Question: Should we try to keep our working areas neat and tidy, or can we work well in clutter?

Sri Chinmoy: As a young man my first job was as an electrician. My boss had come to the conclusion that in this world God has created two types of people: those who will make a mess, and those who will clean up the mess. We have to care for perfection. You are saying we should keep our work area clean. I fully agree. If you clean before you start working, you may say that you are losing ten minutes time, but actually you will accomplish more. These things I can say hundreds of times, but people who do not have from within a sense of cleanliness will never be really clean. I have been praying for my disciples to take showers. Still six or seven don't. If cleanliness is not in the person, then how much can you inject?

Whose responsibility is it to keep the place clean: the boys' or the girls'? On the one hand, masculine pride prevents the boys from cleaning, and on the other hand, they are incapable. The boys feel that the girls have to do it. The girls feel that it is the boys' unpardonable incapacity. There are many things boys cannot do, but girls can do. I have to give a boy twenty-four hours to keep his room clean, but if I give a girl five minutes she will do it. What will take him twenty-four hours to do, she will do in five minutes. And his sense of cleanliness will differ from hers. He will say that his room is clean. But when you go there, you will be surprised.

So the standard of cleanliness is different. The boys' and the girls' standard of cleanliness is different. The boys' standard is no standard at all. A husband will think that everything is perfect, but as soon as his wife goes there, you will see a real sense of cleanliness. These are realities in life. In my own room, I make it absolutely a beer-garden. The girl disciples will clean it. Here I am representing the boys. Our standard is really unbearable. In this world there are people who really maintain a good standard of cleanliness. Even if I ask others to do the same cleaning, they will do it, but it will be far below the standard of the others. So those with high standards have to do cleaning.

About three weeks ago I went to our press, and there I saw such a mess. I could not stay more than five minutes. Then I pleaded with the girls, and they went and cleaned up the mess. When the press is untidy and dirty, we just invite accidents. When the press is not clean, already the undivine forces have entered, and then undivine forces create accidents for us. So cleanliness helps us considerably.