नाग (Snakes or serpents) have always been very fascinating for Indians. In contrast to western mythology where snakes are used to symbolize the demon or an evil being, Hindu mythology does not consider them unauspicious but worship them and celebrate their roles in the nature.
According to Adi Parva of Mahabharata, all the serpents are children of Kadru married to Rishi Kashyapa. Kadru was the daughter of Daksha prajapati, son of Brahma. Rishi Kashyapa married Kadru and other eleven daughters of Daksha. Each of these daughters gave birth to a particular species. One gave birth to animals that can fly, one gave birth to animals who can swim, one gave birth to animals with hooves, one gave birth to humans etc. So, all the living animals( including humans ) are the descendents of Kashyapa. Every kind of animal is similar to the other except some unique ability.
In many mythologies of the world, snakes are considered as the symbol of fertility : partly because snakes can be seen as a symbol of male sex organ. They are associated with water or earth because most of the snakes either live in water or under the earth. Snakes can shed their skin ( representing the death of a being ) and regenerate a new skin underneath( representing regeneration or rebirth ).
Ancient chineese associated serpents with rains which is itself strong symbolic force for reproduction. Serpents appear in the iconography and symbolism of ancient Greek, Mayan, Egyptian, Chinese and South Asian mythologies.
Nagas have been used as fertility symbols since vedic age ( perhaps from pre vedic age, Indus Valley civilization ). It is a very strong belief among historians and archaelogists that serpents worship was the part of Indus Valley civilization which dates back the Indo Aryan migration and Vedic culture.
The Sanskrit word for snakes is सर्प (Sarpa) which definitely has some links to the latin word 'serpens' meaning crawling thing. In English( one of the Indo european languages) also, we use the word serpent for the animals crawling and creeping on the earth. The word 'naga' does not match to any of the languages in Indo European family , perhaps it's been borrowed from native indian languages. Fertility is associated with procreation or regeneration the species of the same kind to ensure the existence.
The deity nagas are always represented in South Asian mythology as Hooded cobra( one of the most poisonous snakes commonly found in Indian subcontinent). It, itself, represents too many forms of fertility.
We find three different kind of snake symbols in hindu mythology:
A normal human with one or more cobra hoods
A snake with one or more hooded heads
A half-human and half-snake being( generally torso of human being and head of hooded cobra )
Snakes are not active during summers and winters ( when the earth is dry and red, symbolically representing an unmarried or premature girl ). They become active during rainy season ( when the earth is full of vegetation and green, symbolically representing the new life or regeneration ). At that time only, nagas come out of their subterranean region and copulate with their counter part. This is the time when all the animals including humans are proactive for copulation.
When the snake has to copulate, it has to move with the female one. They have to embrace each other for mating. Without movement, there can be no procreation. Where there is stillness, there is no life. So, movement symbolically represents life and stillness death. Life requires power for its existence. Power comes from movement. Stillness doesn't generate any power.New life requires power so does the procreation. And this power is achieved by the movement. In nature also, we use the power of moving objects like water, air, fire etc. Inanimate objects don't have lives because they don't have movements. For mating, we require energy. While copulation, the flow of energy is outwards or downwards. Males release their white seed while females release their red seed to ensure procreation. So, we release the energy during sex. In tantrik philosophy, the energy released during sex is known as the Tapa of the body. The energy released from body ensures the survival.The existential survival is itself an instinct or hunger in all living beings. There are two ways to satiate the hunger.
If we outgrow the hunger of survival and control the outward flow of Tapa from the body, we don't require to satiate our hunger by the means of movement. The seeds in the human body( white in male and red in female ) are the sources of energy. If we are able to reverse the flow of these seeds, we outgrow our hunger. This can be done by not letting the Tapa of your body release outwards.
