Saucha

Purity. 

Before asana

Saucha doesn’t lie beyond asana so much as it lies before it. There’s a reason the yamas and niyamas occur before asana in Patanjali’s eight limbs of Yoga. When we take on a physical yoga practice or pranayama practice, we’re using, creating and directing powerful energy. If we turn up on our mats with a sense of aggression instead of ahimsa (non violence), self-denial instead of satya (truthfulness), laziness instead of tapas (discipline or burning passion) and impurity instead of saucha (cleanliness), then we’re not likely to progress as positively throughout our sadhana (our practice). 

Impurities

The habits we pick up throughout life off the mat may or may not serve us, and the idea of our practice is to recognise what doesn’t help us and what does, coming towards a state in which everything we do aids us towards being happier, healthier and more awake and aware in life. If we take our ‘bad’ habits on to the mat with us, then our practice becomes a lot harder, we have to sift through the ‘impurities’ or negativity we’ve picked up before reaping the benefits of Yoga. 

The easiest example to use is that of an apple: You may or may not know that apples have the highest amount of pesticides of all fruit, which is why it’s best to eat organic apples. If we eat an apple full of pesticides, our body has to detoxify and digest the impurities before being able to absorb the goodness of the apple. The same goes for our yoga practice: If we ourselves are ‘impure’ when we practise, then our efforts have to work through our ‘impurities’ before eventually the real Yoga magic happens. 

Of course, by impurities we’re not just talking about physical aspects. Saucha means cleanliness of body, mind, spirit and surroundings, all helping to direct us towards a pure and positive life. 

This is an excerpt from: https://www.ekhartyoga.com/articles/philosophy/the-niyamas-bringing-saucha-into-your-life

Namaste
Lisa