Niyamas- Saucha (Cleanliness / Clarity)

Introduction

Context

• Sutras 2.40 and 2.41, first niyama

Heart of Teaching

• This teaching is focused on cleanliness / purity of body and mind to allow Self-Realization.
• It has both external and internal practices. External saucha refers to keeping the body clean and healthy. Internal cleanliness refers to healthy organs and a clear mind.

Translations + Modern Commentary

Translations Sutra 2.40

• When cleanliness is developed it reveals what needs to be constantly maintained and what is eternally clean. What decays is the external. What does not is deep within us. – T.K.V. Desikachar, The Heart of Yoga 1995 p 178
• By purification arises disgust for one’s own body and for contact with other bodies. – Sri Swami Satchidananda
• From cleanliness there comes indifference towards body and non-attachment to others. – Swami Satyananda Saraswati
• Through simplicity and continual refinement (Saucha), the body, thoughts, and emotions become clear reflections of the Self within. – Nischala Joy Devi
• Purity (shaucha) results in the abandonment of physicality and the cessation of physical contact with external things. – AshtangaYoga.info
• As the result of purity, there arises indifference toward the body and disgust for physical intercourse with others. – Swami Prabhavananda (YogaSutraStudy.info)

Translations: Sutra 2.41

• Moreover, one gains purity of sattva, cheerfulness of mind, one-pointedness, mastery over the senses, and fitness for Self-realization. – Sri Swami Satchidananda
• In addition, one becomes able to reflect on the very deep nature of our individual selves, including the source of perception, without being distracted by the senses and with freedom from misapprehension accumulated from the past. – T.K.V. Desikachar
• By the practice of mental purity, one acquires fitness for cheerfulness, one-pointedness, sense control and vision of the self. – Swami Satyananda Saraswati
• Saucha reveals our joyful nature, and the yearning for knowing the Self blossoms. – Nischala Joy Devi
• Also, the capacity for clarity, cleanliness, cheerfulness and intentness, as well as mastery over the senses, ultimately give rise to self-realization. – AshtangaYoga.info
• Moreover, one achieves purification of the heart, cheerfulness of mind, the power of concentration, control of the passions and fitness for vision of the Atman. – Swami Prabhavananda (YogaSutraStudy.info)

Modern Commentary

I’m not so sure most people would find the listed benefits palatable (e.g. “Aversion to one’s own body and avoidance of contact with others comes from bodily purification.”)… In his book Enlightenment: The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the author comments on this view of Sutra 2.40. While he considers translations such as the above to be valid in a literal sense, and appropriate for those who choose to practice renunciation… he explains saucha as a practice that protects us not from simple contact with others’ bodies but from “their diseases as well as their violence of thoughts, words and actions.” The natural by-product of saucha, he says is physical security and invincibility. Practicing saucha creates a field of purity in our body-mind that is able to absorb the impurities visited upon it without being contaminated by them. – Charlotte Bell