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Self Transformation Awareness and Reflection Month Week 2

Cleanliness

A. Inspiration from the Source

Students have to pay great attention to another important quality: cleanliness, both outer and inner. When either of these is absent, the person becomes useless for any task. The clothes one wears, the books one reads, and the surrounding environment must be clean. This is the outer cleanliness. That is to say, every material object one has to deal with for living has to be kept clean. The teeth and eyes, food and drink, all should be free from dirt. One can be healthy as a result of all this. The body has to be scrubbed and washed every day, or else layers of dust will cause itching and boils will emerge. Not only will one’s condition be rendered miserable, but it may cause infections in others. One may possess only one or two sets of clothing, but care should be taken to wash them before wearing. They should not gather dirt.

 

Next, we consider inner cleanliness -  that is to say, keeping the mind and the intellect free from dirt, serene and sacred. When thoughts and feelings are impure and agitated, one cannot be calm and happy. When the mind is polluted, reactions are polluted. To keep the mind clean, one has to analyze sympathetically situations involving others and their activities and then decide on how to react to them. One should not rush to draw conclusions.

Vidya Vahini, Chapter 16

A person might be an expert in any field of knowledge or a master of many material skills and accomplishments. But without inner cleanliness his brain is a desert waste.

Sathya Sai Speaks: Volume 13, Chapter 29

You cannot be fresh and feeling fine, wearing a washed vest under an unwashed shirt; or, an unwashed vest over a washed shirt. Both have to be clean, to provide a sense of tingling joy. So too outer and inner cleanliness is but the reflection of the inner achievement.

Sathya Sai Speaks: Volume 10, Chapter 4

Questions for Self - Reflection and Center Study Circle Discussion

  1. What in my physical surroundings or daily habits could I clean, simplify, or better care for as part of my spiritual discipline? Develop a list to tackle over the next month.
  2. What “dirt” am I allowing to accumulate within - judgment, resentment, agitation, negative thoughts, or assumptions about others? What is the source of each of these accumulated tendencies and how can I use Swami’s guidance to clean them out?
  3. When faced with a difficult person or situation, do I pause and understand with sympathy - or rush to judgment and react from an unsettled mind? Think of 3 techniques you can use to improve your approach in these situations.
  4. How can I use Swami’s guidance to “analyze sympathetically” before reacting? When I feel disturbed by someone’s actions, can I pause, consider their situation and perspective with sympathy, and avoid rushing to conclusions?
  5. Swami asks us to keep both our outer and inner worlds clean. What simple “cleanliness routine” can I create - one for my physical surroundings and one for my mind - and practice consistently each day?

B. Personal Spiritual Practice

Daily Spiritual Practice: Clean Space, Clean Heart

Make the outer environment worthy of God - and the inner heart ready for Him. Each day, add 10 minutes of cleansing to your Silence practice:

5 minutes - Clean Space

Choose one small space in your daily life - your prayer space, desk, room, car, or surroundings and clean it consciously as an offering to God, practicing care, order, and reverence.

5 minutes - Clean Heart

Sit quietly and ask yourself: What am I carrying in my heart that I would not want to place before God? Notice one impure thought, resentment, judgment, or attachment. Offer it to God and consciously replace it with a purer thought - love, gratitude, forgiveness, or prayer.

C. Community Spiritual Practice

Combine the personal practice above to make a larger offering. Join with members of your family or Sai center and activate the “Clean Space, Clean Heart” concept above. As a family or Sai center, jointly cleanup up or reorganize a place of common meaning to us (e.g. our Sai Centers, the premises where we meet, our home, the park that surrounds us) and offer prayers with a clean heart once done with the activity.