The time element, like a snake, is always looking for an opportunity to strike

The time element, like a snake, is always looking for an opportunity to strike.

… O exclusive shelter for all who are situated in troubled life, in this formidable fort of conditional existence the time element, like a snake, is always looking for an opportunity to strike. This world is full of ditches of so-called distress and happiness, and there are many ferocious animals always ready to attack. The fire of lamentation is always blazing, and the mirage of false happiness is always alluring, but one has no shelter from them. Thus foolish persons live in the cycle of birth and death, always overburdened in discharging their so-called duties, and we do not know when they will accept the shelter of Your lotus feet. (S.B.4.7.28 The Sacrifice Performed By Dakṣa)

COMMENT: In this verse, there is a description of the kala-sarpa, the black snake of time. In Bengal, there is an ancient drawing that illustrates this point, kala-sarpa; it shows a frog croaking and a snake is crawling up from behind.  And as we know, snakes don’t chew, they just swallow their prey whole.

So in the drawing, the snake came up from behind and starting swallowing the frog. And the frog is already swallowed up to its neck – only its head is still sticking out of the mouth of the snake – then a little fly comes past and the tongue of the frog is shooting out of its mouth trying to catch the fly!

So it is the snake of time, the kala-sarpa by which we can calculate, according to our age, how much we are already swallowed. Like myself, at age sixty, I don’t know how much is still sticking out of the mouth of the snake; not much!  At age twenty-two, if you make it to seventy-five, almost one-third already swallowed. At age forty, most likely more than half is swallowed and above that…

So if you think like that, that’s valuable. We have to look at our life from the perspective as a whole and not just become lost in the moment, “Oh romantic springtime, oh beautiful daffodils and sweet fragrant flowers!  Oh wonderful valleys, oh the enjoyment in the material world!” Yes, for a while! And even then, even while we are enjoying in the material world, it is still not fulfilling. There is enjoyment but it is not enough to fill the emptiness in the heart.

Kāla-sarpa, means a venomous black snake.

Sometimes the uncontrolled senses are compared to dangerous snakes. So the indriyas, the senses, have been compared with kāla-sarpa, kāla-sarpa, means a venomous snake. As soon as the kāla-sarpa or snake touches in any part of your body, because the venomous teeth is there, death is there immediately. Therefore they’re called kāla-sarpa. Kāla means death. Kāla-sarpa. Therefore we are so much afraid of a snake. So but if the kāla-sarpa’s poison teeth is taken away, then it is no more, I mean, fearful. It is no more dangerous. Therefore Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī says that “By the mercy of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, our indriyas, the senses, which are compared with the kāla-sarpa, may be kāla-sarpa, but the poison teeth is extracted.” Durdāntendriya-kāla-sarpa-paṭalī protkhāta-daṁṣṭrāyate. (Lecture on BG 4.26, Bombay, April 15, 1974)

Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has sung this song, śarīra avidyā-jāl, jaḍendriya tāhe kāla. Kāla means serpents, kāla-sarpa. Kāla-sarpa, it can bite at any moment and finish you. We are being bitten every moment. It is Kṛṣṇa’s grace that we are living. Otherwise, our senses are so dangerous that it can bring me down at any moment, kāla-sarpa. There are many places, kāla-sarpa-paṭalī protkhāta-daṁstrāyate. One devotee says, “Yes, I am surrounded by kāla-sarpa, the serpent, that’s nice; but I can break the teeth.” But if kāla-sarpa is the… What is called, that? Fangs? If they are broken—they are taken out—they are no more dangerous. Dangerous. They are dangerous so long the fangs are there. So protkhāta-daṁstrāyate. Śrī Prabodānanda Sarasvatī said, kāla-sarpa-paṭalī protkhāta-daṁstrāyate (Caitanya-candrāmṛta 5): “Yes, I have got my kāla-sarpas, but by the grace of Caitanya Mahāprabhu I have broken the fangs, so it is no more fearful.” How it is possible? By the mercy of Caitanya Mahāprabhu it is possible. Just like you can break the fangs of the… There are expert snake charmer. Because this poison is required for some medicinal purpose, so they take it out. Then it is useless. But they again grow. The body is so made of the snake, even if you take once the fangs, again it grows. That is stated here, that how it is possible? Kāmābhikāmam anu yaḥ prapatan prasaṅgāt. Once it may be broken, but if you have bad association, then again it will grow. Kāmābhikāmam. One kāma, one lusty desire, produces another lusty desire. In this way, one after another, this is going on. That is the cause of our repeated birth and death. Bhūtva bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). So therefore, if we want to enter into bhakti platform, then we should give up this. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam (Brs. 1.1.11).