The Serpent Who Bears the World

The sages told the Pandavas of Shesha, the eldest of the serpents, who left his wicked brothers to do penance, and was given the task of bearing the whole earth upon his hood - a tale of the parting from bad company, of the reward of steadfast penance, and of devotion shown in the bearing of a great burden for the good of all.

Shesha, also called Ananta, the Endless, was the eldest son of the sage Kashyapa and Kadru, the mother of serpents, and so the eldest brother of the thousand nagas, the race of snakes. But while his brothers were for the most part cruel and wicked of nature - given to cruelty and deceit, and bent on harm - Shesha was of a wholly different temper: righteous, gentle, devoted to virtue and to penance, grieved at heart by the wickedness of his own kin. He could not bear to share in their cruelty or to dwell among them in their evil ways; and the constant company of their wickedness was a torment to his virtuous soul.

Shesha resolved that he would not remain among his wicked brothers, sharing their company and their evil ways, but would leave them and go apart, that he might purify himself by penance and keep his soul free of their wickedness. For he saw that to dwell always amid cruelty and deceit, even though he himself did not join in it, was a danger and a grief to his spirit; and he chose rather to forsake his own kin and their company than to be tainted or troubled by their evil.

So Shesha left his brothers and the dwelling of the serpents, and went away alone to distant and holy places - to the mountains and the forests and the sacred fords - and there gave himself up wholly to severe penance and austerity, fixing his mind upon virtue and upon the divine, far from the wickedness he had fled. He chose the hard and lonely path of penance over the easy company of his evil kin; and in this parting from bad company, for the sake of his own soul's purity, lay the first of his virtues. For he understood that the company we keep shapes us, and that it is better to be alone in virtue than in company with wickedness.

Shesha's penance was severe beyond measure. In holy place after holy place he practiced the hardest austerities, subduing his body, mastering his senses, fixing his whole mind upon the divine, enduring the disciplines of the ascetic life for a vast span of time. He let his body waste away under the severity of his penance, until he was reduced to skin and sinew and bone, his flesh worn away by the fierceness of his austerities; yet he did not relent, but persisted in his devotion, steadfast and unwavering, year upon year.

So great and so long and so steadfast was his penance that it drew the notice of the Creator himself, Brahma, who was moved by the sight of so virtuous a serpent practicing such severe austerities, so different from his wicked kin. And the Creator came to Shesha, pleased with his devotion, to grant him a boon and to make use of his steadfastness; for such virtue and such steadiness as Shesha had shown were rare and precious, and fit to be honored and employed in the service of the order of the world. The penance of the endless one had made him worthy of a great trust.

When the Creator appeared and offered Shesha a boon, the serpent did not ask for power, or pleasure, or long life, or any of the things that beings commonly crave. He asked instead for the one thing he most desired: that his mind might remain ever fixed in virtue and in penance and in tranquillity, steady and at peace, never again drawn back toward the wickedness of his kin or disturbed by the things of the world. 'Grant me, O Lord,' he prayed, 'that my heart may always delight in righteousness and in penance, and that my mind may abide ever calm and steadfast in virtue.'

The Creator was greatly pleased with this boon, for Shesha had asked not for any selfish gain but only to be confirmed in goodness and peace of mind - the very wish of a soul truly devoted to virtue. 'So be it,' said Brahma; 'your mind shall abide ever in virtue and in tranquillity, as you have asked.' And having granted this, the Creator, seeing in Shesha a being of such steadfastness and strength of soul, was minded to entrust to him a great task in the order of the world - a task that called for exactly the steadiness and the devotion that Shesha had shown.

The Creator then laid upon Shesha the great task for which his steadfastness fitted him. 'O Shesha,' he said, 'the earth is unsteady, and reels and shakes; it needs a strong and steady support to hold it firm. You, who are so steadfast in virtue and so mighty in penance, are fit for this task above all beings. Go down beneath the earth, and bear it up upon your hood, and hold it steady, that it may not reel; and so serve the order of the whole world by your strength and your steadfastness.'

