Superphysics
The Parable of the Snake; Four CLasses of Men
8 minutes • 1508 words
Table of contents
Parable of the snake
Some cowherd boys used to tend their cows in a meadow where a terrible poisonous snake lived. Everyone was on the alert for it. One day a brahmachari was going along the meadow.
The boys ran to him and said: ‘Please don’t go that way. A venomous snake lives there.’
‘I am not afraid of the snake. I know some mantras,’ said the brahmachari. The snake moved swiftly toward him with upraised hood. As soon as it came near, he recited a mantra, and the snake lay at his feet like an earthworm.
The brahmachari said: ‘Why do you go about doing harm? Come, I will give you a holy word. By repeating it you will learn to love God. Ultimately you will realize Him and so get rid of your violent nature.’ He taught the snake a holy word and initiated him into spiritual life.
The snake bowed before the teacher and said, ‘Revered sir, how shall I practise spiritual discipline?’
‘Repeat that sacred word and do no harm to anybody’ said the teacher.
Some days passed and the cowherd boys noticed that the snake would not bite. They threw stones at it. It behaved as if it were an earthworm.
One day one of the boys came close to it, caught it by the tail, and, whirling it round and round, dashed it again and again on the ground and threw it away. The snake vomited blood and became unconscious. It was stunned. It could not move. So, thinking it dead, the boys went their way.
Late at night the snake regained consciousness. Slowly and with great difficulty it dragged itself into its hole; its bones were broken and it could scarcely move. Many days passed. The snake became a mere skeleton covered with a skin.
Now and then, at night, it would come out in search of food. For fear of the boys it would not leave its hole during the day-time. Since receiving the sacred word from the teacher, it had given up doing harm to others. It maintained its life on dirt, leaves, or the fruit that dropped from the trees.
A year later, the brahmachari came and asked about the snake.
The boys told him that it was dead. But he knew that the snake would not die before attaining the fruit of the holy word with which it had been initiated.
He found its burrow and called it. It came out of its hole and bowed before him. ‘How are you?’ asked the brahmachari. ‘I am well, sir’, replied the snake.
‘But why are you so thin?’ The snake replied: ‘You ordered me not to harm anybody. So I have been living only on leaves and fruit and have become thinner.’
“The snake had developed the quality of sattva; it could not be angry with anyone. It had totally forgotten that the cowherd boys had almost killed it.
The brahmachari said: ‘It can’t be mere want of food that has reduced you to this state. There must be some other reason. Think a little.’
Then the snake remembered that the boys had dashed it against the ground. It said:
‘Yes, revered sir, now I remember. The boys one day dashed me violently against the ground. They are ignorant, after all. They didn’t realize what a great change had come over my mind. How could they know I wouldn’t bite or harm anyone?’
The brahmachari exclaimed:
‘What a shame! You are such a fool! You don’t know how to protect yourself. I asked you not to bite, but I didn’t forbid you to hiss. Why didn’t you scare them by hissing?’
So you must hiss at wicked people. You must frighten them lest they should do you harm. But never inject your venom into them. One must not injure others.
In this creation of God there is a variety of things: men, animals, trees, plants.
Among the animals some are good, some bad. There are ferocious animals like the tiger. Some trees bear fruit sweet as nectar, and others bear fruit that is poisonous. Likewise, among human beings, there are the good and the wicked, the holy and the unholy.
There are some who are devoted to God, and others who are attached to the world.
Four classes of men
Men may be divided into 4 classes:
- Those bound by the fetters of the world
- The seekers after liberation
- The liberated
- The ever-free
Those in bondage are sunk in worldliness and are forgetful of God. Not even by mistake do they think of God.
The seekers after liberation want to free themselves from attachment to the world.
- Some of them succeed and others do not.
The liberated souls, such as the sadhus and mahatmas, are not entangled in the world, in ‘woman and gold’.
- Their minds are free from worldliness.
- Besides, they always meditate on the Lotus Feet of God.
Sages like Narada are among the ever-free.
- They live in the world for the good of others, to teach men spiritual truth.
The ever-free are like clever fish that are never caught in the net.
- But most of the fish get entangled.
- Some of them try to free themselves – these are like those who seek liberation.
But most of the fish caught in the net cannot escape, nor do they make any effort to get out.
On the contrary, they burrow into the mud with the net in their mouths and lie there quietly, thinking, ‘We need not fear any more; we are quite safe here.’
But the poor things do not know that the fishermen will drag them out with the net. These are like the men bound to the world.
The bound souls are tied to the world by the fetters of ‘woman and gold’. They are bound hand and foot. Thinking that ‘woman and gold’ will make them happy and give them security, they do not realize that it will lead them to annihilation.
When such a man is about to die, his wife asks:
You are about to go; but what have you done for me?
Again, such is his attachment to the things of the world that, when he sees the lamp burning brightly, he says: ‘Dim the light. Too much oil is being used.’ And he is on his death-bed!
The bound souls never think of God.
If they get any leisure they indulge in idle gossip and foolish talk, or they engage in fruitless work. If you ask one of them the reason, he answers, ‘Oh, I cannot keep still; so I am making a hedge.’ When time hangs heavy on their hands they perhaps start playing cards.”
There was deep silence in the room.
A DEVOTEE: “Sir, is there no help, then, for such a worldly person?”
“Certainly there is. From time to time, he should live with holy men and go into solitude to meditate on God.
Furthermore, he should practise discrimination and pray to God, ‘Give me faith and devotion.’ Once a person has faith he has achieved everything. There is nothing greater than faith.
(To Kedar) “You must have heard about the tremendous power of faith.
The purana writes that Rāma, who was God Himself, had to build a bridge to cross the sea to Ceylon. But Hanuman, trusting in Rama’s name, cleared the sea in one jump and reached the other side without needing a bridge.
(All laugh)
Once a man was about to cross the sea. Bibhishana wrote Rama’s name on a leaf, tied it in a corner of the man’s wearing-cloth, and said to him: ‘Don’t be afraid. Have faith and walk on the water. But look here - the moment you lose faith you will be drowned.’
The man was walking easily on the water. Suddenly he had an intense desire to see what was tied in his cloth. He opened it and found only a leaf with the name of Rāma written on it. ‘What is this?’ he thought. ‘Just the name of Rāma!’ As soon as doubt entered his mind he sank under the water.
“If a man has faith in God, then even if he has committed the most heinous sins - such as killing a cow, a brahmin, or a woman - he will certainly be saved through his faith. Let him only say to God, ‘O Lord, I Will not repeat such an action’, and he need not be afraid of anything.”
When he had said this, the Master sang:
If only I can pass away repeating Durga’s name, How canst Thou then, O Blessed One, Withhold from me deliverance, Wretched though I may be? 1 may have stolen a drink of wine, or killed a child unborn, Or slain a woman or a cow, Or even caused a brahmin’s death; But, though it all be true, Nothing of this can make me feel the least uneasiness; For through the power of Thy sweet name My wretched soul may still aspire Even to Brahmanhood.
