It is essential that a person should try to keep his or her body and clothes clean. Cleanliness is necessary for health. Dirt is the mother of ill health and suffering. It causes all sorts of diseases.
Doctors are of opinion that the terrible plagues and epidemics that rage in India today are primarily caused by filthy and unsanitary conditions of life.
In Punjab, the number of people suffering from typhoid is on the increase. It is because we take in typhoid germs through dirty eatables and impure water.
It is therefore clear that if we want to keep well, we must keep our body, our clothes and our house is clean. Besides we should try to keep the drains and gutters of our own locality in the sanitary condition and help to keep the public roads free from dust.
Cleanliness is necessary for self-respect. A man who is clean and tidy in his dress shown a great amount of respect than one who is dirtily clad and unwashed. It is a fact that decent people hesitate to be friendly with a man whose hands and face and hair are soiled, and the smell of dirt.
Cleanliness of the body leads to the cleanliness of the mind. He who tries to be clean in body and dress has a healthy effect on the mind. Besides cleanliness of mind is more important than that of the body. Sin is dirt. Goodness is cleanliness.
Every religion insists on the supreme need for the cleanliness of mind and body. The prophet said, ‘create in me a clean heart O God’. In the Hindu religion, cleanliness is prescribed as a religious duty.
The supreme importance of cleanliness can be easily guessed from the well-known proverb, “cleanliness is next to godliness”.
