Light of Nonviolence

Author(s): Sushilmuni
Publisher: Vishwa Ahimsa Sangh Delhi

Page 67

jungle and thorny bushes. Suddenly, I saw a giant black cobra lying in the center of the path. He was coiled and standing off the ground a few feet, hissing and spreading his hood as I approached. I felt the forest vibrating from his intense energy and fiery nature; but I was not afraid. I only looked into his eyes with love and smiled at him as I would a friend.
After a few minutes, he dropped down and stopped hissing and threatening to strike me and started to slide down the cliff, to let me pass. But I took my stick and touched him on the tail, to tease him back. And he came back, striking and hissing at me with a terrific noise and opening his mouth and showing his fangs, preparing to bite me. I felt some fear but I did not show him any for I only smiled at him and called him my friend.
But I did not think that the snake completely understood my love and my lack of fear toward him; and when he went to leave the path, a second time, I touched him on the body again with my stick. This time, the cobra came back with an awful rush at my body and I thought that he would wrap around me and bite me many times, he was so angry. But as he came, I only looked steadily into his eyes without any fear and with only love and admiration for him, for he was like a great yogi. The snake rose up to a height above my head and just inches from me and he swayed terrifically from side to side, hissing and causing the forest to vibrate from his energy. I kept telling
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