Ramana Maharshi tells why scriptures recommend cleanliness of the body

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The reason why the scriptures recommend cleanliness of the body [acharas] is only to make one completely give up the attachment to the body through the vairagya gained by knowing practically that, in spite of being repeatedly cleaned, the filthy and fleshly body again and again becomes filthy.

A story illustrating the idea in this verse is given in The Path of Sri Ramana – Part Two, appendix three, pages 224 to 228.Those who happily take as ‘I’ their fleshy and filthy body, which converts even pure food into rotten filth soon after it is taken, are worse than a pig, which feeds on filth.

Those who take as ‘I’ their body, which takes in pure food and converts it into filth, are worse than a pig which takes in filth and converts it into filth. Sadhu Om: Just as a man identifies his body as ‘I’, so a pig identifies his body as ‘I’. Though both are equally wrong in identifying a

body as ‘I’, Sri Bhagavan points out how the body of a pig is superior to that of a man! That is, the body of a pig eats only filth andexcretes it again as filth, whereas the body of human being eats good, pure food and excretes it as filth. Therefore, Sri Bhagavan’s

verdict is that those who identify a human body as ‘I’ are worse than pigs!Source: GURU VACHAKA KOVAI The Light of Supreme Truth or THE COLLECTION OF GURU’S SAYINGS translated from original Tamil By Sadhu Om and Michael James 

Guru Vachaka Kovai is the biggest collection of Bhagavan’s spoken teachings that was thoroughly checked and revised by him during his lifetime. As such it has a unique place in the Ramana literature.

-- Om namo Bhagavate Sri Ramanaya

Prashant Jalasutram