Don’t Be Afraid of the Snake….

Don’t be afraid of the snake…..

Yes…..don’t be afraid of the snake. 
Why?
Because this snake is not real…….
funny joke…isn’t it?

But this is not the joke…..This is the serious yet fantastic concept, which will make you fearless in all the situations.

Without much a do, let’s come to the point.

If you have learned or read or heard any vedantic text, you must be knowing the ” Rope& Snake analogy “.
Go to any spiritual retreat, camps, discoureses of vedantic texts, you have to hear about the rope & the snake. Texts may be different,  commentators may be different,  places may be different,  but rope and snake is one and the same.

For those who are not familiar about this analogy, I will explain it in short.
In the evening hours after the sunset there is neither complete darkness, nor the sufficient light. During this twilight,  in one courtyard,  there is the rope. One passerby sees it as a snake and starts shouting. He is frightened and starts sweating and trembling.
Hearing the shouting voice, another person comes anxiously with a torch. The moment the light of a torch falls on it, both gets a sigh of relief.  Because they come to know that it is not the snake but the rope.
Then they start smiling and laughing. 
This is the analogy…allmost all the vedantic texts use to explain the beautiful play of maya( its effects and remedy by the knowledge)
Because of the lack of sufficient light, the rope appears as a snake. But once sufficient light falls, the rope is revealed as a rope and not as a snake.
Now tell me,
Where has the snake gone?
Did the snake come really? Was the snake real?
Who has created that snake? Did the rope create it??

Rope is as it is. It doesn’t and cannot create a snake. But then the person  has seen the snake. It was terrible and scary at the sight of which the person started sweating with fear.

The fact is,
The snake has neither come nor gone, but just appeared to be there. If there would be no rope in the courtyard,  snake would never have appeared. Thus presence of the rope is the must for appearance of the snake. Here rope is present (real) but the snake appeared to be present ( unreal)
What is the cause behind this appearance of the snake?

That which makes unreal to appear as real is the Maya.
That which does not exist , but still appears to exist is Maya.
It cannot create itself anything without the substratum.
In sanskrit; it is described as ” या मा सा माया”

When you come to know that not the snake but the rope is real, your fears end.
Advaitins see the world as mithya/ unreal upon the substratum of the non dual Brahman/The Truth. Brahman alone is the Real/ Truth. World appears to be real because of the play of Maya. Those who realises this Truth,  no more get affected by the dualities of the world. ( Once you know the rope, you don’t get afraid of the snake. )
So?????
Don’t be afraid of the snake….the world…..! Don’t take it serious…..take it easy like a play….!