The symbol of snake can be seen as a hooded cobra around the neck of Shiva. This hooded cobra represents stillness rather than movement required for the rythmic nature of life. Our mind is not restricted until we stop and feel stillness. In tantrik philosophy, Shiva is the greatest tapasavi who refuses the semen ( source of energy ) to release from his body. Instead, he keeps all the Tapa in his body and rejects the worldly stimuli. He doesn't respond to any senses. He is indifferent to the world. But to ensure life on the earth, shiva needs to get indulged in wordly stimuli. So, shakti proactively makes him participate in wordly affairs. In hindu calendar arts, this deliberate movement of energy is depicted as shakti on the top of Shiva. While mating, whoever on the top is proactive for sex. Here, in the image, shakti, on the top of shiva, represents her proactive participation in the process while shiva at the bottom is innocent to the process. Shakti is the preacher leading the process to release the energy out of shiva's body to ensure the existence of life on the earth. Out of three Gods of Hindus( Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva ), Shiva is considered to be the destroyer of the world not because he takes the world into the storm and destroys it but he refuses to let the tapa come out of his body which is the primal requirement for the existence of life on the earth. So, Shakti has to proactively make him release the tapa by movement for life.
One day a group of sages visited to Mount Kailasa and found Shakti on top of Shiva. An embarassed Shakti covered her face by a lotus flower. Shiva, innocent of worldly affairs, had no shame or embarassment and continued as before. The sages were shocked. They realized that Shiva was ingnorant. His mind was untouched by demands of society. They called him 'Bhole-nath'. In nature, animals have sex in the mating season ( normally rainy season ) to procreate. This happens because they have an instinct of ensurance of survival governed by harmones and an internal clock. It is not a choice. Neither it is accompanied by an orgasm. Only humans have choice to have sex and making sex a pleasure seeking activity that need not requires the ensurance of procreation.
But Shiva does not know about this pleasure seeking activity requiring movement. On the contrary, everything in Shiva's realm is still. Even the serpent which is a symbol of rythmic life becomes still when near the Shiva. Even the water which has the most primary property of movement from higher surface to lower surface becomes still as frozen ice on mount Kailash. He shuts both of his eyes. We have two eyes: one to accept the things around us and another one two reject things around us. These two eyes ensures movement for life. But a tapasvi ( like Shiva ) shuts both of his eyes, neither accepting nor rejecting the wordly stimuli. So when Shiva opens his eyes and accepts goddess, he does it out of grace of his devotee nor by his reaction to worldly stimuli. But shiva doesn't know how to make love to her. So the goddess sits on top of shiva( proactively participation ) and leads him in the process.
When sages saw Shiva and Shakti making love, they decided that no one would see Shakti and Shiva locked in such an intimate embrace, through which the goddess wants shiva to engage with the world. Instead, this embrace would be visualised as a symbol. That's why the divine couple is worshipped as a Linga-Yoni combine. We often found a turtle ( also a serpent ) in front of ShivaLinga. This turtle symbolizes the innocence of Shiva. Like the turtle, shiva seeks to slip away into his shell of tapasya. So the goddess has to keep his eyes open. She turns into a pot hanging above the Shivalinga. The dripping water from the pot ensures that Shiva does not slip .
In Indian mythology, Nagas are said to have the ability to transform into human beings. Their skin feels wet like the rasa of the sexual practises. They are also worshipped to attain that rasa during the process of copulation. As the Shivalinga represents the stillness of mind, the hooded cobra also represents the stillness. Erect phallus represented by shivalinga is not stimulated by worldly sexual activities but by controlled mind which has outgrown each kind of hunger. That's why it's still and does not move. To make it a symbol of worldly affairs, it is bounded by yoni of Shakti ( symbol of procreative power of nature ). But for procreation erect phallus has to be moved but innocent shiva does not get erected by worldly stimuli so needn't movement. Shakit forces shiva to copulate and indulge into worldy matters.The slithering naga represents the movement of Shivalinga.
During copulation, snakes wrap one another which is considered a very difficult but perfect sexual position according to Tantrika philosophy. Even in Kamasutra ( written by sage vatsyayana ), some almost impossible positions are described which can be achieved only by too much patience and practice. There is a position named as London Bridge almost impossible for 99,999 out of 1,00, 000 couples. All the kamasutra positions are used by Shiva( the greatest Tapasvi ) during lovemaking with Shakti. Some of the positions require flexibility like sankes.
