Between the Serpent And Rope, We Sweat

The serpent and the rope are standard metaphors in Indic thought, used to connote the unreal and the real in creation. These metaphors have been used from vedic times to the present day. Hence, it is important to explore how these metaphors were conceived.


Suppose you are walking on a half-lit path at a dusky hour. A rope is lying on the path. In the dim light, you mistake it for a serpent. You are seized by mortal fear. Then you muster the courage to check on it, cautiously, of course. You fling a stone at the 'serpent'. The stone hits the target, but there is no response. You go closer for a clearer view. You try to nudge the 'serpent' with a stick. You discover that what you mistook for a serpent is a harmless rope. You begin to breathe easily. You thank your stars. The threat has been averted. You move on.


This incident encapsulates existential fear. There never was a serpent except in your mind. The serpent was 'unreal'. It was imposed on the rope that was 'real'. Imposing the unreal on the real constitutes the fundamental folly in life. The Sanskrit term for the unreal world, the world of mental projection, is 'prapancha'.


Much of the fears and anxieties that torment life owe to such 'folly' of mistaking the mithya, unreal, for the real satya. This confusion arises from smriti-bhransha, blurred memory. Call it spiritual dementia . To see the unreal for what it truly is to rise above spiritual short-sightedness. This leads to a correction of inner vision and clarity in life.


Another common analogy often used to demonstrate the 'absurdity' of fear and joy, loss and gain, is the maxim of the missing gold chain. You wear a gold chain around your neck. Even amid party chatter and laughter, you gently run your fingers on your neck to check that the chain is safe once in a while. One such time, your fingers miss the necklace. The gold chain is gone. You are miserable. The party talk and laughter come to a halt. Everyone gets down to help you find the chain. Then somebody points out that, 'Oh! It is there, around your neck, just slipped out of position.' You are happy to 'recover' the lost chain. The 'loss' as also the 'recovery' was unreal, a mental construct, like the metaphorical serpent.


The serpent and the rope, connoting the unreal and the real, are excellent metaphors. DV Gundappa, the Kannada poet of Mankuthimmana Kagga , goes a step forward in Kagga 391. He agrees it was your 'folly' to mistake the rope for the serpent. But was that moment of mortal fear unreal? So intense was the fright that you saw the rope-serpent slithering. Were you not then 'really' scared? Sweat beads of fear had shown upon your forehead.


The poet emphasises that the world may be mithya, but the suffering it induces is real!


Authored by: Uma Ram and KS Ram