In2-MeC

ISKCON Juhu, Mumbai
16 April 2003

Sorreeeeee...but I have to write about centipedes again.

I received an email today that expressed some dismay over my description in yesterday's journal of my killing of centipedes. An argument was made that centipedes are a different species from scorpions. Better to just catch the centipede in a cup, chant Hare Krishna to it, and toss it out the door.

Okay. If that's how you want to deal with these creatures, you won't get any argument from me. To want to avoid killing living entities (ahimsa) is saintly. Srila Prabhupada stated about his own life:

Vrscika means scorpion and sarpa means snake. Naturally, whenever a scorpion is found or a snake is out, every man is prepared to kill it. Every man. "Oh, here is a snake. Kill it." When I was in Allahabad, in my bed there was a snake. I do not know how it came, but I informed to the servants, and they came with all stick immediately. So when the bed seat was taken away, it was under the, I mean to say, quilt. So that snake was there, and from the face of the snake I could understand that she was, it was so afraid. He could understand that "Now I'm going to be killed by so many people. They have come." So I told them that "Don't kill this poor fellow. Better take it and send it to the forest." But they took it away, but I later on understood they killed it.

So here we see in his householder life, before taking initiation from his spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada did not like to be party to the killing of a snake. That is natural to the heart that is soft with compassion for all living entities.

But as Srila Prabhupada pointed out, "whenever a scorpion is found or a snake is out, every man is prepared to kill it. Every man." That is the practice in India. It is not just that poisonous snakes are killed like this in India. Every snake is killed.

I quoted Srila Prabhupada yesterday (this is actually from the same talk as the above quotation) that he was bothered in his mind when he saw his Guru Maharaja approve the killing of "a black snake." From that description, I doubt that this particular snake was poisonous. The poisonous snakes of India are the cobra, the Russell's viper, the krait, and a kind of tree snake the name of which I've forgotten. None of these types of snakes are all black, though some have black and white bands or black spots on red. Anyway, the culture in India is, "If you see a snake, you kill it. No questions asked."

And this is supported in the Bhagavatam. Prahlada Maharaja uses the word sarpa, which means simply "snake." The Sanskrit word for cobra is ahi. So Sri Prahlada is not taking the trouble to distinguish between poisonous and non-poisonous snakes. Sarpa hatya: "snakes are to be killed." When Srila Prabhupada read this, his doubts about why his spiritual master agreed that a black snake be killed were allayed.

Of course, I must add that Western-born devotees like HH Bhaktividya Purna Maharaja and Murari Gupta Prabhu, my good friends who've lived in Mayapur for over twenty years, will not allow non-poisonous snakes to be killed. They are useful; they eat rats. But the Indian people themselves? They kill all snakes they see in an instant.

The understanding is that snake life is the lowest of the low, and killing a snake delivers it from that low condition. In the holy dhama, a killed snake is liberated.

Same is with scorpions (vrscika).

So what about centipedes?

Actually, I first asked Murari Gupta Prabhu before I started killing the centipedes in my kutir. I said, "This is your property, all creatures here are under your protection, so what is the policy with centipedes?"

His answer: "Whenever I see one I kill it."

His Indian-born wife, who speaks several Indian languages, explained that a centipede is also called vrscika in Bengali.

Another point is--since the email I received defending centipedes comes from Europe--that we are here talking about a type of centipede that is found from India across Asia to the Philippines. Its scientific classification is Scolopendrida. According to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, this Asian centipede can grow as large as 28 centimeters long. The Brittanica states that "these forms are capable of inflicting severe bites."

The European centipede is classified as Scutigerida and does not grow longer than 2.5 centimeters in length. So you civilized Europeans have no experience of the kind of centipede I am talking about. Every one of these creatures in my kutir, if allowed to live, would grow and grow and grow into something huge, nasty and dangerous.

Therefore Indians kill centipedes on sight, considering them a type of scorpion. Even Murari Gupta, who is cautious about killing non-poisonous snakes etc., kills any centipede he finds in his house. He has four children, including a 3 year old daughter. I found on the Internet a report of a little girl in some Asian country who died as a result of a Scolopendrida bite.

I think I've said enough about these creatures.