirty smell to the pool of water. Then he came to know that a very dirty horse was bathed there. The King’s horse was extremely clean and refused to bathe in the filthy smelly water. So he ordered the grooms to take the royal horse to the river itself and wash him there. The royal horse bathed happily in the clean water of the river and returned back pleased with himself. He refused to let himself sink into dirtiness!
We should also follow the example set by the royal horse. We should be fastidious about our physical cleanliness and keeping our homes and surroundings clean. We should take even greater care to keep our mind, thoughts and emotions clean. Only in a clean and empty mind, the Light of God can seen burning brightly. The clean inner self helps to unveil the presence of divinity within us and merge with the Universal Light. Let us be regular in the practice of SitaRam mantra, meditation and following the teachings of the Guru and achieve the external and internal cleanliness.
