NAG PANCHAMI
In Christianity, snakes are considered evil, but in India, they are revered as divine beings. Almost all the main Hindu deities have a snake attached to them. Shiva wears a snake garland and allows them to crawl all over him. Vishnu sleeps on a snake, Ganesha wears a snake belt, Kartikeya has a snake beneath his foot and so on.
Shiva has a blue neck. It is said that he swallowed the poison that came out of Ananta, the great snake on which Lord Vishnu lies, in order to save the world. Thus he is known as the Savior of the world. Had that poison fallen on this planet, everything would have perished. The esoteric meaning behind this is that Shiva, the destroyer in the Hindu Trinity, has the power to intake all the poison or negativity in the world and keep it in his neck just like a snake. This is why he is known as the destroyer. What he destroys is the negativity in the world. This is why his neck is blue and this is why he can fearlessly wear a snake as an ornament around his neck.
The Vishuddhi Chakra situated at the base of the throat is supposed to control all speech. The blue color around Shiva’s neck shows the problems that can be caused by venomous speech and how that should be controlled and kept in check.
Hindus venerate snakes because they represent eternity as well as impermanence, life as well as death, time and timelessness. A snake represents the three processes of the world- creation, preservation, and resurrection. It is fascinating to watch a snake changing its skin. It’s quite a laborious and perhaps painful process. This is a lesson to us humans that we can overcome our mortality and achieve immortality however slow or painful the process may be.
No doubt fear must have been the start of snake worship since there are many venomous snakes in India; the most feared is the King Cobra which is the one that Lord Shiva wears round his neck. It is said to possess many occult powers. Hinduism has a unique way of overcoming the problems that Nature places before us. Instead of dissecting nature and forcing her to bend to our will, we have always tried to woo her and get her to help and protect us. This idea essentially has its basis in the Hindu religion that teaches us to see everything in the world as an aspect of the divine. Man and nature are irrevocably bound together and cannot be separated. If we harm nature, we harm ourselves. This thought is ingrained in our culture so instead of indiscriminately killing those creatures that harm us, we always tried to propitiate them and worship them as part of the divine.
In North India, a special day has been kept aside for worshipping snakes. It is said that if we worship snakes on this day, they will leave us alone. This day is known as Nag Panchami and comes in the monsoon month of Shravana.
The festival derives its name from the combination of two words - nag, which means cobra/serpent, and panchami, which is the fifth day after the new moon or Shukla Paksha in the month of Shravana (July/August), according to the Hindu calendar.
Idols of snakes made of mud are decorated and taken in procession, and people offer worship. There are some tribes that are famous for catching snakes, and they carry live cobras around, show them off, and try to make money out of this.
The roots of the festival of Nag Panchami can be found in Hindu scriptures. The Nagas were born of the third wife of Kashyapa Rishi, who was the son of Brahma – the creator. So, the Nagas were stepbrothers of the gods or the devas. They ruled the underworld called the Patala Loka. Nine major Nagas have been described in the scriptures. One of them was Kaliya, who was evil. When Krishna – the incarnation of Lord Vishnu was only a boy, he defeated Kaliya and danced on his head, putting an end to his misdeeds. It is said that Nag Panchami marks the day on which Krishna defeated Kaliya.
Alternatively, it is believed that the Nagas were a tribe who lived during the Indus Valley civilization and worshipped snakes. When the Vedic civilization became well-established in India, the Nagas were absorbed into the Vedic population, and remnants of their rituals were adopted by them, of which one is Nag Panchami. It is also celebrated by the Hindus of Nepal. Here, the legend says that the Kathmandu valley used to be a lake occupied by the snakes or the Nagas. When people tried to settle here, the Nagas became enraged, so they were worshipped and given special places of ritualistic significance to live in.
Now the question is whether snake worship has its basis in any scientific data or is it just a superstition caused through fear? Our ancient rishis discovered that the poison in a snake’s body is not generated within its body but from the atmosphere outside. The rishis said that a snake is able to inhale poisonous gases in the neighborhood extending to a few kilometers in circumference. Hence one of the Sanskrit names for a snake is “Vayubhakshakan,” which means “the one who eats air”! The snake that is capable of hissing out a lot of air is also capable of inhaling a vast amount of poison from the air, which it retains in its poisonous sac to be used to catch its prey and of course to bite unwary and careless humans.
Air pollution in hot places is more than in cold climates, so you will find that nature has provided more snakes in hot climates than in cold. Unfortunately, most people do not know this and always try to kill snakes as soon as they see them. Every creature has a right to live in this world till the end of its allotted life span. One who puts an end to that life before it reaches its end is guilty of a great crime. Most snakes will not attack unless provoked. Every creature has a role to play in the world. If snakes did not exist in this world, the poison in the air would multiply. The balance of nature is very delicate and very beautifully designed. When the human being disturbs this delicate balance, all sorts of troubles are bound to follow. Unfortunately, we think that we are the sole inheritors of this magnificent world, and everything is created only for our use.