Nagas are also considered as a tribal community living in north-eastern part of the country. Perhaps, the current day Nagaland refers to the same naga community mentioned in puranic literature. In mythology, Naga princess are considered the most beautiful women on the earth. They are supposed to have the power of beauty to control anyone's mind and get him indulged in sexual process to quench them. In Mahabharat,
once Arjuna has to go on exile after he had broken the contract with his brothers and panchali. The contract was: "One Pandava brother would spend one year with Draupadi. During that time no other pandava brother was allowed to come their bedroom. If one comes, he would have to go on exile for a year." Draupadi was married to the five pandava brothers. Their mother Kunti didn't want her sons to fight over the Panchali( Draupadi, Daughter of the king of panchala). So she made everyone agree a contract. This was the turn of Yudhishthar, when Arjuna unknowingly entered the room of Draupadi while Yudhishthar and Draupadi were busy in the process. Arjuna had forgotten his bow and arrow in that room. But contract ( a rule ) has to be followed by a kshatriya. So, Arjuna had to go on exile for a year. During his exile, Arjuna met with Ulupi, the naga princess of the Manipur. Arjuna got struck by her beauty. She was so beautiful that Arjuna forgot about his forest exile and get indulged with Ulupi.
In most of the ancient mythologies, Nagas represent the cyclical nature of existence. It represents the totality of absolute or infinity. It sustains itself within itself. It represents the darkest side as well as the brightest side of the life. Nagas proves the notion of hindu mythology, "what goes around, definitely comes around". If the sun sets, it will definitely rise again. After winter comes summer and after summer comes winter. If we are born, we are to die and then will be reborn. The same way, masculinity and femininity are the complements to each other. One can not exist without the other. When something grows up, its masculine part becomes stronger( sky is associated with gods as it is broad and seems to be stronger) but then everything has to fall down, its feminine part becomes stronger( earth is associated with goddess as it nourishes the living beings ). In Vedas, female part is represented by nature, uncontrolled energy while the male part is represented by Purusha, controlling power. Purusha is observer while Prakriti is observation. If there is no observer, what's the use of observation. An observation exists when observer observes it. On the contrary, what an observer will observe if there is no observation. One can not exist without the other. The nature( Goddess) is observation while the Purusha( God ) is observer. The observation( world ) does not exist until the observer ( Vishnu ) opens his eyes. When Vishnu open his eyes then only the world comes into existence. Vishnu is also associated with Nagas.
When Vishnu is slept with his eyes closed, he does not observe the world. So, the world doesn't exist. This time, he sleeps on Shesh Naag.
When Vishnu awakens, the world comes into being. This time, he sleeps on Adi Naag.
When Vishun is sitting and fully conscious, the world has infinite possibilities. This time, he sleeps on Ananta Naag.
What a brilliant concept our ancestors tried to make us understand with some images!
Other than representaion of fertility symbols, there might be another reason of worshipping nagas. In ancient times, death from sankebite or other serpents was very common in India. So, people started worshipping serpents and gave them places with the Gods , Shiva and Vishnu. The primal focus of any worship is to get the desire fulfilled. Sometimes, these desires are wrapped into the requirements. The source of desire is also
our fear. And the greatest fear of human mind is death. We worship Shiva, although he is the destroyer of the world. We worship him and wish him to get indulged into world affairs. We want to escape the death. But in the process of blind worshipping, we forgot that shiva symbolizes the process to outgrow the fear of death, rather than fulfilling desires to momentarily escape the fear of death.
According to Adi Parva of Mahabharata, all the serpents are children of Kadru married to Rishi Kashyapa. Kadru was the daughter of Daksha prajapati, son of Brahma. Rishi Kashyapa married Kadru and other eleven daughters of Daksha. Each of these daughters gave birth to a particular species. One gave birth to animals that can fly, one gave birth to animals who can swim, one gave birth to animals with hooves, one gave birth to humans etc. So, all the living animals( including humans ) are the descendents of Kashyapa. Every kind of animal is similar to the other except some unique ability.In many mythologies of the world, snakes are considered as the symbol of fertility : partly because snakes can be seen as a symbol of male sex organ. They are associated with water or earth because most of the snakes either live in water or under the earth. Snakes can shed their skin ( representing the death of a being ) and regenerate a new skin underneath( representing regeneration or rebirth ).
