Since contamination spreads by touch, the pujaris must be careful to avoid touching impure items such as the holes of the body, hair, the lower part of the body, the cloth covering the lower body, feet, the floor, or any impure substance. Offered articles are considered impure for one who is going to offer fresh articles. Therefore the worshiper must be careful to avoid touching offered items.
According to Manu, there are twelve impurities (mala) exuding from the body. A person must purify himself by cleansing the body with earth (or soap) and water after he contacts the first six impurities: fat, semen, blood, marrow, urine, or stool.
Water alone purifies a person after he contacts the second six impurities: nose mucus, phlegm, tears, perspiration, ear wax, and exudations from the eyes.
Other contaminating agents are alcohol; low animals such as pigs, donkeys, dogs, and crows; low-class people (candalas and mlecchas); hair; nails; bone; corpses (human or animal); the smoke from a funeral pyre; a menstruating woman; eating; sleeping; sex; passing urine or stool; sinful activities; ucchishtha (food remnants); and the birth or death of close relatives.
Contagious disease is also contaminating. A person suffering from a skin disease, such as eczema, should not enter the kitchen or worship the Deity. If one has sores or wounds that could contaminate the paraphernalia or the Deity, one should also refrain from cooking and worship. A person suffering from a respiratory disease should not enter the kitchen.
Purifying the Body
After waking, a devotee should cleanse his body and its orifices by
employing water and earth (or soap), by brushing the teeth, and by submerging
himself in water.
When the parts of the body below the navel and the forearms become
contaminated by wine or the first six bodily impurities, one should purify
them by scrubbing the affected area with earth (or soap) and water.
If the upper body is contaminated, one should purify the whole body
with earth (or soap) and water and then bathe fully.
A person should bathe to purify himself after sex, a bad dream, shaving,
vomiting, purging, or after touching a dead body, a woman in her menstrual
cycle, a candala, or a dead animal or its fat or bones.
A woman purifies herself during her menstrual cycle by bathing on the
fourth day.* A woman possessing a bad mind is purified by her menstrual
flow.
*If a woman's menstrual period lasts more than three days, it is better if the woman refrain from touching the Deity or anything related to the Deity worship until her period is actually over. The reason for this prohibition is that, at the very least, menstrual contamination is like having passed stool without bathing afterward. In a letter Srila Prabhupada writes that for the worship of a Deity to continue uninterrupted it may be allowed, as an exception, for women to touch the Deity during their menstrual period, but that ``it is better if they don't." This allowance should be understood to refer to a rare exception, or to worship of household Deities. Temple managers should encourage male devotees to engage in the temple Deity worship, minimizing difficult situations that may arise due to women devotees' periods of contamination.
One should perform achamana after coughing or sneezing, after sleeping,
eating, drinking, bathing, dressing, spitting, or walking on a road, after
urinating or passing stool, and after talking to candalas and mlecchas.
One should also perform achamana before eating, studying shastra, or
performing any religious activity.
The man of knowledge purifies himself of sin by endurance, by charity,
by japa, and by austerity. A brahmana is purified by accepting sannyasa.
A devotee purifies himself of an uncontrolled mind by the decision
to follow the path of truth. He purifies himself of body consciousness
by knowledge and austerity, and he purifies his ability to discriminate
by receiving spiritual education.
Purification of Consciousness (chitta-Suddhi)
One's consciousness is purified first by Vaishnava initiation, by which
one receives Vaishnava mantras for worshiping the Lord; then it is purified
by one's performing daily sadhana and practicing Vaishnava Achara (proper
Vaishnava behaviour). Purification of consciousness is very much interrelated
with physical purification. The Vishnu smrti lists the purifying agents
for the contaminated body and mind as spiritual knowledge, austerity, certain
prescribed activities (such as chanting Gayatrii at the sandhyas), fire,
certain eatables (such as pañca-gavya), earth, water, cow dung,
air, the sun, time, and cooked grains.
Among these, the foods are very important. If a person eats pure food
he becomes pure, and if he eats impure food he becomes impure. Even though
a person undertakes other forms of purification, if he eats impure food
he remains impure. Therefore one must always be careful to partake only
of pure food at all times.
``By performance of yajña one's eatables become sanctified,
and by eating sanctified foodstuffs one's very existence becomes purified;
by the purification of existence finer tissues in the memory become sanctified,
and when memory is sanctified one can think of the path of liberation,
and all these combined together lead to Krishna consciousness, the great
necessity of present-day society" (Bhagavad Gita. 3:11, purport).
Pure items
A person does not need purification after contacting the following
items, for they are considered pure: items for sale in the market; goods
received by begging; the mouth of a goat or a horse; mongooses; cows (except
a cow's mouth, which is impure); elephants; horses; bees; a calf taking
milk; cow urine, dung, milk, yoghurt, ghee, and rochana; fried or roasted
foods (other than meat, fish, or eggs); the hands of a craftsman, such
as a potter; rays of the sun or moon; fire, wind, dew, or running water;
the shadow of a tree; kusha grass, honey, fruit, or essences; or anything
certified as pure by an authoritative person.
Because Deity prasada is pure, a Vaishnava is careful to eat only Deity
prasada if at all possible. Since prasada is pure, after taking prasada
one does not have to take a bath before worshiping the Deity.* If when
taking prasada a devotee does not touch his mouth with either his hand
or a utensil, such as a cup or spoon (when taking a small portion of mahaa-prasada,
for example), then he does not have to change his cloth before worshiping
the Deity. However, if his hand touches his mouth when he is eating, he
must put on clean cloth to worship the Deity.
