Hygiene plays a vital role in safeguarding individual health, public health, and overall well-being by preventing illness and promoting cleanliness, leading to a healthier society. The Covid pandemic underlined the importance of hygiene in maintaining health. Good hygiene practices, such as regularly washing our hands, can reduce the spread of bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens that cause infections.
Even in normal times, when there is no pandemic, practising good hygiene enhances overall well-being by promoting physical comfort, boosting self-esteem, and preventing discomfort. Not only that, maintaining good hygiene contributes to positive social interactions. Poor hygiene can result in social stigma, isolation, and negative perceptions from others, affecting our mental and emotional well-being.
All that is about physical hygiene. But similar principles apply to what can be called spiritual hygiene.
When physical environments are not clean, the dirt accumulated in various places can be an eyesore, cause unpleasant odours, and offer conditions conducive to the growth and spread of germs, which may cause disease. Similarly, if the mind is polluted by negative feelings, prejudices, and false beliefs, these give rise to harmful thoughts, which in turn influence our words and behaviour. When someone has an unfriendly attitude, others hesitate to approach them and prefer to steer clear of them. Just as people avoid going near a pile of garbage because of the unhealthy air around it, waste and negative thoughts in someone’s mind create vibrations that put off other people.
But more than others, it is the person who harbours such thoughts who suffers. They have no peace of mind and are often unhappy because they tend to focus on the faults in others, which makes them cynical and uncongenial, which in turn harms their relationships. They find themselves friendless and shunned by others.
If such a person were to share their damaging thoughts with others, it is akin to spreading a disease. Just as physical infections spread through contact between people, spiritual ailments can be transmitted through talk. Gossip is an easy and effective way of spreading pettiness, ill will, and other similar maladies of the mind.
The only way to stop the contagion and eradicate it is scrupulous practice of spiritual hygiene. The mind needs to be cleaned of the dirt that gives rise to various afflictions of the soul. This dirt comes in the form of vices, such as anger, vanity, jealousy, and greed. The first step is to spot the dirt, which we can do when we learn to look within. But even this first step can be taken only when there is the recognition that I need to change if I want to live a peaceful and happy life.
Sitting in silence, when we honestly examine our thoughts and feelings, we are able to detect where they are coming from – the desires, expectations, and assumptions that generate harmful patterns of thinking and unwholesome emotions.
Changing our way of thinking requires some positive input in the mind. It is readily available by way of knowing our true identity. When we learn that we are souls, not bodies, and that purity, peace, and love are our natural qualities, we rediscover our forgotten self and the virtues lying hidden within us. When we gently and repeatedly remind ourselves of who we really are and the treasures we carry within us, we begin to see the self in a new light. As our self-image changes, so does the way we look at and relate to the world around us.
But this new self can feel fragile if we lack power, and we may be unsure of how to deal with a world where most people do not have the same perspective as I now have.
To address this, we take the next step – connect with the ultimate source of power for the soul, the Supreme Soul, our spiritual Father. He is not only the Almighty, but also the ocean of love, peace, purity, and bliss. When we remember the Father and His qualities, the latter slowly but steadily become a part of us. This practice, called meditation, gradually fills us with peace, love, and power. These virtues act as disinfectant, neutralising the vices. Our thoughts and feelings are now informed by these original qualities of the soul, and are naturally positive. We realise that this is the way to be, and to live. Instead of spreading contagion, we now bring health and happiness into the lives of others with our positive outlook.
B.K. Geeta is a Rajyoga teacher at the Brahma Kumaris headquarters in Abu Road, Rajasthan.