“Once upon a time, there lived a wise Brahmin woman, Gautami. She was a widow whose only son was bitten dead by a snake. A snake charmer caught the snake, brought it to the woman and asked her how he should kill it; cut it to pieces or burn it alive. The woman asked him to leave the snake alone, alive, since none could do anything against the strokes of destiny; to do anything in the matter like killing the snake would be a sin. In any case, her dead son would not come back to life now.
The argument went on and the wise woman said that the death of her son had not cause her agony as the boy had met his destiny.
The snake, now breathing more freely, told the snake-charmer that he had done what he was instructed to do by Lord of Death. But the act of biting the boy was of the snake, said the snake-charmer, and he could not be absolved of the guilt of the boy’s death.
In the meantime, the Lord of Death came and explained that impelled by the wheel of Destiny (the Lord of Time or Kaal) he (the Lord of Death) had instructed the snake to bit the boy.
Arguments went on between the snake-charmer and the Lord of Death, non agreeing with the other. Then Kaal reached the spot and explained—it was all the result of the Karmas of the boy—which had to give their results at a given time, through the instrumentalities of the Lord of Death, and the snake.
Karmic patterns of our past lives, allotted to us to enjoy or suffer in our present incarnations, at a given time, become in astrology, planetary patterns and the dasha system(planetary period)— representing Destiny and Time of the Wheel of Destiny”
The above story is from my Indian astrology teacher Mr. K.N Rao. He used to be quite an ingenious story teller, who cultivated the habit of making his points with stories, to evade direct answers to any uneasy inquires. (You can go to my older blog posting, April 30th 2008: The illumination Pill, Korean Ginseng Candy, for more about him.) The above story is just one of the examples he uses it when people ask of him when they will die. Sometimes his tongue is as sharp as snake bites in telling truths (mostly to hypocrites) but, many times he feels tormented when he sees inevitable ends for those anguished Indian mothers or wives come running to him for their ailing children or husbands. In those difficult moments, he weeps silently for them with deep prayers in his heart. And regrets his ever getting into astrology. Fearful snakes… are the image of my teacher to many others, but, to me, one of the most beautiful human beings I ever encountered…
In India, snakebite deaths are quite common occurrences, especially in older days. With such huge populations and undeveloped wild lands all over, I presume it might be, though I myself will quiver just by sheer imaginations of a snake slithering around.
The image of a snake, with its lithe body and cold skin, fierce eyes and sharp teeth, and venom, invokes terror to anyone hears of it. Clearly there is something profoundly unsettling about snakes. It’s the way they look at you with that steady unblinking stare. It’s as though they have come from another world. And indeed, ancestrally they almost certainly have. They have come from the underworld. Snakes are much feared animal by its venomous poison and also by its association with evil image in Christianity.
In Yoga, Cobra pose (bhujangasana) is a simple backbend that resembles the look of a cobra raising its hood. It is performed on prone position with bent elbows and hands beside the chest, lifting our head and chest higher up by using the back muscles, not the hands, like snakes with no limbs. Its main benefits are on strengthening, stretching and mobilizing spine while also helping to open the chest and shoulders.
In Indian mythology, snake enjoys much more revered status with many myths are attributed to it (no wonder there are so many snakes in India…).
Shiva adorns himself with cobra around his neck, signifying a deep familiarity with the fear of death. Shiva’s son, Ganesh, wears a cobra around his waist, not just as an homage to his father, but as a symbol of his attempt to follow his father-teacher’s footstep along the yogic path and shows his commitment to mastering his fears. Vishnu sits on Ananta, his thousand-headed serpent liaison whom we learned to be reincarnated as Patanjali in previous story. When the Buddha was meditating under the sacred bodhi tree, the king of cobras slithered up behind him and opened his great hood, creating a large canopy to protect him from heavy rain. Kundalini is the spiritual serpent lying coiled in the base of our spine. It is sleeping for most of people but, once it gets awakened, rising through the spinal cord like a king cobra raises its head and body, much super natural powers and enlightenment follows. The goal of Yoga is to awaken the Kundalini and Patanjali’s Ashtanga Yoga is the ultimate fit for that.
Thus the cobra is a fearsome creature for most, but it is the friend of the yogi. Its many manifestations can help us on the yogic path as we stumble over obstacles, poisons, and fear. The snake is a powerful symbol of our ability to relinquish all fears as we progress on a spiritual path. The way we give up fear is not by running from it, as some might do from the cobra, but by getting close to it and seeing it from a different perspective.
Whenever I see people are immobilized by their own fear, thus, unable to make necessary changes for anything good to about in their life, I feel so sorry for them. Because fears are nothing but like own shadows…the more we run away from it, the faster it will chase after us until we are drop dead. By simply stepping out in the sun, it disappears instantly. There are so many excuses we are making in not doing Yoga…but the way I learned to deal with my own fear of snake is by simply doing Yoga everyday no matter how I might feel. I found it became my most trusty solace that I turn again and again…I hope you would also come to love Yoga like a lifeline…because, it is really a lifeline in this fear infested society we are living in…
