http://www.speakingtree.in/spiritual-blogs/seekers/self-improvement/avaricious-materialism-is-an-hindrance-to-spiritual-seeker
A Snake Charmer once caught a venomous snake and kept it in a basket. With an intention to subdue it completely and get it under his control he did not feed the snake for a few days. The poor thing was starving in the basket and its energy had almost drained out. It so happened that the Snake Charmer had left his hut and there was a rat which was happily playing on the basket. The Snake which heard the rat jumping on the basket playfully requested the rat to help it come out of the basket. The rat knew that once the snake is out of the basket it would kill and swallow it so was reluctant to help the snake. The snake mesmerized the rat by luring it with its hypnotizing words of praise. At last the rat fell for the sweet words of the snake and began to bit the basket to make a hole so that the snake can slip out of it. Even before the hole could be completed the snake which was hungry sprang out of the basket and stung the rat with its poisonous flanges and swallowed it. Then it crawled out of the hut and on the way it spotted the Snake Charmer returning back to the hut and bit him too killing him instantaneously.
This is a story told to kids at kindergarten giving a moral to it saying never help a wicked person as he is sure to cause harm to you. Well, for those tiny kids this moral is so sufficient but as a spiritual seeker it gives me a different perception to look at what the story has to offer me to learn from it.
Here the Snake Charmer is the Spiritual Seeker who always carries a basket, the Sadhana Prakriya (Spiritual Practice). The Snake Charmer finds the snake in the form of unfulfilled desires and wantons. He wants it to have it under his control and puts it in the basket without feeding it with the Vishayaasakthi (excessive attraction to materialism). This snake which even though has lost its energy uses the rat (mind). The materialism praise the mind saying it is capable of achieving anything and it hypnotizes it by using words like will-power, self-confidence and instigates it to run after materialism to fulfill all its sense gratification. If the self inspiration and self motivation was to achieve something to elevate it would be a worth appreciating venture but unfortunately it is with the avaricious intent and not to excel in life hence it is to bind the Jivatma (individual self) to Samsara (cycles of birth and death) and entrap it.
When the Spiritual Seeker is diverted a little bit just like our Snake Charmer who walked away from the hut for a short while. The unfulfilled desires and wantons approach the mind and lure it to break away from the Sadhana Prakriya. The mind falls for the always changing and charming materialism and starts to make a dent to the Sadhana Prakriya by cutting through it. The unfulfilled desires and wantons once out of the Sadhana Prakriya start to devour the mind. Then once it has fed satisfactorily upon the mind, it will then finish of the Spiritual Seeker also.
So beware of Avaricious Materialism in the form of the snake which will swallow the mind in the form of rat and subsequently finish the Spiritual Seeker in you ….!
A Snake Charmer once caught a venomous snake and kept it in a basket. With an intention to subdue it completely and get it under his control he did not feed the snake for a few days. The poor thing was starving in the basket and its energy had almost drained out. It so happened that the Snake Charmer had left his hut and there was a rat which was happily playing on the basket. The Snake which heard the rat jumping on the basket playfully requested the rat to help it come out of the basket. The rat knew that once the snake is out of the basket it would kill and swallow it so was reluctant to help the snake. The snake mesmerized the rat by luring it with its hypnotizing words of praise. At last the rat fell for the sweet words of the snake and began to bit the basket to make a hole so that the snake can slip out of it. Even before the hole could be completed the snake which was hungry sprang out of the basket and stung the rat with its poisonous flanges and swallowed it. Then it crawled out of the hut and on the way it spotted the Snake Charmer returning back to the hut and bit him too killing him instantaneously.
This is a story told to kids at kindergarten giving a moral to it saying never help a wicked person as he is sure to cause harm to you. Well, for those tiny kids this moral is so sufficient but as a spiritual seeker it gives me a different perception to look at what the story has to offer me to learn from it.
Here the Snake Charmer is the Spiritual Seeker who always carries a basket, the Sadhana Prakriya (Spiritual Practice). The Snake Charmer finds the snake in the form of unfulfilled desires and wantons. He wants it to have it under his control and puts it in the basket without feeding it with the Vishayaasakthi (excessive attraction to materialism). This snake which even though has lost its energy uses the rat (mind). The materialism praise the mind saying it is capable of achieving anything and it hypnotizes it by using words like will-power, self-confidence and instigates it to run after materialism to fulfill all its sense gratification. If the self inspiration and self motivation was to achieve something to elevate it would be a worth appreciating venture but unfortunately it is with the avaricious intent and not to excel in life hence it is to bind the Jivatma (individual self) to Samsara (cycles of birth and death) and entrap it.
When the Spiritual Seeker is diverted a little bit just like our Snake Charmer who walked away from the hut for a short while. The unfulfilled desires and wantons approach the mind and lure it to break away from the Sadhana Prakriya. The mind falls for the always changing and charming materialism and starts to make a dent to the Sadhana Prakriya by cutting through it. The unfulfilled desires and wantons once out of the Sadhana Prakriya start to devour the mind. Then once it has fed satisfactorily upon the mind, it will then finish of the Spiritual Seeker also.
So beware of Avaricious Materialism in the form of the snake which will swallow the mind in the form of rat and subsequently finish the Spiritual Seeker in you ….!
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