Clean-up All The Mess, Then Alone God Will Bless

H H Maa Purnananda

While reading the scriptures one often comes across the words ‘Shuchi’ and ‘Shauch’. As such they seem to convey the message of basic hygiene and cleanliness of the surroundings. Why so much of emphasis is given to cleanliness? Does it really mean cleanliness at the physical level only? That cannot be the message given by the great Seers! We need to think deeper to understand the profound implication of this seemingly simple word ‘Shuchi’.

Some people are habitually not sufficiently clean, active and organized; they need to discipline themselves – ‘Anushaasan’. Some are miser and possessive of their belongings; they need to extend their help to others and be charitable – ‘Daanam’. Some have the habit of singing their own glory of being charitable; they need to practice humility so that they may grow out of self-conceit – ‘Tyaag’. Some achievers have the terrible ego of their own knowledge and achievements; they will have to give up their attachment to their knowledge, achievements and ultimately, the doer-ship – ‘Tapasyaa’.

As much a member of the human society is expected to maintained physical cleanliness in the larger interest, that much, and even more, mental cleanliness is required to be maintained by mankind to truly avoid manmade disasters, calamities and rampant destruction. Therefore, it is evident that why the Wise repeatedly remind us of ‘Shuchi’ – cleanliness. The external cleanliness and discipline can yet be learnt through various sources, but to learn the technique of inner cleansing, we surely have to look up to the scriptures. Under the guidance of the Guru alone it is possible to cleanse and transform our tricky and treacherous mind!

Indeed, there is so much to work upon ourselves! Whenever it is suggested to anyone to read the Shaastra-s or peep into the Sacred words-of-wisdom, people generally have the typical excuse that they have no time for any such reading as yet. Now, due to the recent unfortunate catastrophe faced by humans worldwide, everyone is spending most of the time being indoors. Under the circumstance, most of the otherwise extremely occupied people, are, by default, left with lot of time to themselves. Do we mean to say that therefore their long-lasting desire of reading the scriptures would get fulfilled? Did they really ever have any desire to read the scriptures?

Dear reader, let us understand this for sure, ‘I have all the time for all that I desire to do in life’, and, ‘I will never have any time to do what I do not desire to do even if I get countless lives!’ As the dirt blocks the light from shining out from the bulb, so also, the inner dirt of the messy mind blocks the proper understanding of even the world around! When such an individual who is incapable of knowing or understanding even the tangible world which he enjoys day-and-night, how then anyway, is he expecting to understand about the whole concept of God and the Supreme Reality?

While being occupied in the worldly activities, man forgets about looking within; or, it may be so that he does not know that it is duty to work upon his mind-intellect equipment as well! Man is found to be so much concerned about his own and his family’s livelihood that he even compromises with the basic morals and ethics that he is expected to inculcate and implement in his conduct. Hence, his said inner equipment remains almost unattended by him. This negligence causes complete mess in his mind; his intellect anyway remains covered due to his delusive messy mind. While facing the challenges and failures in the world, he calls God; though not really with the proper understanding of, or even with true devotion for God. After gathering some futile instructions and haphazard information from unreliable sources, they somehow manage to worship God for worldly purposes’ only to undergo further distress and difficulties, sometimes causing harm to themselves and other associates

But a sincere aspirant, who values God’s blessings above all, would read the Shaastra-s regularly under the guidance of the Guru and try his best to put into practice most of the instructions and advices provided to him. As the reflections of objects on the surface of unsteady water is distorted, so also, his unsteady mind puts forth disturbed and distorted reflections of his intellectual knowledge of worldly understanding. But a well-tamed mind reflects rational thinking and clarity of thoughts. Thus, the process of cleansing his mind would begin and soon he would be able to hold his mind much steadier than before.

Is it not very important to get the mind properly cleansed at the earliest and clear-up the mess and prepare ourselves to deserve the blessings of God?