as nothing indecent and bad? Is there any spiritual significance to this nakedness of body
in its totality? Kindly illumine.
Our holy culture is essentially spiritual in every respect. Only when the Spirit is
forgotten, dualities like decency and indecency arise. All these dualities exist for the worldly
man and not for him who tries to go beyond them and establish himself in that non-dual,
differenceless state. From the spiritual viewpoint, how can you then come down to the level of
finding the existence of dualities and getting affected by them?
The spiritual significance of remaining naked lies in its being a helpful factor in getting
over the body-consciousness or Sarira Abhimana. The man whose mind is tainted with worldly
thoughts and who is awake to the dualities will feel ashamed to present himself in his birthday
robe in public. Only he who has conquered his senses and mind can roam in a state of nudity in
public fearlessly and without the least emotional disturbance.
Some adopt this as a part of their Sadhana to overcome the body consciousness and such
people generally avoid the crowds.
Of course, there are people who impersonate realized sages and move about duping the
innocent public. But people can easily understand these pseudo-saints by their reactions and
hence shun them.
From "May I answer that" by Swami Sivananda (1987-1963). More Informations on Swami Sivananda: on the Website of Divine Life Society, Photographs of Swami Sivananda, German Pages on Swami Sivananda
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