And Shesha accepted the great charge gladly, for it was a service of devotion, a bearing of a burden for the good of all the world. He went down beneath the earth, passing through to its nether side, and there set the whole earth upon his single hood, and held it up, steady and unshaken; and from that time he has borne the earth upon his hood, holding it firm, so that it does not reel. The serpent who had fled the wickedness of his kin and purified himself by penance was made the very support of the world, bearing its whole weight in patient and steadfast devotion - the greatest of burdens carried by the steadiest of souls.

And there was a further honor that came to Shesha for his steadfast virtue. For the endless serpent, Ananta, became also the couch and the canopy of the great Lord Vishnu himself: when the Lord reclines upon the cosmic ocean between the ages, it is upon the coils of Shesha that he rests, with the serpent's many hoods spread above him like a canopy. So the same Shesha who bears the earth upon his hood beneath also upholds the Lord upon his coils above - the support of the world and the resting-place of God, by virtue of his steadfastness and his devotion.

So the serpent who had been born among wicked kin, and had left them to purify himself by penance, was raised to the highest of services and the highest of honors: to bear the earth, and to be the very couch of the Lord. His steadfastness, which had begun in the simple resolve to flee wickedness and cleave to virtue, had carried him to the support of the cosmos and the presence of God. And in this the tale showed the high reward of steadfast goodness and devotion: that the soul which holds firm to virtue, and bears its burdens patiently for the good of all, is raised in the end to a place near the divine, made a pillar of the very order of things.

There was in the tale a teaching about the parting from bad company, and about the steadfast bearing of one's burdens. For the first and root virtue of Shesha was this: that, though his own brothers and kin were wicked, he would not remain among them and share their company and their ways, but left them, even at the cost of solitude, that he might keep his soul pure and cleave to virtue. The tale teaches that the company we keep shapes us, and that it is better to be alone in goodness than in company with wickedness; that there are times when we must part even from our own kin, if their ways would draw us into evil; and that to flee bad company for the sake of our own soul is no disloyalty but a high virtue.

And the tale teaches the reward of steadfast penance and patient service: that the soul which holds firm to virtue, and asks not for selfish gain but only to abide in goodness, and which bears patiently whatever burden is laid upon it for the good of all, is raised in the end to the highest honor and the nearness of the divine. Shesha asked only to be confirmed in virtue, and was made the bearer of the earth and the couch of the Lord. So steadfast goodness, humble devotion, and the patient bearing of one's burdens are shown to be the path to greatness in the truest sense - not the greatness of power, but the greatness of being made a pillar of the order of the world and a resting-place for God.

The sages drew the lessons of the tale for the Pandavas.

'See, first, the virtue of parting from bad company for the sake of one's own soul. Shesha was born among wicked kin, but would not share their company and their ways; he left even his own brothers, choosing the hard and lonely path of penance over the easy company of wickedness, that he might keep his soul pure. The tale teaches that the company we keep shapes us; that it is better to be alone in virtue than in company with evil; and that to part even from our own kin, when their ways would corrupt us, is no disloyalty but a high and necessary virtue. Choose your company, then, with care, and flee the company of wickedness, whatever it costs you.

'And see the reward of steadfast goodness and patient service. Shesha asked not for power or pleasure, but only to abide ever in virtue and tranquillity; and for his steadfastness he was made the bearer of the earth upon his hood and the very couch of the Lord. The tale teaches that the soul which holds firm to virtue, seeks not selfish gain, and bears patiently whatever burden is laid upon it for the good of all, is raised in the end to the highest honor and the nearness of the divine. Be steadfast, then, in goodness; ask not for selfish gain but to abide in virtue; and bear your burdens patiently for the good of all; for such steadfastness makes the soul a pillar of the world and a resting-place for God.'

And the Pandavas, who bore heavy burdens of their own and longed to keep their souls in virtue amid a wicked age, took to heart the tale of the steadfast serpent who bears the earth.