82 Holiness and Cleanliness
Cleanliness means, in general, the dress and environment are
beautiful and clean. Keeping the body and mind pleasant and tidy is
also cleanliness. The Holy Books have mentioned about the
necessity of cleanliness. According such scriptures, cleanliness is
called 'Suchita' which means purity and sanctity.It is necessary to maintain cleanliness for social and religious
purpose. 'A sound mind lives in a sound body' - this is what people
say. It means that if your body is healthy, your mind is also pure. If
the body is sick, the mind also sickens. So holiness and cleanliness
are necessary to keep your body and mind pleasant.Dirtiness causes various diseases. If the organs and limbs of the
body are not cleaned regularly, various troubles may happen.
Unclean teeth bring bad smell in the mouth. It may cause sores in
the gum. Teeth should be cleaned early in the morning and before
sleeping at night in order to prevent such diseases.Hands, mouth, teeth and eyes should be cleaned well after waking
early in the morning. Eyes and face should be washed with pure
water several times a day. The body should be wiped clearly by a
towel while taking a bath. Nails of hand should be trimmed after a
few days. Big nails help gather dirt under them. This dirt causes
severe diseases after entering into our stomach.The whole body is to be washed by water. The dirt of body has to be
cleaned by towels during bath. After every two or three days one
should take bath with soaps. So our body shall not get dirty. The
pores of our skin are closed when the body is dirty. Sweats and other
polluted materials can not get out of the body. It causes skin
diseases of various types.