After waking, evacuating, and appropriate cleansing, brush
your teeth, scrape your tongue and then take bath.
One has to gargle (acamana) and brush his teeth (danta-dhavana). He should do this either with twigs or a toothbrush – whatever is available. This will purify the mouth.If you plan to shave, do it now, before bathing.
One should evacuate regularly in the morning and then cleanse himself by taking a bath. If you must evacuate, do so before bathing. Otherwise you will be like the elephant who completes his bath by throwing dust on his body. With your upavita thread wrapped around your ear, pass urine and stool and clean yourself (sauca).
Without taking bath one remains impure and cannot perform any service. Everything you touch before bathing becomes as impure as your body is. Morning bath is compulsory for all, except those who are ill. In Vedic culture bathing is considered a sacred act to be accompanied by meditation on the Lord and recitation of prayers. When starting to bathe, you may recite the following mantra:
(om)
apavitrah pavitro va sarvavastham gato ’pi va
yah smaret pundarikaksam sa bahyabhyantarah sucih
Whether pure or impure, or having passed through all conditions of material life, one who remembers lotus-eyed Krsna becomes externally and internally clean. [Garuda Purana, quoted in Hari-bhakti-vilasa 3.47]
yah smaret pundarikaksam sa bahyabhyantarah sucih
Whether pure or impure, or having passed through all conditions of material life, one who remembers lotus-eyed Krsna becomes externally and internally clean. [Garuda Purana, quoted in Hari-bhakti-vilasa 3.47]
Do not bathe naked. Wear a kaupina. This shows respect to the personality of the water and shows that one recognizes bathing to be a sacred act. One should be particularly careful to observe this injunction when bathing in a river or other public place. Grhasthas should bathe wearing two cloths. (Besides a kaupina, they wear a second cloth (gamcha), usually tied around the waist.) Brahmacaris and sannyasis should wear at least a kaupina when bathing. Do not take unnecessary baths. Three times a day plus after any occasion of impurity is sufficient. Do not bathe in impure water.
After bathing, do not shake your hair to dry it and do not shake water from your cloth or legs. Do not rub oil on your body after bathing. (Oil on the body is considered impure, and thus if you require it you should apply it before taking a water bath.) Wring out your bathing cloth and then dry your body with a separate, dry cloth; wiping yourself with your bathing cloth will contaminate you again. However, if you wash and wring out your bathing cloth before drying yourself off with it, you will not become impure. After bathing, dry your body with a clean cloth; do not wipe your body with your hands, a dirty cloth, or the edge of the damp cloth you are wearing. The cloth used for drying should be washed after every use. Sit down and tie your sikha while chanting the brahma-gayatri mantra once. Put on clean clothes. Perform simple acamana as follows:
Sit on an asana, and with a small spoon take some water from an acamana-patra and sprinkle it on your hands and feet.
Chant om kesavaya namah and sip water from the brahma-tirtha (the base of the thumb) of your right hand.
Chant om narayanaya namah and sip water from the brahma-tirtha of the right hand.
Chant om madhavaya namah and sip water from the brahma-tirtha of the right hand.
During all this process, one should chant the Hare Krsna mantra, or some slokas or prayers. This helps to clear the consciousness of the influences of sleep or any bad dreams you may have experienced during the night. By chanting, one immediately becomes auspicious and transcendental to the infection of material qualities.