Ancient chineese associated serpents with rains which is itself strong symbolic force for reproduction. Serpents appear in the iconography and symbolism of ancient Greek, Mayan, Egyptian, Chinese and South Asian mythologies.
Nagas have been used as fertility symbols since vedic age ( perhaps from pre vedic age, Indus Valley civilization ). It is a very strong belief among historians and archaelogists that serpents worship was the part of Indus Valley civilization which dates back the Indo Aryan migration and Vedic culture.
The Sanskrit word for snakes is सर्प (Sarpa) which definitely has some links to the latin word 'serpens' meaning crawling thing. In English( one of the Indo european languages) also, we use the word serpent for the animals crawling and creeping on the earth. The word 'naga' does not match to any of the languages in Indo European family , perhaps it's been borrowed from native indian languages. Fertility is associated with procreation or regeneration the species of the same kind to ensure the existence.
The deity nagas are always represented in South Asian mythology as Hooded cobra( one of the most poisonous snakes commonly found in Indian subcontinent). It, itself, represents too many forms of fertility.
We find three different kind of snake symbols in hindu mythology:
A normal human with one or more cobra hoods
A snake with one or more hooded heads
A half-human and half-snake being( generally torso of human being and head of hooded cobra )
Snakes are not active during summers and winters ( when the earth is dry and red, symbolically representing an unmarried or premature girl ). They become active during rainy season ( when the earth is full of vegetation and green, symbolically representing the new life or regeneration ). At that time only, nagas come out of their subterranean region and copulate with their counter part. This is the time when all the animals including humans are proactive for copulation.
When the snake has to copulate, it has to move with the female one. They have to embrace each other for mating. Without movement, there can be no procreation. Where there is stillness, there is no life. So, movement symbolically represents life and stillness death. Life requires power for its existence. Power comes from movement. Stillness doesn't generate any power.New life requires power so does the procreation. And this power is achieved by the movement. In nature also, we use the power of moving objects like water, air, fire etc. Inanimate objects don't have lives because they don't have movements. For mating, we require energy. While copulation, the flow of energy is outwards or downwards. Males release their white seed while females release their red seed to ensure procreation. So, we release the energy during sex. In tantrik philosophy, the energy released during sex is known as the Tapa of the body. The energy released from body ensures the survival.The existential survival is itself an instinct or hunger in all living beings. There are two ways to satiate the hunger.- intake something providing energy required for procreation ( requires movement ), or
- outgrow hunger ( requires stilleness ).
If we outgrow the hunger of survival and control the outward flow of Tapa from the body, we don't require to satiate our hunger by the means of movement. The seeds in the human body( white in male and red in female ) are the sources of energy. If we are able to reverse the flow of these seeds, we outgrow our hunger. This can be done by not letting the Tapa of your body release outwards.
One day a group of sages visited to Mount Kailasa and found Shakti on top of Shiva. An embarassed Shakti covered her face by a lotus flower. Shiva, innocent of worldly affairs, had no shame or embarassment and continued as before. The sages were shocked. They realized that Shiva was ingnorant. His mind was untouched by demands of society. They called him 'Bhole-nath'. In nature, animals have sex in the mating season ( normally rainy season ) to procreate. This happens because they have an instinct of ensurance of survival governed by harmones and an internal clock. It is not a choice. Neither it is accompanied by an orgasm. Only humans have choice to have sex and making sex a pleasure seeking activity that need not requires the ensurance of procreation.
But Shiva does not know about this pleasure seeking activity requiring movement. On the contrary, everything in Shiva's realm is still. Even the serpent which is a symbol of rythmic life becomes still when near the Shiva. Even the water which has the most primary property of movement from higher surface to lower surface becomes still as frozen ice on mount Kailash. He shuts both of his eyes. We have two eyes: one to accept the things around us and another one two reject things around us. These two eyes ensures movement for life. But a tapasvi ( like Shiva ) shuts both of his eyes, neither accepting nor rejecting the wordly stimuli. So when Shiva opens his eyes and accepts goddess, he does it out of grace of his devotee nor by his reaction to worldly stimuli. But shiva doesn't know how to make love to her. So the goddess sits on top of shiva( proactively participation ) and leads him in the process.
