Clearing of the Karma dust

Before sitting at any place, even a dog cleans it. This tendency teaches us that living beings like cleanliness. If we do not wash our clothes, then how dirty they become? How much dirty the dress looks? We do not like to even sit along with a person wearing dirty dress. Similarly, we dislike dirty body, dirty home, and dirty things. We want that everything, which comes into our contact, must be clean.

Wise men say that internal cleanliness is more important than external. A dirty mind would be more harmful than a dirty body. Passions make the mind perverted; therefore, mind must be kept aloof from them. Then, think of the soul. Karma accumulated during the past births is attached to the soul. As we clean the home by dusting it twice, thrice, likewise we must clean the soul from the karma dust through non-violence, restraint and penance.

- Uttaradhyayana Sutra 10/3