Sal, a counselor at the Goddard
Clinic, was getting ready for her first
appointment that morning. Christina, a student at the university,
would be arriving shortly. Christina had started seeing Sal about
one
year
ago for various issues.
"Hello,
Christina!"
"Hello, Sal!"
"What
can I do for you today? Here, come sit down." Sal motioned
towards a
big
comfortable couch and then handed her a glass of water.
"Well, where
do I start? You remember my boyfriend, Reidy?"
"Of course.
Are you two still having trust issues?"
"Yes.
I cannot help it that I have a lot of guy friends! Every time a
guy
comments on my Facebook or Myspace wall, he goes crazy! And every
time I update my status online, he thinks it has to do with him, so he
gets
angry!"
"Christina,
you have to remember that you cheated on him! So of course, he will
have trust issues!"
"By
the way, I am cheating on Reidy again! What is wrong with me?? He
treats me great, most of the time. He takes me out, has a new
BMW, and
calls me at two in the morning just to say he likes me! I
mean...yeah,
it might be after a few drinks of alcohol and after all his friends
leave his condo, but he really means it. And still, I cannot stop
cheating! I feel like I am addicted to a drug, and the drug is
any man
who is either married or has a significant other!!"
"Okay, wait
a minute. I want you to close your eyes and take a few deep
breaths.
Just breathe, and let go." Sal wanted to give her a few minutes to
collect herself.
"I want to tell
you a story about a
woman who
fell in love with another woman's husband. Her name was
Surpanakha.
One day, she was in the forest when she came upon a clearing with a
small house. She saw this handsome man, Rama, who was tall,
muscular,
and had these beautiful green eyes! She was so infatuated with
Rama,
but he was madly in love with his wife, Sita. She tried to
convince
Rama to leave Sita and go with her to the island of Lanka. See,
her
brother was the ruler of Lanka, and this way they could live
lavishly.
Rama told her to leave them alone or his brother Lakshmana would hurt
her, but instead Surpanakha tried to touch Sita. She wanted Sita
out of
the
picture, so she could have Rama. Lakshmana saw this and cut off
her
breasts, ears, and nose with his sword."
Christina
then interrupted, "Oh, my goodness! That is a little drastic, don't you
think?" She then felt her breasts. "I cannot imagine that
happening
to me! I would kill him, if he cut off my assets. I mean...
those are
gifts from God!"
"Well, if Lakshmana had only cut off her little finger, then she would
not have
learned her lesson!"
"I guess it is better to lose your nose, ears, and breasts, then to
lose your eye sight! Then, she really wouldn't be able to see those
beautiful men like Rama. That sounds more like her Karma."
Sal continued with the story,
Surpanakha was outraged
and
told her stepbrother, Kara. Kara went with his army to kill Rama
and
Lakshmana for doing this, but Rama was able to kill all of them
himself, since he was a superhero. Later, Rama even killed
Surpanakha's brother, Ravana. "
Christina
then asked, "That was a great story, but what does that have to do with
me?"
"Oh,
Christina! I just want to show you that lusting over married men will
not do you any good. Your
actions will catch up to you, in one way or another, so beware of
Karma! You see, Surpanakha got her nose, breasts, and ears cut
off
for
her evil, and I do not want anything to happen to you like what
happened to her!"
"What should
I do then?"
"First, go
tell Reidy that you have been cheating on him again. Be ready for
him
to break up with you. It's okay to be alone! You do not
have
to stay
with a guy just because he has a nice car or takes you to dinner every
night. Those are all the wrong reasons. In the meantime,
you need to
work on you! We have to get to the bottom of why you keep
cheating!
So, we will save that for next time."
"Okay!"
"That was a
great session. Sorry, but time is up! I will see you next
week
and you can fill me in on what happens."
Once Christina left, Sal pondered more about the
story of Surpanakha.
Little did she know, Christina was the modern-day reincarnation of
Surpanakha. Obviously, Surpanakha's Karma followed into
Christina's
lifetime. Author's Note: I tried not to go
into too much detail about the story
of Surpanakha, but I wanted Christina to understand the moral of the
story. Also, I wanted to keep my version as close to the original
as
possible from both Narayan and Buck's version. I chose this story
because it related closely to what the character Christina was going
through.
Also, this was a good example of how Karma follows you to other
lifetimes. The character of Christina was based on a real person whom I
know and her
relationship situation, except that I added details like her cheating
with a married man. Also, I made the character more shallow than
the
actual person, but I wanted her to be like present-day students.
That
is one reason Christina talked about having a Facebook and
Myspace.
Sal, a counselor, could be considered a present-day sage. Sal is
meant
to help Christina realize that if she does not change, she will suffer
for her actions later. I wanted Sal to be very honest with
Christina,
so that she would know her behavior was wrong. I ended this
session in
a way that you could decide for yourself what might happen to Christina.
Image Information:
Aubergine Doodle. Website: Deviant
Art.
Lakshmana Cuts the Nose of the Demoness Surpanakha, From the
Ramayana. Web Source: South
Asian and Himalayan Art.
Buck, William
(1976).
Ramayana: King Rama's Way. Narayan, R.K. (1972)
The
Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic.