Nowhere else in India is the cult of snake worship so intricately linked with the daily lives of people as in Kerala. It is closely interwoven with the life of the people of the State and is a component of its rich cultural heritage. Since it was well known to the rishis that snakes keep air pollution in check, all the ancient Kerala households were advised to keep a portion of the garden reserved for them. A snake temple was usually built beneath an old peepul or banyan tree which had spreading leaves and aerial roots. The peepul tree is the only one that breathes out oxygen both by day and night. Our rishis knew this, and that is why they told us to venerate it and never cut it down. (As usual, a divine reason was always given in Hinduism to mask a scientific truth which would not be understood by the common people of those times.) A lamp would be lit for the snakes, and some cow’s milk mixed with rice powder and turmeric would also be kept there. It is a common belief that this is the type of food the snakes love. It is said that the poison in the air is the main cause of arthritis and those who live close to a snake temple will not suffer from this disease.
Often you would find that ants made huge mud hills out of purified mud under these trees reserved for snakes. The ants would forsake their hills, and snakes would take them over. The mud from an ant hill is supposed to be most effective in treating all types of cuts and bruises and can even be taken internally for fever and other types of infectious diseases. It should be smeared over the affected parts. Another important fact that was observed was that the snakes were able to direct the electromagnetic waves in lightning into their mud castles thus ensuring that it would not harm the household that had given them shelter.
Another strange thing that was noted in these Kerala households was that new types of plants and new strains of rice, etc., would sprout in the area surrounding these ant hills. These used to be preserved and used by the household.
Our rishis knew this, and that is why they advised every household to keep a place aside for the benefit of the snakes and to revere them as gods. Needless to say, not a single person living in the house was ever bitten by a snake even though someone from the house went daily to light a lamp and keep some offering at the foot of the tree or place which was reserved for them.
As soon as you enter a snake grove, you are sure to hear rustling amongst the dead leaves and feel unseen eyes following your every move. It is quite an uncanny feeling. The stillness within the deep shade of the groves, the eerie feeling beneath the trees, the unique rituals, practices, and taboos associated with snakes, the mystery associated with the treatment of snake bite victims, the fascinating folklore associated with these temples known as “kavu’ in Kerala are all part of the rich culture of the land. Those who are sensitive enough can definitely feel the presence of some primeval powers in these serpent groves.
With the disbanding of the ancient Kerala households, these reservations for snakes were callously destroyed. Not surprisingly, it was found that all those old households that had cruelly broken down the habitat of the snakes seemed to have some curse on them. Many of the members died tragic deaths. Misfortune seemed to beset the family members from every side. These were all attributed to the curse of the serpents. Now many of these households when they are broken down take the trouble to remove the snake idols and other paraphernalia to some temple which has a place reserved for the snakes. Actually, every temple in Kerala has a small place in the compound that is reserved for snakes.
The two main snake temples in Kerala are known as Mannarshala near Trivandrum and Pambumekkattu near Trichur. In Mannarshala, the chief priest is a lady belonging to one particular branch of the Namboodiri (Kerala Brahmin) family. She has to be celibate, and when she dies, she appoints the eldest female member of the family as her successor. The place is actually crawling with snakes, even though we are hardly likely to see any. Devotees walk about everywhere, and there has never been an incident of anyone being bitten. Many strange rites and customs are connected with this temple.
Ananta or Adishesha is the name of the serpent on which Lord Vishnu reclines. The word “ananta” means endless and thus the snake represents the infinite and eternal nature of the world. It is “mula-prakriti” or primordial Shakti or power from which the whole of this diversified creation arises. Vishnu lies on this, thus signifying that the whole cosmos is under his control and can be activated only at his command. The goddess Lakshmi sitting at his feet represents “kriya-shakti” or the power to create. The waters of infinity on which the serpent bed floats is the Un-manifest Brahman or Supreme Energy from which everything else comes (the zero point field of quantum physics). This is why in the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna says that among snakes he is Ananta.
The human body has many centers of psychic energy known as chakras. Of these seven are considered most important. The psychic energy generated in the spine is called the Kundalini Shakti, which is known as the serpent power. When a person’s consciousness increases, this Shakti rises up like a snake through the spinal column on which the chakras are situated. The rising of this power through the spine corresponds to the increase of psychic power in the human being, which eventually leads to union with the Supreme power of the Brahman. Science says that the human brain still retains a reptilian center, which is a throwback to our evolutionary past.
The snake is a very sensitive creature and can sense the slightest change in the atmosphere because its whole body is in touch with the ground. It has no ears; it is said to be stone-deaf, so its whole body turns into an organ of hearing. If a tsunami is forecast in Kerala, a snake in the Himalayas will be able to know this a month ahead. Its sense of perception about natural events is acute. It has such a keen sense of discernment that it can perceive certain higher dimensions that human beings are desperate to know. By worshiping them, Hindus believe they can also acquire part of their wisdom. This is the basic reason for the worship of snakes in India. It is part of our culture and has existed for many centuries.
Ananatam,Vasukim, Shesham, Padmanabham, cha Kambalam,
Samkapalam, Dartrarashtram, Takshakam, Kaliyam tata,
Etani navanamani Nagaanam cha mahatmanam.
Sayamkale padenityam Pratakale visheshataha.
Tasya vishabhayam nasti sarvatra vijayi bhavet.”
Iti sri navanagastotram sampurnam
Ananta, Vasuki, Shesha, Padmanabha, Kambala, Shankhapala, Dhritarashtra, Takshaka, Kaliya. One who chants these nine names every evening and morning will be protected from all poisonous snakes and will become victorious in life.
Aum Anantaaya Namaha!