Hidden Dimensions to Cleanliness

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A Window near the South East corner of the author's home

 
In one of the earlier posts it was mentioned that the life of ancient Himalayan sages living in lush green surroundings was so disciplined and regulated and they were so aware of their own bodies that they could discern the effect of any new food or herb on their bodies readily. From this was born the ancient Ayurveda science of Herbal medicines.

My own life though far removed from that of ancient sages has been fairly well disciplined over the last several years and I too can sense the effect of new foods or changes on my body. Therefore when I noticed that I am sleeping right through the night rather than waking up in the middle of it once every night recently, I wondered what new food or change had taken place in my routine, thoughts or environment. There was nothing new in food etc. but one change had taken place.

My home is around a quarter century old. It was self designed and self built on a plot acquired more than thirty years ago. It has lots of windows all around. With age the putty holding glass planes in place had begun to crack and bits had begun to fall off several years ago. A few days ago, Hari the boy mentioned in an earlier post volunteered to replace it. I showed him how it is done and he went around the home and replacing it all within a day. But then it had to be painted over and we got some white enamel paint. The earlier white paint had gone gray and dirty with age. It was painted over again so that the windows looked like new.  One thing leads to another and the moment windows were painted, it became apparent that curtains were dirty and needed a wash. They were taken down, washed and put up again. The process encouraged a thorough spring cleaning of the living room and bedroom right down to hidden corners and deep under the double bed. Lo and behold, sleep has become much deeper and it does seem that a clean bed room contributes to it.

When months ago the new Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi launched a clean India campaign, many said that it would contribute to good health. But it seems that cleanliness contributes in more ways than one. It is not surprising then that it is the clean countries that progress most and dirty ones sink. No wonder, Patanjali the father of yoga, in his treatise on yoga had mentioned that cleanliness is an essential step towards human evolution

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