Part 7 – Final - Understanding the story of Churning the Milk(y) Ocean (క్షీరసాగర మధనం, क्षीरसागर मधन)

Click here for part 6

First of all, I would like to thank you for reading all the posts in the series since you reached here. Maharshi Suka in the story says, one who reads the Haalahal episode of the story will not face threats from snakes and scorpions. One who reads the Mohini episode of the story will be out of the worldly desires and Vishnu blessed him/her with the lights of wisdom. One who reads the Kurmavatar, the tortoise episode, those people in the ocean of “family world”, will get “punyam”, sanctitiy and indefinite happiness. No doubt in it.

The story can be seen in Yogic perspective. Remember the logos of American Medical Institution or All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences. See the images below.

Source: mentalfloss.com

Source: pmtgurumantra.wordpress.com

                     

source: crystallinks.com

Correlating further deep, do you remember the Kundalini chakra of yoga theory, which is where the above logos are derived from? The churning of ocean represents the same concept with the snake around the mountain resulting in difficulties like Haalahal first and Amrit in the last which is equivalent to attaining salvation. The tortoise is the base correlated the yogic posture, Mt. Mandara is the spine, Vasuki is the kundalini around the spine, and inhalation and exhalation are the gods and demons. Churning the yogic ocean first gives difficulties in sitting the posture to start with and others like not able to concentrate on that similar to Haalahal. 

To overcome the difficulties, we need a teacher. Similar to Lord Siva. That is why the saying goes as “Sivaya Gurave Namaha”.  So when the yogi (who does yoga) start to cross those chakras in kundalini, he starts attaining powers like the holy cow, horse, tree etc that came after Haalahal. The yogi has to leave them and go to next higher chakra like how they continued to churn till they attain Amrit. The churning results in deeds that satisfies the soft, reactive and ravaging qualities of the yogi. He should leave them but not consume them. This is when he reaches the top most chakra and finally salvation which is Amrit.

In another explanation in spiritual perspective, our mind is a pot of milk. We leave it and always go around the worldly things in search of him. You get peace only when you start going into your own pot of milk. In that trial, we meditate first and pray the goddess with mantra. Start seeing the goddess with the eye of mind from top to bottom with full concentration which is not easy. This is setting up Mt Mandara in the ocean of milk. But the mind doesn’t stay still it goes somewhere like how Mt. Mandara falls in to the ocean. The difficulties in coming to an agreement with the mind and do daily practice to bring the mind and heart to concentrate in the “japa” is haalahal. In this process, we should pray Lord Siva and take his help to overcome such difficulties. By practice, we start getting peace and then powers. But we should be in a position to leave those saying we don’t need them but use them only for the good of worlds. This is similar to getting and distributing the holy things that resulted in churning. Finally, wisdom to see the One in everything will be attained, which is Amrit.

Scientifically, Ok, I will redirect you to these blogs. People see it differently.

http://connectsciencetodivinity.blogspot.in/2015/05/churning-milky-ocean-is-this-epic-story.html

http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-underlying-symbolism-of-the-Samudra-Manthan

Oh yes, I almost forgot, I had some questions in the previous parts that were unanswered. Why goods  like the precious jewel Kousthubh or the moon or the Airavat or Goddess Lakshmi came from the ocean and went to their original positions when they were already there outside the ocean? Were they thrown in to the ocean for some reason as part of another story? Or was there any other reason? To be frank, I could not find the missing links yet. I do not know the answer for this question. I will update this post as soon as I know.

Thanks for being a patient reader and please share your feedback.

Sarvam sree parabhramanarpanamasthu

Part 6 – Understanding the story of Churning the Milk(y) Ocean (క్షీరసాగర మధనం, क्षीरसागर मधन)

Click here for part 5

While the demons are running away with the vessel of Amrit, fighting with each other, they saw Mohini who was creating a magic with her beauty. She used to slowly drop her transparent white saree from her chest and made it right again. She used to put her hands near her cheeks and remove again. She used to twist her red lip with a smile. With illusions/maya like this, she used to move here and there in the bushes while the demons forgot about fighting and started starting at her. Lord Vishnu, in her, created a “maaya” called desire in them. They started asking her “Oh beauty! Who are you? What do you need? What is your name? Your beauty is no match to the most beautiful gods, Gandharvas and Siddahs. Probably, Lord Brahma created you with all fullness when he was most happy.”

