By: Smt. Sunanda Anant
A friend would phone me at the stroke of midnight and wish me luck on my birthday, but I would have no recollection of our zero-hour exchange when I woke up. She would tease me that I was such a baby, and yet, would go through the midnight ritual each year, knowing fully well that I would be ‘dead to the world’ at that unearthly hour. But with the technology boom and advancing years, alas, a night of undisturbed eight hours of sleep is becoming a pipe dream, and I started listening to recorded Vishnu Sahasranama recitation before I sleep.
I started thinking about snakes, particularly ‘Ananta Padmanabha.’ Das Ganu Maharaj has explained about snakes and Ananta in his work ‘Sant Leelamrit.’ Sai Maharaj also interacted with Das Ganu Maharaj when he described Lord Sainath himself as Ananta Padmanabha.
Das Ganu quotes that Vishnu the Sustainer is depicted as Ananta Padmanabha or Ananthasayana, lying on the cosmic serpent that coils itself into a bed, positioning its many hoods as a canopy. Vishnu goes into deep slumber on this bed floating on the milky ocean, his head resting on his palm. During ‘Chaturmaasa’, the four-month-long rainy season, Vishnu remains in deep sleep as Ananta Padmanabha. This is his way of unwinding after working hard, and it is believed that when he wakes up refreshed, creation gets rejuvenated and energized.
Sant Leelamrit quotes mythologies across cultures to give importance to sleep and some of them have special gods of sleep. The Sandman in Scandinavian and other northern European folk tales sprinkles magical dust or sand on the eyes of children to put them to sleep and enjoy sweet dreams. In Roman mythology, Somnus, the god of sleep, has a thousand sons including Morpheus, all associated with sleep and dreams. Hypnos is the god of sleep in Greek mythology.
The snake or serpent on which Vishnu sleeps stands for subliminal nature or innate wisdom, trickery or temptation, evil power or fertility, sexuality, spirituality, death or rebirth, fear, fascination, or both, in different religious traditions. In tantra, the image of two snakes entwined around a central staff, shows the reconciliation of opposite strands in a person, typifying the basic form of DNA, the building blocks of life, called nucleotides.
Das Ganu states that Adi Shesha or Shesha Naga, the thousand-headed snake, represents kala purusha, eternal time. He sustains the world at the time of the mahapralay – the great dissolution, so that new creation can occur.
Adi Shesha, also called Ananta, is limitless and endless. It is emblematic of Maha-kundalini Shakti, a great serpent power, which keeps existence wrapped in its fold. In human beings, this power is contained in three-and-a-half coils at the base of the spine and is called prana kundalini, individualized energy, or Agni Sarpa, fire-snake. It remains dormant in the Muladhara chakra, the lowest of seven psycho-energetic centers in the subtle body. When awakened by yogic, tantric, or other spiritual practices, it reaches the Sahasrara chakra at the crown of the head.
The power of the Supreme works at both micro and macro levels in the body – the upward current is symbolic of Ananta, the downward of the poisonous snake Vasuki. Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita – ‘Of serpents I am Vasuki…Of the Nagas, I am Ananta.’
Ananta in Ananta Padmanabha is also a symbol of Prakriti, nature, comprising five elements.
Das Ganu’s explanation is superb. The Earth is said to be supported by Adi Shesha. Under his majestic hood, rests Vishnu, with his consort Lakshmi, Goddess of beauty, prosperity, and good fortune. Garuda, Vishnu’s mount, symbolizes the human spirit that tames five instinctive vices – lust, anger, greed, infatuation, and pride – represented by the five ugly heads of Kaliya Naga which Krishna, Vishnu’s incarnation, crushed. Shesha Naga’s popular incarnations are Balarama, elder brother of Krishna, Lakshmana, younger brother of Rama, and Patanjali, compiler of ‘Yoga Sutra,’ who is half-man and half-serpent.
In religious lore, both the Buddha and Guru Nanak were guarded by snakes during meditation. The symbol of Parshvanath, 23rd Jain Tirthankar, is a snake. He is called Panibhushana, one who is adorned by snakes.
Snakes are the progeny of sage Kashyapa and his wife Kadru. Many Hindu temples have snakes, Naga images for worship, or snake motifs on the main entrance because of the belief that they have a divine purpose in creation of which we are not aware. Expiatory rites are prescribed in the Dharma Shastras so that one can relieve oneself of sin caused by killing a snake.
Snakes preserve the balance of nature and symbolize the renewal of life. They shed worn-out skin as a part of the growing process, called ecdysis. Most snakes are non-poisonous.
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