Prison of Gratitude

Pujasree Vatsa

Prison of Gratitude

Pujasree Vatsa

India

The concept comes from the idea of being forever grateful to someone who has helped us overcome a difficult situation in life. This imprisons us in the cage of unspoken duty to repay the favour.

As humans, freedom is all we seek in every expression of life. But when we think of freedom, all these negative or positive states of emotion only act as a barrier to the achievement of our higher-self. And to be truly free we have to attain our higher-self which is above duality and a true free being with true freedom.

In support of this idea, reference has been taken from the Indian epic Mahabharata, and the character called Karna. The study of this character shows how this idea of “Prison of Gratitude” is true. Karna was the spiritual son of Surya (Sun deity) and princess Kunti (the Pandav queen). He was one of the greatest warriors, and also the most tragic character of the Mahabharata epic. All his life he had gone through sacrifices and injustice. Whether it was bearing the grief of being abandoned by his biological mother, Kunti, or being humiliated at various aspect of life for being low born. And the only person who came to his rescue and elevated his status was Duryodhana (crown prince of Kuru Kingdom). He crowned him as the ‘Angraja’ (the king of Ang kingdom) when Karna was ill-treated for being born in a lower caste. When Draupadi refuses to allow Karna to string the bow at her swayamvara (a practice of choosing a husband from among a list of suitors by a girl of marriageable age) because of his low birth, Duryodhana defends him, saying “great sages, philosophers and warriors have no source, they are made great, not born great”. So Karna feels a sense of gratitude towards Duryodhana.

During the Kurukshetra war, which was a battle to secure Dharma (the eternal and the inherent nature of reality and truth), Karna, even though a righteous man, chose to fight against it because he had to repay his gratitude to Duryodhana.

In India, people treat these mythological stories very personally and express them as their own life experiences. I grew up hearing these stories and wanted to communicate them through my work. “Prison of Gratitude” is an illustration of what this dark emotion of supporting evil and being in this illusionary prison -  even though we can choose not to be, still we have to choose it and be in it of our own will - would look like if it is a tangible object.

Bio: Pujasree Vatsa

social media handle: @vatsapujashree

instagram: @vatsapujasree

linkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/pujasree-vatsa-24136a17a 

Pujasree Vatsa is an Indian fashion designer. She graduated from the National Institute of Fashion Technology (Mumbai) in the year 2019. Her accolades include the 'Best design collection' award and the 'Best Use of Traditional Skills in Contemporary Styling' award for her design collection ‘Saudade’. She also got an opportunity to work with Jean-Paul Lespagnard for his collection ‘Copy-Bug-Paste’. She was also one of the finalists for the iD International Emerging Designer Award 2020. Pujasree is extremely passionate about sustainability in fashion. She believes in the fair practice of labour rights and works towards the upliftment of craftspeople in India.

Tags: #sustainablefashion #bhagalpurisilk #indiantextileart #artsandcraftsofindia