Python Guru - Contentment

Krishna: "(contemplatively) The python is perhaps the most unusual of teachers. What could such a creature teach?"

Uddhava: "I confess I see only a predator, Krishna."

Krishna: "Observe its way of life. The python does not hunt. It does not chase prey across fields. It lies in one place, patient, still. Whatever comes within reach, it eats. If nothing comes, it remains satisfied, waiting without anxiety."

Uddhava: "It accepts what comes?"

Krishna: "Completely. Sometimes a python might feast. Sometimes it might go months without eating. Yet it does not panic during famine or become greedy during feast. It trusts that what it needs will come, and remains content whether it comes or not."

Uddhava: "(skeptically) This seems impractical for humans."

Krishna: "The teaching is not about literal imitation. The renunciate might adopt this lifestyle—eating whatever alms come, never begging, accepting equally a feast or a handful of rice. But even the householder can learn the principle: cultivate contentment regardless of what circumstances provide."

Uddhava: "How does one cultivate such contentment?"

Krishna: "(with patience) By recognizing that true fulfillment comes not from external abundance but from inner completeness. The python doesn't need more food to be a complete python. It rests in its nature whether fed or fasting. Similarly, you don't need more wealth, more praise, more success to be your complete Self."

Uddhava: "But practical needs must be met."

Krishna: "Work to meet them, yes. But don't make contentment conditional on results. The python exerts no effort and is content. You may exert great effort and still be content. The contentment comes not from effort or lack of effort but from understanding that effort and results are in different hands."

Uddhava: "Destiny provides what is needed?"

Krishna: "(nodding) Prarabdha karma—the portion of karma that has already begun to manifest—determines much of what comes to you. You can resist it, rage against it, or accept it. The python teaches acceptance. Not passive resignation but active contentment—a positive embrace of what is."

Uddhava: "What of improving one's circumstances?"

Krishna: "Improve what you can, accept what you cannot change, and maintain equanimity throughout. The python does not rage against being a python. It does not wish it were a tiger or an eagle. It fulfills its nature completely. When you stop wishing you were elsewhere, you can be fully here. When you stop wanting other circumstances, you can engage totally with these circumstances."

Uddhava: "(thoughtfully) So the python teaches presence as well as contentment."

Krishna: "(smiling) They are the same teaching. Discontentment is always about elsewhere—another time, another place, another situation. Contentment is always about here and now. The python has no elsewhere. It is fully where it is, fully what it is. This is its teaching and its gift."