Purity: Friend or Foe?

Purity is a theme associated with the zodiac sign Virgo, and purity (sauca) is one of the observances, or the personal disciplines, that make up the second of Patanjali’s eight limbs of yoga. Do you find that purity is a concept that works for you and helps to keep you healthy in body, mind, and spirit? Or has it become another thing to beat yourself up about?
Of course, yoga has a purifying, cleansing effect on a mental, physical, and emotional level. The yoga asanas, coordinated with the breathing, improve circulation and flush out toxins in our system. Deep relaxation allows the body to repair and renew itself. However, the concept of purity can be a double-edged sword. One trap that we can fall into is to become obsessed with self-purification. Some yoga teachers exacerbate this tendency in their students by pushing the idea that we are all impure and need to follow extreme exercise routines and diets, including purging, to detoxify ourselves. Purity shouldn’t become a stick to beat yourself with. 
Below are some meditation questions, from my forthcoming book, Yoga by the Stars, that will help you to explore both the negative and positive aspects of working with the Virgo theme of purity:

• There is a lot of money to be made from making people (especially women) feel “impure” and bad about themselves.
  • What negative messages of this sort have I internalised, and how do they play out in my life and the way I behave?
  • What do I find are the best ways to psychically protect myself from absorbing such negative projections?
  • How can I help others do the same, so that they feel good about themselves too?
• Yoga teaches us to focus on how we feel on the inside, rather than obsessing about our outer appearance.
  • Which yoga techniques have I found help me to access a sense of being okay as I am?
  • Which other spiritual practices have helped me feel good about myself and comfortable in my own skin?

In the Virgo practice, in the Yoga by the Stars book, we set the intention to cultivate the qualities of sattva, in order to shed light on our radiant authentic self. We bring to the practice an awareness that when purity is conceived as an impossible-to-reach-ideal imposed upon us from the outside, it can have a negative, detrimental influence. However, when it is arises from within, bathed in the pure light of self-awareness, it can be a health-enhancing, positive force. When in a state of contemplation, we come to rest in our true nature, this is true purity. 

​Purity is not a destination; it’s a way of being. The beauty of yoga is that we experience ourselves from the inside out, rather than responding to the gaze of others, and how they view us from the outside. Perhaps for the first time, we are comfortable in our own skin. This inner confidence helps us bat away projections from others who tell us that we are impure or not good enough. Yoga’s inner journey helps us uncover what is true and pure within: our radiant authentic self. 
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See also: Virgo Pure Light Visualisation
Virgo: Let the Earth Support You