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DVC Lecture

Swachha Bharat Abhiyaan - Mon ki Swachhata

I am very pleased to be here today, as part of your Swachhata Pakhwada in Damodar Valley
Corporation; more so because the topic I have been given is simply amazing. I will be developing an
argument which I wish to place before you all, in this connection.

Mind is the essence of personality

A person is essentially his mind. We do give a lot of importance to the physical appearance. But,
the essence of a personality is the mind. As is the mind, so is the person. Children understand this very
well. Listen to a real story.

It is said that Abraham Lincoln was a rather ugly looking person. He was too tall, gangly, with
unusually long and thin hands, legs and fingers. He must have survived an attack of small pox as a child,
for his face was jagged and he couldn’t shave his beard. His beard added to an already unhandsome face.
His skin color was also not pale white, the skin color usually associated with high birth and culture. Now,
as President of USA, he once hosted a dinner for all his senators. One of the senators had a small boy of
about 4-5 years. This senator warned his son saying, “Look here, President Lincoln is rather ugly looking.
I don’t want you to say that to his face; that is uncultured and would hurt the President.” He said this to
his son because children have the nature of blurting out whatever comes to their mind. During the dinner,
Lincoln mixed very freely with the kids; he was a great hit among the small ones. At one point, this
senators’ son shouted out to his father, “But Daddy, you said President Lincoln is ugly; I think he is one
of the most beautiful persons I have known!”

So, a person is essentially his or her mind.

Please note that I translate today’s topic ‘Mon ki swachhata’ as Cleanliness of the mind. I do not
translate it as purity of the mind. There is a reason for doing so, which I will explain later on.

Take this table. It is clean now. There is no dust or dirty marks on it. Leave it as it is for two days.
Will it be as clean as it is now? No. it would have accumulated dust. That is the nature of everything in
this world. Regular cleaning alone can keep this table clean. In fact, we can generalize and say that
regular cleaning alone can keep anything in this world clean. Cleanliness is therefore a process and not a
goal.

When we say that everything in the world follows this principle, it would surprise come of you to
learn that our mind is also included in this ‘everything’! That is the Vedanta view. Thus, a regular process
of cleaning the mind alone keeps the mind clean.

Do you know that in most monasteries, there is an idea that external cleanliness will lead
eventually to internal cleanliness? Even in our Ramakrishna Math, we have this belief. That is why, when
we join one of the Maths as Brahmacharis, we are asked to involve in some sort of cleaning activity such
as brooming the roads, or sweeping the floor, or washing vessels and utensils, etc. The idea is – regular
cleaning in the external world will awaken our sense that the internal world also needs to be cleaned. That
is the reason I accepted to come here for this program. You see, I had come here last year too, for the
same program. So, I did not want to come this year; of course, I would have arranged for some other
brother monk to attend. But I came here looking at the topic. If DVC has officers who feel the importance
DVC Lecture

of cleanliness of the mind, then the process of external cleanliness you have followed must have certainly
been very sincere. That is the reason this idea has awakened in your minds that real cleanliness is internal
cleanliness.

Internal cleanliness: three aspects

Now, what exactly is internal cleanliness? What constitutes cleanliness of the mind? In my
opinion, there are three characteristics of mental cleanliness.

Rational thinking

Rational thinking is mental cleanliness. We all know what rationality is. It means clarity of
thought. A deep relation exists between cause and effect. Thinking activity can be haphazard. It can be
sporadic, chaotic, and unreasonable. All thinking has to become rational, systematic, and reasonable.
There is a principle in the philosophy of the Physical sciences called Occam’s razor. If there are multiple
explanations for a phenomenon, we must accept the one with the least number of assumptions. Any
thinking activity that is based on this principle is called rational thinking.

Take for instance the phenomenon of gravitation. Why do things fall down? We may say that
there is a ghost in the sky. It catches everything that goes up and throws it down. Now, compare this
explanation with Newton’s explanation. Which should we accept? What would be the justification for
accepting Newton’s explanation over the one I just gave you? The justification comes from Occam’s
Razor. If we accept my explanation, a new problem arises; we need to explain the ghost – where did it
come from, who controls it, is it a male ghost or a female ghost, do ghosts have gender, how many such
ghosts are there, how do they coordinate, do they fight over territory, etc. So, the explanation becomes
extremely complicated. Newton’s explanation however simplifies the whole phenomenon of things falling
down.

