Yogi Dress Code
What to wear if one does yoga practice?
Usually, I do not make suggestions on what anyone should wear. I expect that an ascetic will dress as he/she likes. If during the practice, one finds that the garments are not suitable, one should change them. The idea for everything having to do with lifestyle, is to change anything which does not facilitate practice. Or change what once facilitated practice but which no longer does so and is found to be obstructive.
The idea from the Vedic literature is for simple clothing. When we see drawings of Shiva for instance, the only garment is a loin cloth. When we see drawings of Vishnu, we see that he uses a dhoti and shawl. One can assume that there is a loin cloth under the dhoti. Shiva however is known to live in isolated regions like the cold uninhabitable Himalayan peaks. Vishnu is with a goddess, Lakshmi.
Hardly is Shiva described as a ruler but Vishnu frequently is described as such. Some stories of ascetics list naked ones. For instance, the four Kumaras, some supreme yogis, wear no clothing. Their bodies remain in the boy state before puberty. They have no carnal knowledge or experience of sexual arousal. This means that they have no idea about using genitals for copulation or self-pleasure.
Even today some indigenous people go about naked or near naked but we see that when they depart the jungle and live in cities with the modern way of life, they cloth their bodies in the way which is acceptable. In some places appearing nude or near nude in public could lead to being arrested for indecent exposure. This suggest that as humans shifted from clan life in jungles to citizen life with modern conveniences, it seemed to that being nude in public was not tolerated.
For the matter of garment cleanliness, if a yogi lives in isolation, and is alone, or is with a few like-minded ascetics, he can do as he likes according to how the garments or lack of garments augment his practice. He can even stop bathing. There are stories of isolated ascetics who ceased that for a time and it did not negatively impact their practice. However, if the yogi is not alone or nor is isolated with other ascetic, the idea of not bathing may be a hinderance to the yoga practice. Others may object to it. The yogi will have to deal with that hostility.
As for the clothing, if the yogi’s garment is objected by others, then why should he not comply to clean the body and clothing daily. If a yogi lives in society, he benefits from that in some way. This means that he has to comprise in some way in return.
For years, I practiced the daily cleaning of clothing but there was a time when I was in Mississippi when I used a hamper for used clothing so that when the hamper filled, I machine washed the garments. This was a small hamper so that in two or three days the clothing was cleaned. In addition, the hamper was in an out-building and was not the main residence. The odor from it was no in the residence. Even mentally, the vibration from it was only in the out-building.
My opinion is that a yogi, even if he is in isolation, should wash his clothing daily. This should be done just after he takes daily bath. He should be near a fresh water source, like a river or lake. If he is near a salt water place, soap will be neutralized making it impossible to have clean clothing. A yogi should not under any circumstance feel that uncleanliness is satisfactory. It is not. For the purpose of inSelf Yoga one needs to get to the bottom of this.
How will one go to higher dimension where the supernatural people life if one becomes accustomed to unclean body and garments? That is not sensible. It is not in the yogi’s interest. Cleanliness, it is said by the Christian people, is next to godliness. Actually, cleanliness is listed by Krishna as one of the qualities of a brahmin. In addition, if a yogi has forms or images of a deity, uncleanliness may cause the yogi to go to a hellish place hereafter. That would be because of subjecting the deity to an unclean place. Yogis who have deities walk a thin line and are liable to hurt themselves because of having no understanding about the restrictions in place when deities are invoked.
Many yogis have deities and think that it does not matter if the place or bodies in the vicinity are cleaned. These yogis are ignorant and think that they can use supernatural beings without following the rules for Deity Worship. For such yogis it is okay to live like an animal if the deity worshipped requires animalistic habits to be used. Like for instance when using deities of Kali or Kalabhairava which requires all sorts of lower offerings.
If possible, a yogi should not keep a hamper of dirty clothing. I did that as described above but it does not mean that because I said the sun set in the East, that it actually did so. It did not. My keeping of a humper does not make it acceptable. And I was particular while doing that to know that it was not. I kept it to a minimum.
When I was in Guyana doing austerities during two periods of my life, I took bath in the afternoon, then before I left the bath area, I wet, soaped, scrubbed, washed and hung the clothes I worn for that day. There was no washing machine. This was done by hand. This is the ideal way.
If one keeps cloths for a while, one is also saying to oneself that uncleanliness is acceptable. The unclean or worn clothing carry a negative vibration. These are also more difficult to clean because the pollution of sweat, skin debris and anything else in the fabric will emit an odor. That will increase day by day. That is not good for a yogi who has aspirations for transfer to heavenly places.
In cases where a yogi became successful doing austerities where he ceased bathing or where he wore no clothing, that person transferred or was transferred from his physical body consciousness. His mind was completely removed from the physical level. He was no longer participating on this side of existence. That is a different achievement. It is not that such a yogi wore no clothes or wore the least clothes, and took no bath and also lived in society. What happened is that he successfully extracted all of his consciousness from the physical body. By that he lost track of its condition.
A good example of this is Buddha. But another example was the criminal yogi, Hiranyakashipu, where he extracted so much of his consciousness from the physical body, that ants eat his body except for the bones and they also made an ant hill using the bones as the framing. Such a condition however is not the same of a yogi practicing today. Even recently we have not heard of any yogi, extracting this consciousness so completely.
