Message on the Festival of Serpents

Stop Wastage

You are pouring milk to serpents today. But you are killing the serpents whenever and wherever you see. A serpent never harms anybody unless it is hurt and fears for its own life. It spreads its hood and gives a hissing sound as a warning. After biting, the serpent does not drink your blood or eat your flesh. A man is killing animals, which do not harm the man to eat its flesh. Today you must develop some kindness and understand the serpents. Then today will be a meaningful festival. Moreover, you are pouring milk in the abode of snakes. The serpent does not drink and the milk is wasted. The Veda says “Annaṃ na paricakṣīta” i.e., food should not be wasted which is a sin. Milk is a complete food and by wasting it you are earning a lot of sin. Veda is the highest authority.

If a priest takes Rs.10/- from you and wastes Rs. 100/-, you may sometimes get sin and the money may go waste. An uneducated doctor takes Rs. 10/- as fees and prescribes medicines worth of Rs. 100/- which do not cure the actual disease and sometimes, new diseases start. You may give Rs.100/- to a Sadguru and He gives clear knowledge to you like a qualified doctor who takes Rs.100/- and prescribes a tablet worth of Rs. 2/-, which will cure the disease completely. Priest represents karma (action) and Sadguru represents Jnana (knowledge). The Gita says that Jnana destroys Karma (Jñānāgniḥ…).

The snake abode represents the human body and the snake represents the hunger, which is the fire energy represented by waves. Energy is propagated in the form of waves and the serpent also moves in the forms of waves. Therefore, the serpent represents the life energy. Giving milk to a hungry deserving person is the inner meaning of this festival. Datta is fond of milk. Therefore, you should offer the milk to the human incarnation of Lord Datta or to a devotee of Datta or to an incapable beggar and preach him about Datta.

Every serpent is not God. Only Adishesha is God in the form of serpent. This is told in the Gita. Similarly, Rama, Krishna, Jesus or Buddha etc., is God in human form. This does not mean that every human being is God. Today you must remember that ‘Adishesha’ represents an ordinary human being because Adishesha is a serpent and the serpent represents the life energy. Adishesha is born as Lakshmana when the Lord was born as Rama. Lakshmana served the Lord personally as well as in His mission. Therefore, Lord Rama gave a permanent co-living (Sahavaasa) with Him on the Earth. Rama never left Lakshmana even for one day.

The pure mind represents the milk and the human incarnation of Lord represents the snake abode. Pouring the milk in the snake abode represents dedication of your pure mind to the Lord. The serpent represents the life energy of the human incarnation. Sometimes, the human incarnation may go in a curved way like a serpent. Krishna also showed some curved ways. Like the hissing and biting of the serpent, the human incarnation may threaten or even trouble the devotee to test his devotion. In spite of the negative qualities of the serpent, you are offering milk. This means that even if the human incarnation of Datta may exhibit some curved behavior or threaten or harm you, you must dedicate your mind to Him as you are pouring the milk to the serpent in spite of its negative qualities. This is the innermost spiritual essence of this festival.

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