So this is a write up about the Great Serpent,  fortunately enough I was born at a time when we still had snake charmers in India which I feel was undeniably a poor state for the great serpents of that time but a significant thing to have witnessed as an Indian kid. 

So during the afternoons after coming back from the hideous school, hideous in my experience as it was more like an institution to drain children of their creativity. Some afternoons we would have joyful times at my grandmas place where quite literally all the action was happening, From eunuchs to snakes it was all there everyday. It was the best place for a child ever. 

I can recollect this one afternoon so vividly in my memory still, when one snake charmer dropped his basket (which they would carry on top of their heads and sing a song, all snake charmers had the same song, while walking through the neighbourhood to make everyone rather the children aware of their presence) containing a big snake on the ground, he would play his flute to which the snake would move or rather dance for us children who gathered around. We were always so many children gathered to watch, they normally always had a big old cobra with a large and impressive hood.

The charmer would place the basket on the ground and the snake was covered by a filthy cloth. He would move the cloth away and normally the poor fatigued creature would raise his hood up in the sweltering heat and move to the flute. On this particular afternoon however, the sweet cobra decided to make a swift move towards me and if it wasn’t for the snake charmer having caught it by the tail I would have been dancing with it together… and maybe lived in that basket for the rest of my existence. 

Fun Fact – Sadhguru mentioned Snakes are deaf so they were moving to the movement of the flute and not to the sound!!

Well ever since then the terror of snakes was planted in little Karuneshwari’s heart and mind. Recounting another incident, I must have again been around 6 years old. Every year we would spend our summer vacations in my Fathers homeland in Tamil Nadu ( southern part of India) in a small village called Umayalpuram that lies on the banks of the sacred Cauvery river.

I remember going for afternoon swims in the Cauvery river, it wasn’t too deep then as it had less water due to the hot Indian summer. The river was flowing right through the village and the farmers would use it for farming purposes of the rich paddy rice fields. It was like lots of little water channels with big trees around them and we would climb the trees (me, my sister and other local village kids), the water in these channels was gushing at a high speed, and at one of these times of being on a tree branches a big snake just came up in the water with his hood raised! We all just screamed and ran, of course we were higher up but the fear of the unexpected made us run for our lives.  I wonder if my sister remembers this as I do, I hope she does.. 

The presence of these beautiful serpents in my life was gratified by the Doorway of Spirituality opened to me by my Master – SADHGURU 

Serpents are welcome…. More to come..

Sadhguru: ” Mysticism and snakes cannot be separated, Wherever there was an exploration or experience of mysticism in the ancient cultures snakes were always there.”

“There is no Indian temple without a snake. One aspect of it is symbolism, because in yoga, a coiled up snake symbolises kundalini.”

“If one becomes very meditative, the first creature which is drawn towards that is a snake.”

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev – Snakes and Mysticism