Spiritual Cleansing and Caste – 4/12/15

                In Hinduism, there is a huge emphasis on being clean, both physically and spiritually. Most Hindus take baths in the morning after they go to the bathroom to clean themselves after becoming physically dirty from the poop, but also spiritually dirty from it. I don’t have any qualms with being hygienic, but sometimes I feel like the obsession with spiritual cleanliness goes too far. After all, spiritual cleanliness is one thing that keeps the caste system alive and well and pretty much the excuse higher castes used to allow untouchability to exist. It used to be, as I am sure many of us learned in world history class, that touching a low-caste member of society meant that you had been spiritually dirtied. Even though now most (if not all) Indians would say that untouchability has been largely stopped in most parts of the country (if not the whole country), I personally know some conservative Brahmin families who would not eat food from the hand of a low-caste person.

What’s worse is that this aspect of “cleanliness” now has very little to do with being physically clean. Sure, I can fathom that at one point the practicality of many of the rules in Hinduism to keep you spiritually clean also helped keep you physically healthy. Touching someone who spent his days handling human feces might make you sick. Attending a funeral and being in the vicinity of a body who maybe died from an infectious disease could be dangerous for yourself. I can see why taking baths after these sorts of things came about as a tradition. What frustrates me is their continuation into the present as a method of perpetuating caste (not to mention it’s rather inconvenient, but that’s another point). Before people in India can be treated as an equal regardless of caste, everyone must do away with the notion that some people are less spiritually clean than others. Way easier said than done, however. As one person put it to us, gods must die before the caste system can be removed from Indian society.

Deep, my host brother, was so scared of me when I returned home from Stephen’s host dad’s funeral. Even after I bathed, washed my clothes, and changed into fresh kurta-salwar, he insisted that I go to the Ganges, fetch water and sprinkle it over my backpack and all of its contents that were with me. He then instructed me to get my bike washed because it too was spiritually unclean and contaminating the house. Ashok Sir died from kidney failure, not Ebola. It made me so sad to see Deep terrified of me and all of my belongings because they were spiritually soiled. He wouldn’t even come into my room to talk to me for a few days.

I am sure that living in arguably the most orthodox Hindu city in the world has somewhat biased my perception of this aspect of Hinduism and I know that many Hindus actively work against the stigmas of spiritual uncleanliness, especially in relation to lower castes. If I could, I would love to spend more time in big cities and small villages sorting out my thoughts on this issue, but until then I just hope that spiritual cleanliness is used more to promote healthy living (as I believe it was originally intended) and less as a way to perpetuate caste.