Notice the flirting done by the demons. Throughout the story, notice the various characteristics and acts of demons and check if any of them are with you. Lesson learnt, it’s up to you if you want to be a demon or a god. Read further to understand how Gods behaved.

Demons further said “We are children of Kashyapa Prajapati and siblings of the gods. We came here on purpose and could you please help us distributing this item among us? We both parties (demons and gods) sit in lines. Can you please distribute Amrit to us?”

Those people who never wanted to tell their family names and those who always fight with their siblings for power, are now using their credentials for flirting her and create a good impression about them. They actually went to the stage that they wanted to take her help for the Amrit distribution. Why didn’t they have this discipline before? One of them could voluntarily distribute it but they didn’t do it. This is the illusion or maaya.

Source: femaleavatar.blogspot.com

Now Mohini said “Oh demons! I am a lady who falls for handsome men. Do you believe in me? Great people do not believe in enchantresses. The words of enchantresses are made of honey but their thoughts are forest fires. Their friendship is doing friendship with wolves and Vedas do no suggest in believing them. Ok, I will distribute it, leave the doubts in your mind.”

Clearly, she told them not to believe in her.  No mistake from her frontJ. It’s the demons who did not listen to her but gave that vessel to her. This story explains the irreparable loss that happens when there is loss of control over mind. All the Indian ancient texts ascertain the damage that happens when people crave behind a woman, be it Ramayana or Mahabharata or Bhagavata. There were gods sitting on the other side, they did not see her in the same way as the demons. The secret that was explained here – she appeared as mother of worlds to Gods and they had parental feeling about her while the demons had completely opposite opinion. Lesson to be learnt here is obvious. In one line, one who craves for a woman on seeing her is a demon and will suffer.

She requested Gods to sit in one row and demons in another row. She started distributing Amrit with gods. She would pour it in god’s hands and turned back to show her assets to demons, slipped her saree, smiled at them and served the Amrit to the next god. No demon talked. Many thoughts were running in their mind. They thought she came here for distributing Amrit and she would not leave without doing it. So let us not call her to server here or else she would go away disappointing us. She might ignore us. She might get angry on us or do not believe us. She should be pleased with us to take the relationship to next level. In these ways, they were thinking and were just staring at her.

This shows the psychological situation they were in to win her.

Source: indomagic.com

One demon named Rahu, came and sat in the row of gods in their disguise. He sat in between the sun god and moon god. Mohini served Amrit to him as well but did not ask him to stand up from the line and sit in another row. Moon and Sun gods also sighed Mohini that he was a demon in the disguise of gods. She still served him Amrit. However, Lord Vishnu in her, cut Rahu’s throat with his weapon, the Sudarsan chakra. His head remained alive because he already took the Amrit but his body was dead.  Lord Brahma ordered him to be a planet in the solar system. Rahu still takes revenge on the sun and moon in the form of full and no moon days and eclipses.

Lesson learnt - Never ever, I repeat, Never ever, request someone who already sat in a meal row to change his place or wake him up to sit in next round. If a person sits in a meal row for a meal, he should be served. Lord Vishnu didn’t do it to a demon, we should not.

Amrit got over after serving the gods and nothing was left for demons. Mohini disappeared. Frustrated, there was a war lasting days between the gods and demons. Goddess Lakshmi’s blessing were there with the gods all the way from her marriage, they got Amrit and they won the war too.

In the next episode, Lord Siva who went to Mt Kailash after taking the Haalahal, listened to the story that Lord Vishnu took the incarnation of Mohini and distributed Amrit to gods. He immediately went to Vaikunta, the home of Lord Vishnu, along with his wife Parvati and the ganas, His servants. Both Lord Vishnu and Lord Siva wished each other. Siva praised Vishnu that you are the Brahman and you are there everywhere. You are ever there with no changes and reason behind all creation, life and destruction of beings.  In their talks, Siva told Vishnu that he was surprised on listening to the story of Mohini and he expressed his wish to see Mohini incarnation of Vishnu again. You did lot of things as a male but wanted to see how you achieved it as a female.