Listen to a story. Once a scientist announced that he had made a great discovery and called for a
press conference to announce it. He sat at the end of a long table, with reporters and scientists all around.
He drew two lines on the table. He took out a cockroach from a matchbox and said, ‘Ladies and
gentlemen, this is a cockroach and it has six legs.’ He placed the cockroach at one line and said,
‘Cockroach, go!’ The cockroach ran to the other line. Now he wrote in his journal, ‘With six legs,
cockroach crosses the line in 1 second.’ Then he clipped off four legs; the cockroach now had only two
legs. He repeated the experiment. This time the cockroach crossed the line in 1minute. Cockroaches are
hardy creatures. He tore off one more leg. The poor cockroach now had only one leg. He repeated the
experiment. This time, the cockroach took over 5 minutes to cross the line. Then he said, ‘Ladies and
gentlemen, now I cut off the remaining leg and place the insect at the first line.’ He shouted ‘Cockroach,
go! Cockroach, go!’ He announced with a flourish, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, now comes the great
discovery of mine. When all its legs are cut-off, the cockroach becomes deaf!’

Deriving meaning in our activities

Deriving a meaning in our activities is mental cleanliness. Money alone cannot be goal of human
activities. Money is, of course, very much needed. But it cannot become the only goal of our work. When
money becomes the sole aim of our work, that work becomes drudgery. Man does not like performing
such activities. If not for money alone, then for what else shall we work?
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Efficiency in work is a valid goal that can claim the entire attention of man. In Sanskrit it is called
Karma Kushala. Let me explain this concept to you through some stories.

Once a small boy entered a shop and called someone from the public telephone in that shop. You
must remember it was the days before this mobile revolution. The boy said, “Good evening, Ma’am. I am
calling to find out if you need your lawn mowed.” The lady on the other side must have said ‘No’, for the
boy said, “But Ma’am, if you give me the job, I will also clean your car every day, and I will paint your
fence, when required…oh, you already have a guy for the job….are you happy with his work?....alright
then, Ma’am, thank you.” And he disconnected the call. The shopkeeper who saw all this was really
impressed by the young boy’s industriousness. He said, “Well, young man, I am interested in hiring you.”
The boy said, “Sir, I already have a job, I am the person who is working in that lady’s house. I just wanted
to check what she feels about my work.”

There was once a king who had heard that a world-famous sculptor lived in his kingdom. He
approached him for getting his own bust made. The artist said, “Come back after three months. It will be
ready.” After three months, the King walked into the sculptor’s studio. He saw a beautiful bust of himself
kept on the table. The artist came in and said, “Your Highness, I am very sorry. This bust has a fault. I
will need two more months. I have already started the work.” The king was taken aback. He looked
keenly again at his own bust; he couldn’t see any flaw in it; in fact, it was perfect. The sculptor said, “But,
don’t you see? A small hair inside the right nostril has developed a crack!” the king said, “You are surely
joking! Who will know?” the sculptor said, “Ah! But I will. And I can’t allow a faulty bust to go out of
my studio!”

That is efficiency in work.

Enlightened selfishness

Now, the third characteristic which I hold to be central for mental cleanliness is something that
the British have popularized in their culture: Enlightened selfishness. What is it? Listen to a story:

A PWD Minister from our country once went on an official tour to Malaysia. There, he was the
guest of the Malaysian PWD Minister. That minister’s house was a palace, while our Minister’s house
was no better than a hut. He asked, “How could you build such a beautiful house?” The Malaysian
Minister said, “Tomorrow I will explain to you.”

The next day, they went on a field trip. The Malaysian Minister asked, “Do you see that river
there?” “Yes.” “Do you see that bridge?” “Yes.” “Well, 25% of that bridge became my house.” Our
Minister got the idea.

After five years, the Malaysian Minister came to India on an official tour. He was flabbergasted
to see that our PWD Minister’s house was so grand that his own palace seemed like a servant’s quarters in
comparison. He couldn’t resist. He asked, “How could you manage to build such a beautiful house?” Our
minister said, “Tomorrow I will explain.”

