Teaching Story - The snake child

by Life Positive

When the time for his marriage came around, the Brahmin was at his wit’s end. Who would marry a snake? At his wife’s insistence, he visited an old friend of his. When the Brahmin mentioned that he was looking for a wife for his son, without hesitation, his friend offered his daughter’s hand in marriage, saying that any son of the Brahmin was bound to be a good husband.

Accordingly, the Brahmin brought back a beautiful bride for his son and they were soon wed. The girl did not flinch when she found that her husband was a snake as she was determined to honour her father’s word.

That night, as she was about to sleep, she was startled to find a handsome young man materialise before her. “Do not scream,” he told her, pointing to the snake skin at his feet. “I am your husband.” Joyfully, they embraced, but at day break he slipped back into his snake skin.

One day, the girl had a wonderful idea. Her husband had just materialised out of his snake skin. Quickly, she threw it in the fire. Her husband caught her up in joy. “Thank you, my love,” he told her, explaining that he had been cursed to stay in a snakeskin until someone destroyed it without his asking.

And so the handsome young man and his beautiful bride lived happily ever after.

Takeaway: Very often life gives us unwelcome things – like an illness, or a brother who bullies. If we accept it with joy, it can transform into a gift just like the snake transformed into a handsome young man.