Even the Python

Even the Python

1992 3-4 March-April 11 Even the Python (261) Pythons are of many kinds, but the very mention of the name conjures up the image of a dangerous reptile. The type of python which is found in the Indian Jungles is called python molurs. Its length is 20 feet and its weight is 200 pounds and more when it is fully grown.

However, like many other beasts, the python is not a dangerous animal. It attacks a man or a living being in two instances only when it is very hungry or when it is attacked. In normal times it just lies about like any other harmless creature. After a long study of the python, one zoologist writes:

A python, however large it may be, is nervous by nature and like all other snakes will never attack deliberately, nor will it become aggressive, unless provoked. It threatens by hissing, or disappears if encountered in the wild, but does not stand up and fight as one might imagine.

This attribute in the python is not just a matter of coincidence. It is the direct result of planning by the Creator of the universe. The python is a silent call from nature. It conveys the message, in the language of action, not to harm others even if you are a python. If you are powerful, and far above others in status, even then do not harm them.

How ironic it is that man is cruel to his fellow men in a world where he is taught that he should not be cruel even at the level of the lion and the python.