It was for a reason, the religious mystics turned away from their body, and sought a unification that make two people wholly and forever one.
Was their quest successful? Is their unification with the divine man not also an ecstatic feeling which passes? Does any perfect unification exists? It does but there is a catch.
This unification with the divine needs a total divestment – that is clear; and not just of one’s clothes, but of habits, attachments and aversions, futile thoughts and feeling. This self-exposure goes further than exposing one’s body.