Snakes and Knowledge
by Diego Campo
ॐ Contrary to common parlance, phony new age spiritual gibberish and superstitious understanding; authentic Vedic Yogic knowledge teaches us that belief is the cause of our delusion and errors.
-Rāma asks: "What is the cause of the blueness of the sky?"
-Vasiṣṭha replies: "Rama! the sky being but empty vacuum, cannot have the quality of blueness ... it is better, o good Rama! to distrust the delusions of this world, and disbelieve the blueness of the sky, than to labour under the error of their reality."
Modern science today also calls the vast expanse of the universe, vacuum; for lack of any better explanation. The sky is not actually blue.
Belief is caused by our imagination and our subjective delusion. Like seeing a rope on the road and mistaking it for a snake, a person reacts to it fearfully as if it were areal snake nevertheless. Although the snake is unreal and imaginary, ignorance and fear exist within the mind, the ramifications of which are very real.
Like deer seeking water in the desert follow mirages and get lost in the expansive dry land, never finding real water but only chasing what they believed their senses told them; only to find starvation.
Just like ignorance which causes racism, or hatred of the "other"; although at its core is unreal and created by the inner mind and false conceptions, it has the ability to cause a lot of damage in the real world. Ignorance is not just the absence of knowledge, it is the wrong knowledge. Spiritual knowledge is the dispeller of this darkness.
Rāma says to his teacher:
"It is wonderful that a false conception, which has no real existence and is so delicate as almost nothing should thus blind the understanding.
-It is strange that something without sense or understanding, which is unreal and vanishing, should so blindfold the world.
-It is strange that something prone to causing deception and having no bodily form whatever should thus darken the world.
-It is surprising that error which is blind, dull, and a stupid thing itself, and which is falsely talkative at all times, should yet mislead others in the world.
-It is surprising that falsehood should betray a man, after attaching so close to him as a consort, showing all endearments to him, but flying at the approach of reason."
Rāma asks:
"What is the cause of the blueness of the sky?"
Sage Vasiṣṭha replies:"Rama! the sky being but empty vacuum, cannot have the quality of blueness which is commonly attributed to it; nor is it the bluish luster of the blue gems which are supposed to abound on the top of Meru.
Thus Ignorance is pictured with visible form in the imagination of the unenlightened, but the enlightened never attribute sensible qualities to imaginary objects.
It is better, o good Rama! to distrust the delusions of this world, and disbelieve the blueness of the sky, than to labour under the error of their reality."
''One sees a snake in a rope, silver in a conch shell, the flowing of water in the mirage -like that when he is known, the whole world vanishes leaving behind Sat(Existence) alone. I, therefore, take refuge in you, O Lord Śiva.''
-Śivamahapurāṇa,Śatarudra-Saṃhitā, ch.13.
DIEGO CAMPO
studied classical and flamenco guitar under Spain’s master El Entri starting at an early age and continued his studies with jazz master Richie Hart. He makes a living as a musician in New York City, no mean feat! He spends much time studying Indian thought, with a particular interest in Lord Shiva and Agamic literature.
