The Python on the Road

Since we are talking about animals from the forest, I can tell you the story of a python I saw while I was working in the jungle. These are very long, thick snakes.

I was driving along one of the forest roads near the place where I was working when I saw a huge python occupying the full width of the road. It was so long, the head and the tail were both off the road; only the middle was blocking my way. I didn’t want to run over it so I tried to make it move off the road. It seemed to be asleep or resting. After a big meal these snakes can go into a kind of hibernation for days at a time. I picked up the tail and tried to drag it to one side so that I could make a wide enough space for my jeep to drive through, but it was much too heavy for me. I gave up, sat down and waited for the next driver to come along.

A few minutes later a truck drove down the road. The driver at first wanted to run over the snake and kill it, but I somehow persuaded him that we should just pull it to one side of the road so that it would not block the traffic. Pulling a live, twenty-feet-long snake off a road is not a job that everyone is eager to volunteer for, so I was lucky to find someone who was at least willing to try. We both grabbed hold of the tail, but it was still too heavy to move. More trucks appeared on the scene. The new drivers wanted to capture the snake and take it away with them.

“No.” I said. “This part of the forest is under my control. This snake belongs to me. I will not allow anyone to kill it or take it away. You can take wood from this forest, but you cannot take away any of the living animals.” This wasn’t true at all. My company merely had the right to excavate in the forest, but the bluff worked. Some of the drivers who had stopped recognised me. They knew I represented the mining company that was excavating nearby and they were prepared to believe that my company had these additional forest rights. With the help of five other drivers I pulled the snake off the road and put it under the shade of the adjoining trees.

I later told this story to several people. One of them remarked, “There is a tradition that pythons do not have to go looking for food. They are supposed to have a magnetic power in their eyes that attracts prey towards them. They use this power on passing animals such as rabbits. They lie silent and unmoving in the forest, just looking at animals that come near. These animals somehow get mesmerised by the python’s look and walk right into its mouth.”

This how the power of the Guru works. He sits silently, not stirring a single thought. Those he looks at get mesmerised and become his prey. The motionless, silent Gurus are great predators. They don’t have to go out looking for food. Devotees appear before them and walk right into their mouths.

This is the magnetic power of silence. Dattatreya was like this, Suka was like this, and so was Ramana. He didn’t speak or move, yet people from all over the world were attracted