Every morning, we take our Krishna cows for grazing to our Kulithura Farm about a mile from the Ashram.

One day, as we were returning from the field, we saw a man in the back waters use a long bamboo to try and free a five feet snake entangled in a fishing net. This happens often in the fishing village.

We kept watching the scene as the man kept pulling on the net and the snake trying to pull away. The more the snake tried, the more entangled it got and the net strangled its throat. The man got tired and gave up. The net and the snake floated away in the water.

We walked away in disappointment. I mentioned to our gopis and gopas that it was a ‘chera’ snake whose diet is mostly rats and that it was non-poisonous.

As soon as I said this, one of the gopis(a French woman) ran back to the backwater canal, took the same bamboo pole and pulled the fishing net to the shore. She grabbed the snake and tried to free it, but it was well entangled.

A boy came over and handed her a shaving blade. She started to cut the nylon thread around the snake’s mouth. At first, the snake struggled but, it soon realized that she was trying to help.
So the snake relaxed and lay limp.

By now, a crowd of 50 people had gathered. People were snapping pictures on their cell phones. Kids were yelling ‘Discovery channel’ on seeing the sight.

She kept cutting the nylon threads where they had tightly fused into the body. Slowly the snake realized that it was free. Then, it quietly slid out of the net and glided into the back waters.

Everyone clapped, and the man who had tried to free the snake in the first place came forward and thanked her.

We came back with our cows to the Ashram, happy with the turn of events. I silently thanked Amma that after all, the snake was non-poisonous. As I am no snake expert, I was not too sure about the snakes antecedents.

– Lakshman