Shaucha. Clean body, speech and mind (Niyama)

Body level: cleanliness of body, wash your body, clothes, house, flat, personal items, work desk, inner organs.

In yogic texts there are many examples of shatkarmas. Shatkarma – it is six cleansing techniques that help to purify the body from inside and maintain good health, body, and energy. There are techniques like Trataka, Nauli, Kapalabhati, Neti, Basti, Dhauti, Kunjala, Shankaprakshalana, fasting, and others. Healthy and simple food is very important for the Shaucha principle.

Speech level: telling the truth, calm and pleasant intonation, words with meaning, remove word parasites, bad words, and do not curse or tell dirty words.

Mind level: remove negative thoughts like anger, lust, greed, jealousy, negative emotions.

Purity of mind depends on what information you take from the outer world. What movies do you watch, what music do you listen to, what do you read on the internet, with whom do you communicate, what job are you working, who are your friends, and so on. It all makes an impact on your life.

Benefits of Shaucha

1) Your body becomes clean.
2) Your internal organs become clean.
3) Your energy becomes cleaner.
4) You become healthy.
5) Your surroundings, like your home garden, become clean and beautiful.
6) Your speech becomes pleasant, your words have impact because you say the truth.
7) Your mind becomes pure, you can easily focus it on whatever you need.

How to practice Shaucha

1) Do regular yoga practice: asanas, pranayamas, meditation, chant mantras.
2) Do shatkarmas.
3) Keep your clothes clean.
4) Keep your house, flat, clean.
5) Read spiritual books, scriptures, texts that help to uplift your life. Reading scriptures aloud is very useful.
6) Eat clean and simple, healthy food.
7) Control information that you get. There is no need to watch or read things that do not make you a better person.
8) Communicate with moral people about topics that uplift you.
9) Listen to more lectures of saint people, sages, yoga masters, spiritual teachers, gurus.
10) Keep Mauna. Silence helps to calm down your mind.

A few practical tips about Shaucha

1) After your yoga practice, do not take a shower because then you wash off the energy of practice. So better wait for some time.
2) If you don’t eat meat, bad food, or junk food, don’t use chemicals, your body will not have a bad smell.
3) The place where you do yoga practice should be clean.
4) Take a look at how we eat and when we eat. We’re not eating near a TV, computer, or mobile because we also eat prana energy. So whatever surrounds us, we put into our inner world.
5) It is not positive to eat when there are animals around.
6) When you do yoga practice, there should be no animals around.
7) Take some time before answering all negative reactions.