the saint and the snake | HOW TO NOT LET PEOPLE USE YOU
In this spoken monologue, the speaker recounts a traditional Indian parable from Gaur Gopal Das’s book The Way of the Monk. A terrifying, large snake terrorizes a village until the villagers appeal to a saint. The saint, in meditation, confronts the snake, praising its magnificence and offering it food from the forest, thereby persuading it to stop biting people. Later, the snake appears wounded on a tree; the saint reminds it that while he asked it not to bite, he never asked it to stop hissing—implying that the snake misunderstood the instruction. From that point, the snake and villagers coexist peacefully. The speaker uses this story to illustrate that being kind or benevolent does not require surrendering one’s self‑protection; one can be good while still setting clear boundaries to prevent being exploited. The talk ends with a blessing and a citation of the source.
