by Yogi Ananda Viraj (Eugene P. Kelly, Jr.)
Sauca begins the list of niyamas or disciplines. Sauca means purity, cleanness, purity of mind and self-purification. This word is derived from the root suc which means shine, gleam, flame and glow. There are two forms that the practice of sauca takes. First is “outer” purity and the second is “inner” (abhyantaram) purity.
Vyasa defines “outer purity” as cleanliness produced by water, etc. and the consumption of pure (sacrificial) food. A number of commentators have noted that the intent of sauca practice is ultimately the imitation by the mind-complex (citta) of the uncreated purusa or pure consciousness. We will discuss this aspect of the practice below. However, in dealing with outer purity, it should be understood that the body is not separate from mind and outer purity is in fact a component of the citta purification process.
In sauca practice one is to bathe regularly. The body is to be kept as clean as possible at all times. This is not to say that one avoids work and the dirt that accumulates on the body from work. Bathing is to remove not only accumulated impurities (asuddhis) but impurities which are generated by the body. One must observe the body’s excretions in such a way as to begin to realize its organic and terminal nature. It is through this realization that discrimination between the pure (suci) and impure (asuci) begins. In Yoga philosophy the pure is that which is unchanging or eternal, of the nature of happiness (sukha), and is the real nature (atma) of humans (See yoga sutra II.5). Obviously, to one who observes the body’s process of excretion and eventual decomposition, our real nature lies outside of the body. The discernment (khyati) of our real nature as being other than the flux of the body-mind complex is the birth of knowledge (jnana). The non-discernment of this difference is the cause for the feeling of self.
The dietary discipline of avoiding impure food also aims at cultivation of discrimination. An impure body-mind complex or vehicle which would result from the ingestion of drugs, rotten food, alcohol, chemicals which are synthetically produced, etc. would not be suitable for the extremely subtle task of discriminative discernment between “self” and authentic nature. The brain-mind must be functioning at optimum performance levels in order to concede to the presence of the pure. In the same way that cleanliness and pure diet are not to be taken as mere concepts but practiced, this concession to the presence of the pure is not to be understood as a theory, but as a living occupation. Difference is alive in experiential contrast. The pure and impure are not mere dialectical notions. They must become empirical. The body learns to feel clean; it begins to become sensitive to changes in diet. These “feelings” are as cognitive as they are “physical.” Knowing cleanliness is the bathed body. Health, vitality, and energy is proper food intake. Physiology and psychology become inseparable in the practice of purity. Impurity perceives a division between the two.
Once the practice of outer sauca is realized there is already the entrance into inner purity. The aim of inner sauca is to cleanse the mind-complex of impurities (citta-malas). Examples of these citta-malas are provided by Vacaspati Misra: “. . . arrogance, pride and jealousy; the removal of this is cleanliness of the interpretive faculty (manas).”1 This purification is accomplished via appositive reflection (pratipaksa-bhavana). If language arises which is disturbing (badhana), or in the case of sauca impure, one must employ language opposite in nature, i.e., pure thoughts. The use of positive or pure thoughts (aklista-vrttis) will displace the harmful thoughts. For example, in the case of pride, thoughts such as “I am a mere composition of elements, sensations and language structures in a vast universe; I am no more significant than a grain of sand,” or “the more I cling to the notion of self-importance, the more I deny the organic and terminal nature of corporeal life,” will effectively displace thoughts of “self-inflation.” However, the practitioner’s intention must be firmly grounded, i.e., one must want to practice sauca, in order for the language of pride to be “heard” and promptly displaced. It is the intention which will make negative thoughts (vitarka) apparent.
Once the habit (samskara) of purity is established, thoughts of an impure nature will rarely arise. The practice of sauca cultivates abiding purity. This disposition redesigns the perceived world. The mind which has cultivated abiding purity perceives from the pure. The body (anga) is viewed as impurity generating. The flesh is in continual need of the practice of outer sauca. The body is the occasion for disease. The body will cease to function as a consequence of degeneration. The practice of sauca promotes a distanced attitude toward body, i.e., the body, in its perpetual production of impurities, can no longer be viewed as authentic nature (atma). Bodies are now viewed with respect to time, decay, transiency and organic processes. The attempt by some to capture the body’s youth or beauty is, as a result of sauca practice, no longer viable. The flesh is seen for what it is. It is devoid of true self, subject to eventual decay, and not a source of lasting happiness. Contact of body to body is no longer viewed as the correlate of love. For those who abide in purity, the intention arises to escape from the conceptual-linguistic habits which prompt the identity of body and authentic nature (atma). It is the contrast between purity and impurity which initiates the realization that “I” is the body-mind complex and authentic nature (atma) lies “beyond.” Aversion (jugupsa) to body is the response to such a realization. “As soon as there is aversion (jugupsa) with the Yogin’s own body (svanga), he has begun sauca.”2 When the Yogin “perceives the offensiveness of the body” (kaya-avadya-darsi), he or she develops non-attachment to it (kaya-anabhisvangi).
