Book 2: 40 Sauchat - By purification arises disgust for one’s own body and for contact with other bodies.
I’ve had an ambivalent relationship with the idea of purity and the body, and reading this sutra didn’t change that. I already have a healthy amount of disgust for my body, I really don’t need to meditate in order to foster it.
As a woman, I think it’s fair to say, that society often perpetuates unrealistic images of our bodies. Cosmetics is a billion dollar industry, whose very foundation, is built on the insecurity of women. But before I burn my bra, I admit I buy cosmetics, and probably more than the average woman. Truth be told my entire body is a living testimony to how much I’m willing to punish myself for my insecurities. I figure if I get the latest bag to hide my belly, cute 5-inch shoes to hide my height, facials to hide my break-outs, and lose maybe 20 pounds, I’ll finally accept my body. I rinse and repeat this cycle almost every day.
I’m not alone, history, philosophies, and religions abound with traditions of women and the impurities of their bodies. Some of these traditions include chastity belts, isolation and / or preclusion from contact during menstruation. Naturally, these traditions also have purification rituals for when the woman’s reproductive cycle isn’t so apparent, and she can re-enter society. Was this sauchat?
Maybe sauchat isn’t about the disgust for our own bodies, but rather a disdain for our attachment to it. Every form of ID that I have has a picture of my physical form, specifically my face, as if saying THIS is Marie Hernandez. But as yoga teaches us, is this physical form actually who I am? Given, how much time I have spent trying to make my body “better”, it indeed has become a large part of me, and maybe this part is what Patanjali is trying to disspel.It won’t be easy. I know almost no other way to live, except to count my calories, and check my cellulite, and it still isn’t enough. I’m still not content with me. After decades with this struggle perhaps it’s time for a new scale, a new mindset.
Thankfully, i have thousands of years of traditions to fall back on.Traditions have long acknowledged the need to remind us of our mindset with spaces where we can ponder divinity, and rituals that represent our intention. Water, is often used as the vehicle of change. Baptism in Christianity, the mikveh in Judaism, the Gangese in Hinduism, and Misogi in Shinto, to name a few.
Other rituals of purification involve food, or refraining from it, as in fasting. Others have guidelines on who can prepare your food, what kind, and in which manner it should be eaten to retain its’ pure nature. On this point, I remain unconvinced. Sometimes, it just seems like there are so many rules, you forget the essence of what the ritual was trying to sanctify, you lose the forest in the details of the trees.
I believe these rituals were to sanctify a space, an environment both mentally and physically. They say, that a surrounding area often reflect the energies of the individuals and activities that exist in that space. The water, the fasting, all may serve to help remind us of what we’re going to use that space for, and as we grow in our spiritual journey maybe so does that space.
Daily Chai 
