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.