जपहोमार्चनं कुर्यात् सुधौतचरणः शुचिः

जपहोमार्चनं कुर्यात् सुधौतचरणः शुचिः।

पादशौचविहीनं हि प्रविवेश नलं कलिः॥ ८

क्षेमेन्द्रकविप्रणीते चारुचर्यायाम्॥

japahomārcanaṁ kuryāt sudhautacaraṇaḥ śuciḥ|

pādaśaucavihīnaṁ hi praviveśa nalaṁ kaliḥ|| 8

kṣemendrakavipraṇite cārucaryāyām||

---------------

a very significant instruction from poet Kshemendra in his Charucharya.. the treatise of good conduct.

---------------------

==============

A persons should start performing chanting of the names or god, offering oblations to fire, or worshipping the god with flowers, or for that matter any good thing shoud first make himself clean and pure by washing his own feet thoroughly..

The deity of disaster and misfotune, Kali entered the Emperor Nala through his feet which were not washed properly .

================

The story of Emperor Nala is very famous.. He was a great ruler, perfect in all sense.

He was ruling his country well.. But once he played dice with his brother and lost the kingdom as a wager.

it is believed that this king once entered his palace in the dusk after some tour, and he failed to wash his feet before entering..

The time was not good for Nala, and the evil deity of misfortune and suffering, Kali was waiting for him to infest him, but was at a loss to take charge of the king because the king was perfect in all his actions..

Finally when the king forgot to wash his feet, Kali grabbed the opportunity and entered the body of the king

The kings character underwent a sea change..

He started behaving in not so proper ways..

And in a game of chess with his brother, lost the kingdom too and adjourned to forest along with his wife Damayanti..

In the forest, he protected the king of snakes Karkotaka from a wildfire, but in turn was bitten by the snake and lost his personal beauty..

His wife Damayanti was lost too.

The king landed up as a charioteer to Rituparna.. and learned the Aksha Hridaya Vidya and finally kali left him.

After that he regained Damayanti and regained the kingdom too.

The story is long with many episodes, and many versions too

The story is found first in the epic Mahabharatham

Here the most relevant part of the story is that the king Nala allowed his attention slip for some moments, and overlooked the need for personal cleanliness.. and that the results were disastrous..