Lord Vishnu said “Oh brother-in-law. Don’t hurry. I will show you and make you happy” and disappeared. While Parvati and Siva were thinking about his disappearance and were looking in all directions. Siva saw a lady in the nearby garden sitting under the shade of a tree with slipped transparent saree on her body. He was instantly attracted by her.

source: www.qualiafolk.com

One who gave half of his body already to her wife, now started walking towards that lady thinking who she was and never seen a beautiful lady like her in past? Parvati and the Ganas, were watching all this and Siva ran behind her. She was going away and Siva was following her losing his control. She threw a ball in the air and it slipped through her hand as she couldn’t catch it. She bent down to take it and because of the wind, her saree knot loosened completely. She covered her assets with her hands and started running with shy. Lord Siva ran behind her. The crossed forests and lakes and Siva’s sperm fell on the ground. Wherever it fell, that place turned into silver and gold. He observed the magic and controlled himself. Lord Vishnu appeared back converting himself to male form. He respected Siva and said “Oh brother in law, you are the only person who observed and won my illusion/maaya. No one can ever do that”. Siva came back home with his wife Parvati and the Ganas.

Listening to these paragraphs, lot of question come up. What? Lord Siva, who killed the god of romance, Manmadha and who is above all the qualities has fallen behind a lady? That too in front of her wife? He left his sperm and came back without any further actions? Parvati accepted him? No one lost respect over Siva? The answer is interesting. Like I mentioned before, there is no difference between Siva and Vishnu at heart although their appearance is different. All this story happened for a cause – to kill Mahishi, the lady demon and sister of Mahishasura, who got boon from Lord Brahma that only the son born to Lord Siva and Lord Vishnu could kill her, which she thought was impossible as two males cannot give birth. However it’s now the right time and the both Siva, Vishnu know their responsibilities to give birth to Ayyappa who killed Mahishi later. Still one would ask, how Siva, another form of the Brahman, could leave his sperm to a lady other than his wife. The secret lies in the fact that Parvati is sister to Vishnu and Siva saw her in Mohini before he left his sperm. The fact that only Parvati can excite Lord Siva is always true and no doubts in it.

This concludes the story. However there are few other observations/learnings when we see the story as a whole which is the content in the next and last part of this series.

……….. [Watch out for Part 7 for interesting correlationsand observations from the whole story]

Part 5 – Understanding the story of Churning the Milk(y) Ocean (క్షీరసాగర మధనం, क्षीरसागर मधन)

Click here for part 4

Moving on to next episode, the Gods and demons continued churning the ocean again, as a result of which few good things started to come up. The first one was KaamaDhenu, a holy Cow which can bless all your wishes to come true. It was taken away by the Rishis to be used in Yagnas. Then, a holy white horse called “Uchchaisrava” appeared which was taken away by Bali, the king of demons. Lord Indra didn’t stop him as ordered by Lord Vishnu. Then Airavat, the holy and strong elephant came out the ocean. It was heavy, white and didn’t have a staggered walk. Then came, Kalpa Vriksha, the holy tree which blossoms scented flowers throughout the year and fulfills any wish. It was taken away by Indra to his garden. Then came Apsarasas, the beautiful ladies about whom it has been written that they had lightening body, beautifully curved breasts, thin waist, tied and decorated hair and beautiful eyes. Not only here, in lot of places and texts, when “female” has to be praised, these physical characteristics would be described because they are the places which the opposite gender, the males, get excited about. It signifies the importance of clothing and behavior of female when they are watched by many men. This especially being a hot topic at the time of this writing, but not in this post, I would leave it there. Then came the moon who on permission from Lord Brahma, went back to its original position, the head of Lord Siva.

Let us take a pause here. What happened now? Why all other good perks are coming out of the ocean other than Amrit? Why things that were already owned by Gods, like Airavat, the Moon etc were coming up from ocean again? Let us get the answers to these questions in final part of the series.

After the moon,

తొలకారు మెరుగు కైవడి | With the utmost beauty

దళతళమని మేరు మెరయ థగథగ మనుచున్ | and with a lightening creeper like body

గలుముల నీనెడు చూపుల | with glittering eyes

చెలువంబుల మొదలి టెంకి సిరి పుట్టె నృపా!  | Oh Parikshit! Goddess Lakshmi had born.

