Nag Panchami is celebrated in the month of July. On this day, snakes are worshipped. People observe a fast one day before the festival and also on the day of the festival. The tradition is not to eat till evening on that day.
In Hindu mythology a snake represents ‘ego’. A realized man is the one who has concurred or mastered ego unlike hostile people who are constantly victimized by the demands of the ego. Practicing humility is the way to concur one’s ego. On this day, therefore, everybody practices humility so that it becomes a part and parcel of his or her consciousness. Ahankar, vanity or egoism is one of the five obstacles to internal realization.
Ahankar or ego is normally a part and parcel of subtle mental layer. The subtle body consists of mind, intellect and ego.
Without ego also, there is no life but the abnormal exaggeration of the ego faculty is what is called vanity or egotism. Ego is therefore nothing but a mistake of the intellect and behaves like a cancer.
The Chief action of ego is to block the path of truthfulness. It works like the bosom friend of an error. It prevents people from accepting new things. Ego works on the assumption that; “I am the only one who is right and anybody who opposes me, I have the right to destroy him”.
Egoistic persons only want to defend their own rights. Ego works hand in hand with anger. Classically a man under the influence of ego can be described as a person who is advertising his virtues by pointing the faults of others. He basically advertises his own shortcoming. In meetings, such type of persons can be seen to attract the attention of others by making a noise or imposing their opinion on the others.
He frequently interprets others while they are talking. He likes to make speeches. He wants his name to appear in the print. He makes it a point to be known to everybody for every bit of charity done.
Humility is the virtue to be practiced to control the ego. Humility can be acquired by spreading the message of love, and practicing “giving”. Calling everybody with respect, wishing everybody early in the morning, respecting the seniors, bowing and taking blessings from the teachers and the elderly, asking for forgiveness, showing appreciation and concern and having the same thought in the mind, speech and action etc are a few of the examples of acquiring humility.
Matthew once said “love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despitefully use and persecute you”.
Nag Panchami is also celebrated in monsoon season as snakes come out in rain and most of them are non poisonous and one should not unnecessarily kill them.
Also Nag Panchami comes in Chaturmas, a period of negative state of the mind. As getting egoistic is common in these months one must learn to practice humility in this part of the season.
Snake in mythology is also depicted by Sheshnag protecting Krishna at birth, lord Shiva wearing a snake in the neck and Lord Vishnu sleeping with the snake with inward mouth protecting him. All these festivals also occur in the Chaturmas month and means learning to control the duality of mind and taming the ego.
Taming kalia in Krishna Leela as described in Srimad Bhagwad also indicated taming the duality of mind and not killing it.
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