When sages saw Shiva and Shakti making love, they decided that no one would see Shakti and Shiva locked in such an intimate embrace, through which the goddess wants shiva to engage with the world. Instead, this embrace would be visualised as a symbol. That's why the divine couple is worshipped as a Linga-Yoni combine. We often found a turtle ( also a serpent ) in front of ShivaLinga. This turtle symbolizes the innocence of Shiva. Like the turtle, shiva seeks to slip away into his shell of tapasya. So the goddess has to keep his eyes open. She turns into a pot hanging above the Shivalinga. The dripping water from the pot ensures that Shiva does not slip .In Indian mythology, Nagas are said to have the ability to transform into human beings. Their skin feels wet like the rasa of the sexual practises. They are also worshipped to attain that rasa during the process of copulation. As the Shivalinga represents the stillness of mind, the hooded cobra also represents the stillness. Erect phallus represented by shivalinga is not stimulated by worldly sexual activities but by controlled mind which has outgrown each kind of hunger. That's why it's still and does not move. To make it a symbol of worldly affairs, it is bounded by yoni of Shakti ( symbol of procreative power of nature ). But for procreation erect phallus has to be moved but innocent shiva does not get erected by worldly stimuli so needn't movement. Shakit forces shiva to copulate and indulge into worldy matters.The slithering naga represents the movement of Shivalinga.
During copulation, snakes wrap one another which is considered a very difficult but perfect sexual position according to Tantrika philosophy. Even in Kamasutra ( written by sage vatsyayana ), some almost impossible positions are described which can be achieved only by too much patience and practice. There is a position named as London Bridge almost impossible for 99,999 out of 1,00, 000 couples. All the kamasutra positions are used by Shiva( the greatest Tapasvi ) during lovemaking with Shakti. Some of the positions require flexibility like sankes.
Nagas are also considered as a tribal community living in north-eastern part of the country. Perhaps, the current day Nagaland refers to the same naga community mentioned in puranic literature. In mythology, Naga princess are considered the most beautiful women on the earth. They are supposed to have the power of beauty to control anyone's mind and get him indulged in sexual process to quench them. In Mahabharat,
In most of the ancient mythologies, Nagas represent the cyclical nature of existence. It represents the totality of absolute or infinity. It sustains itself within itself. It represents the darkest side as well as the brightest side of the life. Nagas proves the notion of hindu mythology, "what goes around, definitely comes around". If the sun sets, it will definitely rise again. After winter comes summer and after summer comes winter. If we are born, we are to die and then will be reborn. The same way, masculinity and femininity are the complements to each other. One can not exist without the other. When something grows up, its masculine part becomes stronger( sky is associated with gods as it is broad and seems to be stronger) but then everything has to fall down, its feminine part becomes stronger( earth is associated with goddess as it nourishes the living beings ). In Vedas, female part is represented by nature, uncontrolled energy while the male part is represented by Purusha, controlling power. Purusha is observer while Prakriti is observation. If there is no observer, what's the use of observation. An observation exists when observer observes it. On the contrary, what an observer will observe if there is no observation. One can not exist without the other. The nature( Goddess) is observation while the Purusha( God ) is observer. The observation( world ) does not exist until the observer ( Vishnu ) opens his eyes. When Vishnu open his eyes then only the world comes into existence. Vishnu is also associated with Nagas.
- Shesh Naag ( no residuals , shesha means zero or nothing remaining)
- Adi Naag ( beginning)
- Ananta Naag ( infinity )
When Vishnu awakens, the world comes into being. This time, he sleeps on Adi Naag.
What a brilliant concept our ancestors tried to make us understand with some images!
Other than representaion of fertility symbols, there might be another reason of worshipping nagas. In ancient times, death from sankebite or other serpents was very common in India. So, people started worshipping serpents and gave them places with the Gods , Shiva and Vishnu. The primal focus of any worship is to get the desire fulfilled. Sometimes, these desires are wrapped into the requirements. The source of desire is alsoour fear. And the greatest fear of human mind is death. We worship Shiva, although he is the destroyer of the world. We worship him and wish him to get indulged into world affairs. We want to escape the death. But in the process of blind worshipping, we forgot that shiva symbolizes the process to outgrow the fear of death, rather than fulfilling desires to momentarily escape the fear of death.
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