The snake has two characteristics (1) it never moves straight, its path is always crooked, (2) it strikes at all that come in its way. Man too is snaky, for he exhibits these two characteristics in a marked manner. So he shares another characteristic, too, of the snake, namely, poison. (SSS Vol.9, p. 143)

The snake moves in curves, not in a straight line; man too, when he is following the senses, has to move in a crooked path. He has greater poison in him than the snake; his venom is to be found in his eyes, his tongue, his hands, his mind, his heart, and his thoughts - whereas the cobra has it only in its fangs. The cobra raises its hood and sways when it hears music; so too, man when he realises the stage of nirvikalpa, the steady, unchanging establishment in the ultimate Reality, dances in heavenly bliss. (SSS Vol. 6, p. 88)