Snakes

Snakes

• In India, snakes are said to have divine powers and even worshiped by some Hindu sects. • Snakes appear at important crisis points where some change in about to take place. –Siddhartha shed his need for teachers as a snake sheds an outgrown skin. –When a new thoughts struck Siddhartha, he froze as though a snake lay in front of him –he determined to experience the world of sensual pleasure. –Snake killed Kamala, thrusting Siddhartha into parental obligation.

"He realized that he was no longer a youth; he was now a man. He realized that something had left hime, like the old skin that a snake sheds." - pg. 30

"Now, however, in that moment as he stood still, as if a snake lay in his path, this thought also came to him: I am no longer what I was, I am no longer an ascetic no long a preist, no longer a Brahmin." - pg. 33

"Suddenly, however, she uttered a cry of pain. The boy, startled, looked at her and saw her face white wtih horror. From under her clothes a small black snake, which had bitten Kamala, crawled away" - pg. 91

" 'You were sleeping,' answered Govinda, 'and it is not good to sleep in such places where there are often snakes and animals from the forest prowling about." pg. 74