Cleanliness Fosters Spirituality

“Cleanliness is next to godliness”- this aphorism is with us since ages. Various holy books say that God loves the clean. It means that the one whose self (mind), environment and nation are clean can only reach the portals of spirituality.

Cleanliness of self or mind is most important of all as it steers the rest. If our mind is not at the right place and is stuffed with all sort of negativities, then the journey towards ‘godliness’ gets hampered and we move towards ‘godlessness’. Even Buddha’s eight fold path too emphasizes on the purity of mind. Hate, rage, jealousy, vindictiveness, anger, etc should be at bay for making way for God.

Cleanliness of mind is followed by the cleanliness of the environment. We, the evil creatures, have almost crippled the ‘nature’ for the fulfillment of our own selfish needs and requirements. Wiping up all sorts of pollution (be it water pollution, air pollution or land pollution) is the need of the hour for the clean , safe and healthy environment. We can refer it to Mr Modi’s ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ to a certain extent which is the best example of some concrete steps towards cleanliness. Soaking the filth of our stinking surroundings, it is quite hard to believe that Asia’s cleanest village is in India, Mawlynnong (Meghalaya) !

The next is the cleanliness of the nation. This is actually the weeding up of , violence, riots, crimes, terrorism and corruption, illiteracy, poverty etc which make a country ailing.

 Every day we find newspapers over brimmed with news of crime against humanity; be it a murder, harassment, loot, burglary or rape case. Arushi murder case in 2008, Nirbhaya case in 2012 or the latest cab rape case… all of these highlight the poor mental health of the nation. Moreover the  Muzaffar Nagar riots, the racial discrimination entertained by the north-east people outside their homeland which also culminated into the death of Nido in January 2014, terrorist attack on the teenaged Malala in 2012 and how can one forget the fresh Peshawar massacre which is a sufficient enough testimony to prove critical health of ‘the most beautiful (in reality the most ugly) creation of God’.

Corruption, illiteracy and poverty too have deepened their long roots in our country. Until and unless we chop their roots, development can never be ensured; cleanliness can never be ensured.

The ‘Sunshine’ resides in the place where there is purity, serenity and peace! Peace of mind has been threatened by the deteriorating value system in our country which is because of absurd and fiendish mental make-ups of sundry. Finding peace has become a hard goose chase as people are restive be it at HOME (the heated arguments among couples or tussle in the families), in the SOCIETY (crime, violence, say road rage) or in the NATION (terrorism). So for settling peace cleanliness is must!

CLEANLINESS IS NOT NEXT TO GODLINESS; RATHER IT IS GODLINESS !!