Snakes regularly have to shed their old skin, as it becomes too restrictive for their growing body. In the wilderness, one can sometimes find this old, worn out skin, left behind by the snake.

The Buddha uses this process as a simile for a monk who abandons a particular mental defilement or deluded mode of cognition just like the snake leaves behind it's old skin. And as result of leaving behind the defilement he gives up "the here and the beyond" like a snake its old worn out skin as well.

A Dhammatalk about the meaning of the Sutta can be found here.

An English translation of the Pāli Chanting:

1. One who removes the anger that has arisen

as one removes with herbs a snake's spreading venom:

That monk gives up the here and the beyond

as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.

2. One who has entirely cut off desire

as if plucking a a lotus growing in a lake:

That monk gives up the here and the beyond

as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.

3. One who has entirely cut off craving

having dried up its fast-flowing stream:

That monk gives up the here and the beyond

as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.

4. One who has entirely swept up conceit

as a great flood does a fragile bridge of reeds:

That monk gives up the here and the beyond

as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.

5. One who finds no core in states of existence

as one seeking flowers in udumbara trees finds none:

That monk gives up the here and the beyond

as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.

6. One who has no irritations inwardly,

having transcended such and such states of existence:

That monk gives up the here and the beyond

as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.

7. One whos thoughts have been burned out,

entirely well excised internally:

That monk gives up the here and the beyond

as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.

8. One who has neither run too far nor run back,

who has transcended all this proliferation:

That monk gives up the here and the beyond

as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.

9. One who has neither run too far nor run back,

having known about the world, "All this is unreal":

That monk gives up the here and the beyond

as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.

10. One who has neither run too far nor run back,

devoid of greed, [knowing] "All this is unreal":

That monk gives up the here and the beyond

as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.

11. One who has neither run too far nor run back,

devoid of desire, [knowing] "All this is unreal":

That monk gives up the here and the beyond

as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.

12. One who has neither run too far nor run back,

devoid of aversion, [knowing] "All this is unreal":

That monk gives up the here and the beyond

as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.

13. One who has neither run too far nor run back,

devoid of delusion, [knowing] "All this is unreal":

That monk gives up the here and the beyond

as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.

14. One who has no latent tendencies at all,

whose unwholesome roots have been uprooted:

That monk gives up the here and the beyond

as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.

15. One who has no states born from distress

as a condition for returning to the near shore:

That monk gives up the here and the beyond

as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.

16.One who has no states born from desire,

causes for bondage to existence:

That monk gives up the here and the beyond

as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.

17. Having abandoned the five hindrances,

untroubled, crossed over perplexity, free of darts:

That monk gives up the here and the beyond

as a serpent sheds its old worn-out skin.