Snakes - the mysterious beings!

Yesterday was an auspicious day for worshipping snakes especially in Southern part of India. Nevertheless to say, Snakes are worshipped all over our country. The worship is not limited to India alone but in many parts of the world. One may or may not agree to it being a celestial being, but one has to agree that it's undoubtedly a mysterious one.

There are many stories associated to this mysterious creation of God whom now we worship too as one. I remember as a child there was a news that spread like wildfire and found its space in many newspaper headlines.

The story goes like this: There was a truck driver who was on a road trip as a part of his work as usual when he gets the message that his wife has entered labour. He wishes to reach home as soon as possible and hastened up. On the highway, it is night time, and he keeps travelling with the aim to be with his wife soon. After travelling a few kilometres, he sees faintly in the dim light of the headlights of his truck that there is a long snake lying on the way blocking almost his entire path to drive ahead. He says he blew horns multiple times, focused the light on it, but unfortunately the snake didn't move an inch. Finally, his hurry to reach home made him take a decision not justified for, and he drives over the snake. The snake of course might have died, but he didn't wait to check. All was well, a son born to him, but there were scores to be settled. The boy as he grew up, displayed strange skin signs wherein his skin resembled that of a snake. Multiple doctors checked the child, but all in vain. The couple later had multiple children, but all with the same skin condition. The moral - they say it's the curse of the snake he crushed to death. Later a documentary was made too on this family. The children still have same skin condition. They even shed skin like snakes, find it difficult to mingle with other children and life is difficult. Again it's unexplainable, so stays mysterious.

In Kerala, there were many households who treated snake bite at a time where reaching doctors would be simply impossible considering the distance and lack of transport facilities. These houses worshipped Snakes as God as they believed their efficacy in treating snake venom is influenced by the blessings of the Snake God. The people were so blessed that they could tell what snake has bitten and whether the patient could be rescued or not. Some so blessed that they could sense in advance that someone has already been bit and would wait for their arrival.  The treatment would be completely naturopathic with medicines made from combinations  of leaves, bark and roots right from their own garden. The treatment is different for every snake bite. The treatment is not only naturopathic in nature but also spiritual with the chanting of mantras and shlokas for the patient to benefit completely. There are even cases where treatment isn't possible at all,  but when the patient's family requests, there is an alternative method very rarely used as it is believed to invite the curse of the snake God. The treatment involves summoning the snake that bit the person back to  this place and command to take back the poison. They believe that a snake bites a person only when the person is destined to be bitten by a snake. If a snake bites someone by mistake, he can be rescued by treatment. But if someone is destined to die by snake bite, that person  cannot and should not be rescued. After the snake bites, it is believed it goes far into a jungle and hangs on a tree upside down. Now when a person who has been bitten by destiny and cannot be rescued wants to be saved, the only option is to summon the snake back. Some prayers are done and the snake crawls back to where the patient is, and it is said it bites the patient again withdrawing all its venom. However, this is against the law of nature and also hurts the self respect of this  as-believed divine being. Hence, after withdrawing its venom, the snake will hit it's head on a stone in the veranda of the same house till it dies. This is believed to bring ill fate to not only  the practitioner but to his entire family.

So many stories are told and heard about this mysterious being that one would be forced to believe that there is definitely more to this creature than just being one among the many other creatures. Belief can turn a stone to God and after all this is a living being with so much told and untold to it. Stay blessed.

Take care

Regards

SRN