*However, the pujaris must thoroughly rinse his mouth and wash his hands and feet; then he must perform full achamana. He may not brush his teeth unless he takes a bath afterward. It is best not to eat prior to worshiping the Deity, since one may offend the Lord by belching! Also, with a full stomach one cannot concentrate properly on one's services to the Lord. Service performed directly in the Deity room should be done with full attention, not in a routine manner, for the pujaris should always be aware of being in the direct presence of the Lord.
Purification of Articles (dravya-Suddhi)
Contamination occurs when an article contacts any of the impure items
listed previously. Serious contamination takes place when an article contacts
the first six impurities from the body, or when it contacts any other heavily
contaminating substance, such as alcohol. Before touching an unoffered
item during worship, the pujaris should purify his hands by performing
samanya-arghya with water from the pañca-patra.
The left hand, which is considered impure, should not touch the Deity
directly while He is being bathed. (If the Deity is made of metal, during
the polishing, the pujaris may hold or touch the Deity with a cloth held
in his left hand.)
Articles become free from contamination in different ways, depending
on their nature. In the case of serious contamination, things made of iron
and similar metals are purified by fire (by bringing the object to a red-hot
state); jewels, stones, and conch shells by being buried for seven nights
in the ground; objects of horn, ivory, and turtleshell by planing the surface;
and cloth by removing the contaminated portion. When things made of wood
or earthenware are seriously contaminated, however, they should be discarded.
When articles are mildly contaminated through contact with impure items
such as food remnants, they may be purified in the following ways: gold,
silver, conch shells, jewels, stones, and spoons are purified by water;
yajña utensils, such as the sruk and sruva (wooden ladles), by rinsing
with warm water; other yajña utensils by scrubbing with kusha grass
and water; an asana, bed, and vehicle by water; and grains, deerskin, cloth,*
thread, linen, fruits, flowers, grass, and leaves by washing them in water
if extensively contaminated, or simply by sprinkling if the contamination
is slight.
*Cloth washed by a dhobiis (professional launderer) is not considered suchi; it should not be worn by pujaris or Deity cooks. Dry-cleaning is also not suchi, since alcohol, which is most impure, is used in the process.
We continue with purification methods for mildly contaminated objects: Blankets are purified by soap berries (riita-phala), silk by saline earth, linen by mustard seeds; cotton cloth is purified by washing with soap and water, then drying in the sun and wind. Iron and bell metal are purified by ash; tin, copper, and lead are purified by tamarind and water. Wood and floors are purified by planing or scraping. Liquids are purified by straining; containers of gourd or coconut are purified by scrubbing with the hair from a cow's tail. Earthenware, if glazed, is purified by water; different types of items altogether are purified by sprinkling with water. Raw rice is purified by discarding the bad part; boiled rice is purified by discarding the impure part, chanting Gayatrii, and sprinkling the rice with water. The ground is purified by sweeping and smearing it with cow dung and water, by sprinkling with cow urine and dung, by burning, by the treading of cow hooves, by time, and by digging. Boats, paths, grass, and brick constructions are purified by wind and sun. Water for one's own bath or for Deity worship is purified by flowing water, which should be clear, sweet tasting, and sweet-smelling. In order of preference, water should be taken from the following sources: the Ganga or Yamuna, other tiirthas, a river that flows directly to the ocean (that is, not a tributary), a tributary river, a natural spring, a lake, a pond, a large man-made reservoir, a small man-made reservoir, a well, and a pot.(Pancharatra Pradipa)
Consideration of Purity and Impurity (Suddhi-vichara).
Vedic society is highly aware of purity, both gross and subtle. Objects
have been classified according to their grades of impurity and the methods
necessary to purify them. This is called Suddhi-vichara, an understanding
of how to maintain purity. What follows is a summary of these principles,
as Lord Krishna outlines them to Uddhava in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (11.21.7---15):
``O saintly Uddhava, in order to restrict materialistic activities,
I have established that which is proper and improper among all material
things, including time, space and all physical objects.
``Among places, those bereft of the spotted antelope, those devoid
of devotion to the brahmanas, those possessing spotted antelopes but bereft
of respectable men, provinces like Kiikata and places where cleanliness
and purificatory rites are neglected, where meat eaters are prominent,
or where the earth is barren, are all considered to be contaminated lands.
``A specific time is considered pure when it is appropriate, either
by its own nature or through achievement of suitable paraphernalia, for
the performance of one's prescribed duty. That time which impedes the performance
of one's duty is considered impure.
``An object's purity or impurity is established by application of another
object, by words, by rituals, by the effects of time, or according to relative
magnitude.
``Impure things may or may not impose sinful reactions upon a person,
depending on that person's strength or weakness, intelligence, wealth,
location, and physical condition.
``Various objects such as grains; wooden utensils; things made of bone;
thread; liquids; objects derived from fire; skins; and earthy objects are
all purified by time, by the wind, by fire, by earth, and by water, either
separately or in combination.
``A particular purifying agent is considered appropriate when its application
removes the bad odour or dirty covering of some contaminated object and
makes it resume its original nature.
``The self can be cleansed by bathing, charity, austerity, age, personal
strength, purificatory rituals, prescribed duties, and, above all, by remembrance
of Me. The brahmana and other twice-born men should be duly purified before
performing their specific activities.
``A mantra is purified when chanted with proper knowledge, and one's
work is purified when offered to Me. Thus by purification of the place,
time, substance, doer, mantras, and work, one becomes religious, and by
negligence of these six items one is considered irreligious."
The Hari-bhakti-vilasa: provides further details concerning Suddhi-vicara:(Pacharatra
Pradipa)
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