Going deeper in your yoga practice - Saucha

To offer more yogic knowledge, in conjunction with Lisa at Yoga Loft Carrickfergus, we have asked our teachers to write short articles about the yamas and niyamas. 
They are the first two limbs of the eightfold path of yoga described by Patanjali in the yoga sutras. These are fundamental concepts offering ethical and moral guidelines to yogis.

Mairead writes about saucha, the first of the niyamas which appears in two sūtras. 

Saucha, by Mairead Ward

Sūtra 2:40 śaucāt svāṅga-jugupsā parairasaṁsargaḥ

" Through cleanliness of one’s body comes the avoidance of death and disease."

Sūtra 2:41 sattva-śuddhi-saumanasyai-kāgryendriya-jayātma-darśana-yogyatvāni ca

"The purifying force of nature brings cheerfulness, focused intent, mastery of the senses, and the capacity for self-realisation."
 

Saucha, meaning purity is the first of the niyamas, referring to more than just physical cleanliness.

I see saucha as a practice of taking care of ourselves mentally. The yamas, the outer observances, refer to our external ethics, while the niyamas are more personal. It can be much more difficult to give ourselves the same grace that we would give to others. It’s an act of devotion to practice, to become aware of our breath, to drop out of our head and into our bodies. 

Through cultivating a regular yoga practice, we begin to associate less with our thoughts and strengthen our awareness. It’s this process that creates saucha. We can begin to observe habitual thought patterns that cloud our perception. When we sit in silence, we can observe our thoughts more clearly and learn to release what no longer serves us, instead of giving it control over our state of being. 

In Yoga Sūtra 2.41, Patanjali elaborates that from purification arises cheerfulness, mental steadiness, mastery of the senses, and readiness for Self-realisation. Saucha doesn’t cultivate Self-realisation but prepares us for it. 

According to T. K. V. Desikachar, saucha allows us 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. When ruminating on a particular thought or replaying a past experience, often subconsciously, it is impossible to meditate. In these instances, I find it useful to allow my thoughts to come and go without judgement, to recognise the transient nature of my thoughts and attempt to remember the part of me that is constant and unchanging. It is not an easy practice, it is a constant remembering, but the sense of freedom it cultivates is always worth it.

Thank you Mairead for your thoughts on this niyama.
We will endeavour to share more about these topics here regularly to build a mini accessible yogic knowledge online library :)

You can find Mairead's profile here if you want to keep on exploring our website.