Reviving Hinduism II: Takshaka — An order to poison
Medicine and poison are like two sides of a coin when one really puts it out on paper.
Poison is used to kill, sedate, numb, and put to rest; all some form or the other used in modern-day medicine as bioweapons, anesthesia, and processes defined for euthanizing living beings, be it human, animal, bird or plant life.
Putting light into the thought that when present, we, as beings; ironically and very paradoxically are living and dying at the same time; and you can immediately relate to this thought if you simply try feeling this sentence for a moment; coupled with a deep breath.
So, we understand that the study of dying is equally important as the study of living, from this very paradox.
Therefore ancient Ayurveda and Atharva Veda both included the study of this vital side of healing as well, i.e. poison.
Measured poisons of many varying kinds at specific doses were studied, to treat major ailments that posed a long-term threat to the solar body that we house.
As discussed in the earlier piece, we know that the observer’s role is grounded, pure, and without judgment. When one thinks of science as a discipline, it is simply an art that tries to define consciousness through varied sub-disciplines.
Biology is one such beautiful sub-discipline that studies plant and animal life in detail and this has led to the taxonomy and record of the millions of kinds of manifestations of life force that have been present, are present, and also try and predict possible genetic combinatorics for the future.
When we think of poison in the zoological world, possibly the first beings to present themselves as a threat to your context mostly will be snakes.
Snakes are one of nature’s most beautiful creations and they represent fertility, timelessness, and infinity in all cultures where they are strongly represented.
We have seen this time and again represented in various art forms across the globe, as the famous Ouroboros or Kekule’s famous dream of how a hexagonal benzene structure got presented to him when in a dream, and in a spatial representation of how a snake bit its own tale; a reminder of how things are always cyclic.
If one contemplates the fact of how snakes move, they usually are comfortable in the 2-dimensional plane and fulfill most of their life purposes in that space.
There is always an anomaly in the ultimate order of things and that is how it will always work as well, and similarly, we see that anomaly in the snake kingdom for just one particular species.
The king of all poisons, the King Cobra.
Majestic and ever so spectacular, this marvelous creation has been named Ophiophagus hannah and rightly so.
Ophiophagus as a word meaning itself is that it is the snake that eats other snakes.
When we closely inspect the habits of this species, we understand that it primarily lives alone and by itself, does not bother the other species in the forest, and mostly prey on only snakes primarily. Most importantly they exhibit a behavior that is very peculiar, standing at 5.5–6 ft. in height it is found that they stand up vertical to the ground in 3-dimension and literally breathe.
Adding to this awe is that they do their breathing and give warning hisses at a frequency that is comparable to the human voice and particularly around 600Hz that too.
Again, taking the observer’s view and studying the previous sentence, we may see that the king cobra brings order to the poison in the jungle.
Splashing all this on to a Hindu context, and inspecting Takshaka as a character, we see that he is a brother who attained consciousness to merely just bringing about order to poison as a concept, as it is medicine too.
Therefore, Takshaka is the king of all poisons.
For example, we see the story of Parikshit, the grandson of Arjuna, who gets bitten by Takshaka; ultimately due to a curse that rose as a result of Arjuna burning the forests which were home to thousands of Nagas or snakes.
Curses can be seen as powerful chaotic instant karmic outputs from the present arising from losing awareness, and losing awareness is always and always paid with a price I feel.
Snakes have been revered from when Kerala took birth and there are sacred groves that protect these beings and they naturally bring about fertility and prosperity when they are let to thrive on any ground.
We can also see this importance in many references like how Parashurama gets the blessing from Anantha after meditating on him to make Kerala a prosperous place forever, and how he proceeds to give instructions to all families to keep a particular area of their house abandoned so that plant life can naturally prosper and snakes may come and bless their ground with fertility and prosperity. Few genuine souls like Shri. Vava Suresh still strive to protect this rich species, heritage, and knowledge in Kerala.
Taking an observer’s view of an even macro context, i.e. in an industry-driven modern world, there are licenses, processes, and macro business techniques involved in the world of alcohol, cigarettes, medicine, anesthesia, and other drugs, which in itself is an order to poison itself.
So if one really puts some more light into it and grounds, one may also see that there is an ultimate order in the poison world of how all these substances reach and gets to each one of us, be it that one smoke a person plans to have with chai in the evening or that drink that you get with your friends or family on a Friday evening cool-down, and the Morphine to put a palliative care patient at ease.
According to Hindu belief, Takshaka takes care of this ultimate order and is an ordered creation that was made through multiple deliberate iterations, represented by the king cobra in 3-dimensional reality, and rightly as a king of the snake species in the animal kingdom as well.