The next day they went on a field trip. Our Minister asked the Malaysian Minister, “Do you see
that river?” “Yes.” “Do you see that bridge?” “No.” “Well, 100% of that bridge became my house!”
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Listen to another story to really understand this idea of enlightened selfishness.

There was a Lama who had a desire to build a golden temple for the Buddha in his home town.
He travelled all over northern China and collected a huge sum. When he was returning to his hometown,
he passed through a district that was affected by the Plague. Thousands were dying due to lack of timely
help. He stopped there. Using the money, he organized a huge sanitation drive and millions were saved.
He felt sad that his desire for his Lord was yet unfulfilled. Since he had already collected money in the
northern regions, people would take him for a fraud. Of course, he could tell them that he had used it for a
good cause, but who would believe him? So, he planned to go to Southern China this time. Again, he was
able to collect a much larger sum. Just as Damodar was called the sorrow of Bengal, the Chinese have a
river called Yangtze-kiang. It was called the sorrow of China. As he was returning to his hometown, the
Yangtze-Kiang River, the scourge of China, flooded its banks and millions were rendered homeless. His
heart melted seeing their suffering. He started using that money for organizing relief and rehabilitation
among the people there. By now, age had also caught up on him. He could not collect the required amount
for building the golden temple. He retired to his village. But before he died, the poor villagers, to honour
his noble wish, managed to build a small, but beautiful, temple for the Lord Buddha out of wood, for it
was a village of carpenters. The Lama passed away peacefully. Though small, and situated in a wayside
village, the temple started devotees from far & near. It is said that when the devotees would come to visit
the temple, the villagers would explain to them that their village had three temples of the Lord. Two were
made of gold but were visible only to the inner eye and the visible one was made of wood!

Mental purity

So, that is enlightened selfishness. It is a primary constituent of mental cleanliness. You will
recall that in the beginning of my lecture I had told you that I would be making a distinction between
mental cleanliness and purity of mind. Now would be a good time in our deliberation to point out that real
mental cleanliness should lead to mental purity. If one does not attain mental purity after a couple of years
of practicing mental cleanliness along the lines I mentioned till now, something is wrong somewhere.

What is this mental purity? Jesus Christ said, “Blessed are the pure at heart, for they shall see
God.” This is mental purity. What do we mean by ‘see God’? Some of you may object that you perhaps
do not believe in God, to begin with; will you then develop faith in God after practicing the three-fold
mental cleanliness routine I explained till now? This is in fact a very interesting point. When Jesus said
that the pure at heart will see God, what did he mean? Did he mean an old man with flowing beard, sitting
somewhere up on the clouds, having a voyeuristic fixation in our personal lives? For, that is the popular
conception of God. And we all know how stupid that conception is. Even children today do not believe in
such a God.

There was a boy’s hostel. At night, during dinner time, when the boys went in a line to collect
their food from the buffet table, there was a board kept on the table: ‘Take only one; God is watching.’
The board was actually meant for all items, but it was kept in front of the chocolate truffles because that
was the most popular item. A boy came out of the line with two apples on his plate. A teacher asked him
why he had taken two apples; shouldn’t he have taken only one apple? When he took the second apple,
wasn’t he afraid that God was watching him? The boy replied, “But Ma’am, God was busy watching the
chocolate truffles!”
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So, what does ‘seeing God’ mean?

Oneness is actually Purity. If we grow in purity, we start to integrate things. We first start
generalizing, and then we start universalizing the innumerable things of this world. We literally start to
see less and less of differences. That is what is called growing in purity. What happens when we start
seeing less and less of differences? A feeling starts growing in us that other people and other things
around us are not different from us. This feeling is purity.

Hinduism has very clearly mapped the psychological development that accompanies this growth.
The sincere exercise of mental cleanliness ensures the development of the individual. A personality starts
getting formed. Then a strange development occurs where the person starts integrating everything else
apart from himself into one entity, which is felt to be living. Everything except myself is seen as
belonging to a whole, with which I have an organic relationship. This one entity is the highest
generalization that is possible by the human mind and is what is called God by Vedanta. Once this
perception becomes stabilized, the next step is a grand universalization in which the individual self
merges with that Being. We have authentic references from all world religions about these distinct stages
of personal growth.

This is the grand scope of the Mission that has been undertaken by the Government of India
under the name ‘Swachha Bharat Abhiyaan’.

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