FOCUS OF THE MONTH: SAUCHA
by Jeni Pepper
Saucha, translates to ‘purity.’ It is the first of the five niyamas, self disciplines, that, according to Patanjali, a yogi must practice to achieve Yoga – unity of Mind, Body and Soul. Purification is cleansing, paring down, streamlining and simplifying. It is letting go of that which weighs us down or no longer serves us. It is a ritual that is essential to all nature and life forms.
September as the first month of fall is when nature begins to purify itself to get ready for the hard months of winter ahead. The leaves of the trees, having worked hard all summer to purify our air and green our environment, and generating energy for the tree to grow bigger and stronger, now are just burdening that tree. With the diminishing sun rays in the fall, there is not enough energy for both the leaves and the tree. If they stayed around, not only would they die, but the tree’s health would suffer, fighting to sustain them. The leaves would also trap more snow on their wide surfaces, causing the branches to break under the heavy weight. Heavy with toxins by this time of year, the tree just knows to let them fall and drift away. If the tree had a mind like ours, it may have formed an attachment to its leaves. Letting them go would be painful. But for trees, transformation comes naturally. It just follows the nature’s laws. And if you are not a tree, you can see the beauty of this mini death vividly – dazzling you in all colors of the rainbow.
Just as the trees purge themselves from their leaves come fall, the practice of saucha purifies the yogis’ body and mind. When we simplify our lives and shed that which no longer serves us, we prepare ourselves to gracefully weather the winters of our lives. Cleansing and purifying the body and mind also aligns them more naturally with our inner spirit, so that our internal fire, our passion for life, glows more brightly, and our thoughts, words and actions, set us on our dharmic path. With the body, mind and spirit so aligned, actions feel effortless and produce the greatest beneficial results. We are ready to blossom and serve our community best, just like the trees do come spring and summer.
So what are some of the regular Saucha practices we, as yogis, can maintain and develop? You are probably already taking pretty good care of your body, but take some time to clean and declutter your surroundings – your home, your garden, your workspace and yoga practice area. Put away things when you are done using them and dispose of them (by donating, recycling and if necessary, discarding) any items that no longer serve you or bring you joy. Notice the food you are eating – eating food that is nourishing and sattvic – food that brings you to a peaceful, blissful state. Sustainably farmed, organic or low-pesticide produce, superfoods that get rid of toxins and, if you need to eat animal products, those sourced from humanely raised animals.
In your asana practice, pay particular attention to your twists, forward folds and malasana (yogic squat). These poses massage the belly organs, stimulating digestion and elimination. Practice your mula and uddhiyana bandhas. Engaging mula bandha is something you should be doing in all active yoga poses. Practice pranayama – cleansing the body with each out-breath. Kapalabati (the skull shining breath) breath is a great cleansing practice bringing more energy and focus, as you cleanse the impurities of both body and mind with rapid rhythmic exhilations. Chant the Dharma mantra for purification (you can find it on the internet, but technically no one is allowed to put it in writing – so just follow along when your teacher leads you into it in class). Practice meditation and mindfulness – disabling the effects of random thoughts and occurrences on us and developing a one-pointed mind.
Finally, bring it all together in savasana, corpse pose. A mini death of the body and mind, letting the body fall heavy onto the floor, letting all the binds release, all the tensions, all the stresses drift away with the out-breath, letting any thoughts and sounds have no impact on your mind. That quality of just being an observer is what seeing through the eye of our soul feels like. Discarding the impurities of our individual self, our body, our mind, our ego, we reveal our true Self. We experience the state of pure bliss that is our nature. That is why just a few moments of stillness in savasana allow us to reemerge feeling cleansed, renewed, revitalized and blessed.
