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Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Clothing for the soul.



Sundari was obsessed with clothes, she would collect old , new, worn, torn, shredded, all kinds of clothes that were bought, borrowed, gifted, stolen or found.Even a smallest piece of an old cloth would catch her eye, she would pick it from the street and keep it lovingly in her small house.
People joked about her habit, her husband and son were tired of her strange obsession, there was hardly any space left in their home to walk or sit comfortably.If they threw it out with the garbage she fought ferociously and nagged endlessly, both of them decided to let her have her way.

However she became more and more obsessive about collecting more clothes, cluttering and piling up her house, her son finally decided to take her to a doctor, hearing her quirky problem the old doctor suggested he should take her to the village priest Swami samwad.
Sundari and her son paid him a visit one evening, Swami said "leave your mother here for the night and morning take her back, by then she would be completely cured of her sickness.
While she was complaining about her son, Swami let a snake slide into her clothes and raised an alarm.She panicked and took off her clothes and stood naked before the old man, he looked at her and said 'Sundari, do you realize that  you are standing here without your clothes before me?'
To which Sundari replied 'Thank you for reminding me, In my previous birth I was Duryodhan's sister, after they tried disrobing Panchali, she cursed them that 'your sister will have to struggle all her life to keep her modesty, all the clothes in the world will not cover her body'.

Her curse took effect, after that whenever I came out in public my dresses would tear, fall off or rip open in public. I tried everything, even spare capes around for such incidences,even those drapes would come off, exposing my body to people. I was embarrassed and I slowly withdrew from public sphere, I stopped interacting with people and became a recluse, I left my body desperately trying to cover myself with clothes.Now in this lifetime I am reliving the trauma and I am obsessively collecting clothes,trying to cover my body."
Swami asked "how do you feel  about clothes now?"

Sundari replied "I have learned that clothes, cannot bring you respect or shame, your body is not you.
Even my body is just a clothing for my soul, that I can shed when it grows old and get a new one".

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