reference

[Guest guest]

> i have heard i think many times a story how Srila BSST asked his disciples

> to beat a snake which was not a snake but a rope and one disciple started

> beating it, and so on.

 

I don't think this is true. It's more likely an extrapolation of the

well-known Rajju-bhujaga nyaya.

 

Rajju means rope, bhujaga means serpent. In the darkness or twilight a rope

on the ground may be mistaken for a snake. Out of illusion one may accept a

rope as a snake but when he comes to understand, he no longer fears it. This

example is given by the Mayavadis to demonstrate the nature of illusion. The

analogy of misunderstanding a rope to be a snake is often mentioned in Vedic

literature, e.g. the Mandükya Upanisad, but it is meant to explain the error

of identifying the body with the soul.

 

The Vaisnava acaryas point out that the identification of the rope as a

snake may be illusory but the rope itself is not illusory. It is a

definitely manifest phenomenon of this material world. The Mayavadis say

that nothing is real, everything is illusory but this example shows that

although object have their existence they are not in themselves illusory but

it is the misidentification of their nature which is illusory.

The impersonalists try to prove that the varieties in the vision of the

empiric philosopher are false. The impersonalist philosophy, vivarta-vada,

generally cites the acceptance of a rope to be a snake as an example of this

(supposed) fact. According to this example, the varieties within our vision

are false, just as a rope seen to be a snake is false. The Vaisnavas say,

however, that although the idea that the rope is a snake is false, the snake

is not false; one has experience of a snake in reality, and therefore he

knows that although the representation of the rope as a snake is false or

illusory, there is a snake in reality. Similarly, this world, which is full

of varieties, is not false; it is a reflection of the reality in the

Vaikuntha world, the spiritual world.

============ REF. Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.15.58

 

As there are several words in Sanskrit both for snake and rope, this maxim

has several other names, such as Sarpa-rajju Nyaya. This example is often

referred to in the text of Srimad-Bhagavatam, e.g.s 4.22.38, 6.9.37,

10.14.25, 10.14.28.