Vacaspati Misra says that the aversion and non-attachment to the body result from the practice of outer purity. This statement is obviously made in light of yoga sutra II.41. In this sutra Patanjali cites five further results of sauca practice. These results can be viewed as effects of a more subtle nature, as they are the results of the purification of citta-malas or impurities of the mind-consciousness (citta). The citta is a complex of faculties. One of these is the interpretive faculty (manas), which organizes sensations into meanings. The second is the ahamkara or I-maker, which is the assertion of the idea of self or I. These two faculties engender experience via the contact (samyoga) with pure consciousness. The third of these faculties is the function of connecting the first and second, the manas and ahamkara, with pure consciousness (purusa). This faculty is called buddhi. As a result of inner (abhyantaram) sauca practice, the buddhi’s revealing aspect is purified (sattva-suddhi) and gentleness or satisfaction (saumanasya) arises; from this purified buddhi the attention is easily fixed to a point (ekagrya); from that one is able to manage the sense faculties (indriya-jaya); this results in suitability for the perception of genuine nature (atma-darsana-yogyatvani)3 or pure consciousness (purusa).
The connecting faculty (buddhi) must be “clear” to be suitable for a perception of pure consciousness. Any disturbing thought processes must be removed. Sauca practice enacts this removal. When these impurities are removed, the activating aspect (rajo-guna) and the concealing aspect (tamo-guna) of the buddhi are dominated by the revealing or illuminating aspect (sattva-guna). It is only the dominance of the sattva-guna which is capable of “quieting” the citta (or more accurately is the quiet citta). This silent mind-consciousness excludes desire and confusion and induces gentleness or satisfaction (saumanasya). When satisfaction is present the mind (manas) is stable (ekagrya) and the senses are consequently tranquil. It is this condition which is deemed suitable for the perception of genuine nature. Vyasa ends his comment on sutra II.41 thus: “So to this [fitness for perception of atma] there is access, as a result of his being established in sauca.”4
The practice of sauca has resulted in an aversion to (jugupsa) to body. Body, rather than being perceived as a stagnant house for a self, is now viewed as organic, terminal, impure and other than the pure genuine nature (atma), which is love and happiness itself. Upon the arising of such an “understanding” the Yogin does not cease to care for the body. On the contrary, cleanliness and health have given rise to this understanding and continued sauca practice is a must. It is through proper body-mind maintenance via sauca that one becomes susceptible to atma-darsana, the perception of authenticity. The five results of inner sauca were initiated and must be sustained through both forms of sauca. An impure body is not a proper instrument for realizing truth. A pure mind-consciousness (citta) is the more subtle aspect of a pure body. The body-mind complex must remain pure as a unit.
Sauca is being practiced by all people. However, it is the Yogin who turns everyday events into conscious performance. The attempt to arrive at the “unmixed” or pure is an activity that is so commonplace that few notice it. We pick lint from our clothes to remove the added impurities. We clean our homes, wash our cars, dust our shelves, clean our nails, sweep our yards, clean our carpets, all for the sake of illuminating the genuine nature of “things.” One small piece of lint on a dark suit is enough to obscure the nature of the suit. Cleanliness is always the effort to arrive at a perception of the nature of something. Our hearing “pure tones,” getting rid of static in a radio or recording, and taking the “fuzz” out of the television are attempts to block or remove interference, i.e., to perceive the pure. One speck of dirt on the face of the person you are conversing with is enough to distort communication, to distract from the pure. This almost obsessive preoccupation with the pure is not, in the context of Yoga practice, unwarranted. All of us are aiming at a perception of our authentic nature. However, most of us rarely take purity practice beyond the limits of “thingness” into the realm of mind. The ordinary person stops at taking a bath. Some go beyond to “pure food” and even fewer make the commitment to abhyantaram sauca, inner purity. The Yoga student views all clarification and purification whether performed by self or others, as the intent to reveal genuine nature (atma). In leaving the sphere of ordinariness the Yogin aims at total purification. The Yogin removes the most subtle impurity, ignorance. Yoga students must not stop at the clarification of thingness. From thingness move to the body; upon clarifying its nature the move to citta has already begun. Once they have been displaced via suddhi-citta-vrttis, pure thoughts, purity will abide. Abiding purity is the dustless mirror of authenticity.
1. The Yoga System of Patanjali, trans. J.H. Woods (India: Motilal Banarsidass, 1977 reprint), p. 182.↩
2. Ibid, p. 188.↩
3. See Yoga Sutra II.41.↩
4. [The Yoga System of Patanjali, p. 188.↩