Goddess Lakshmi (the goddess of wealth, health and prosperity) born as a daughter of the God of Ocean and sister of the moon, was gifted gem studded throne by Lord Indra. Other gods gave what they could as gifts and the required items for her holy bath. With the words of blessings from Rishis, the diggajas, which are the eight elephants of the eight sides have sprinkled the holy waters brought from various sacred rivers for her bath. Her father, Samudra the god of ocean, from whom she came up, gave her silk saree and other gods like Lord Brahma gifted jewelry. She was born as a teenager and immediately Samudra had decided to do her marriage. He arranged a groom selection procedure (for lack of better words). She is the mother of nature, mother of all worlds and everyone/thing seem to be toys for her. She took the garland in her hand and stood in the middle of all the gods to select the right groom for herself. She is ever young and everyone except Lord Vishnu lost strength on

Source: www.dollsofindia.com

seeing her. She saw all the gods and assessed various problems staying with them. She decided Lord Vishnu as her husband and decorated the garland on Him. Lakshmi-Narayana marriage is the marriage of parents, the happiest moment no matter how many time it happens and wherever it happens. She requested a place in the heart of Lord Vishnu and he gave her that space. They became complete pair.

When the energy (Lakshmi) combines with the matter (Vishnu), there is motion and happenings everywhere. Else it is static. Heart is the place for love and sympathy. When Lakshmi sat there, the love and sympathy expanded all over the worlds and universe. All the wishes of all people there were granted. This was an important incident. Lakshmi gives prosperity only through her looks. When she was praised by the Gods and married her to Vishnu, she blessed them and granted them what they lost. This was the only reason behind the success of Gods in the rest of the story. Amrit came out only after Lakshmi came out of the ocean. One question though, Lakshmi had always been there with Vishnu, why in this story, she was born again and married him again? This again relates to the similar questions that I asked in this part.

There was a beautiful situation that was described here in a beautiful poem.

హరిచూచిన సిరి చూడదు | When Hari sees her, Lakshmi doesn’t see him

సిరి చూచిన హరియు చూడ సిగ్గునుబొందున్ | When Lakshmi sees him, Vishnu was shy to see her.

హరియును సిరియును తమలో | To make Lakshmi and Vishnu see each other

సరి చూపుల చూడమరుడు సందడి పెట్టెన్ | equally, god Manmadha forced them.

Now, Samudra became Lord Vishnu’s father-in-law and gifted him “Kousthubha” which is the most precious gem ever known. He wore it near his heart. Amidst other things like, srivathsa, the birth mark and pearl necklace and basil garland and the Kousthubha, Goddess Lakshmi is sitting in His heart happily as before. Getting happy with the celebration that happened, Lakshmi saw the whole worlds, the gods with her eyes and all of them were blessed with all wealth that they wished. However, the demons were an exception as they stood aside waiting for these gods to come back for churning, laughing and commenting them about their actions after birth of Lakshmi. They didn’t get the blessings of the mother. Lesson learnt, although you do not have any interest in what prayers others are doing, don’t criticize or make fun of them. This concludes one of the important episodes of this story.

Next episode, the churning process started again. Finally, after much effort, Dhanvanthari, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, came out of the ocean with a vessel of Amrit in one hand and the “Ayurveda” in another hand. This was how Ayurveda was born. On seeing it, all the demons went to him and grabbed that Amrit vessel from Him while the gods were watching in despair and disappointment. Demons had no intentions of sharing it with gods and started running away with that vessel ditching the gods. Gods prayed Lord Vishnu, yet again. He immediately called up Kali (at that time he was not ever present like in Kali yug but comes only when he was called) and asked him to enter into the minds of demons to create fighting within themselves. In other words, when there is Kali, there is kalaham (fight).

As a result, stronger demons were grabbing the vessels from weaker ones. Weaker ones started arguing that it should be shared with gods too as they put equal effort in generating it. Some demons were shouting about it. Finally everyone had strong desire to take drink all of it. Everyone were running away from one another, fighting with each other and no one was actually trying to drink it. This is how the demon mind would be.

At this time, Lord Vishnu incarnated in to Mohini, the enchantress and appeared in the sight of demons. Why Mohini? When there is anger, outrage and fight, there lies desire. Here the desire was turned into lust because of Mohini. Let us see the details in next part with more analysis.

……….. [Watch out for Part 6 for interesting storypart about Mohini and conclude the story, Part 7 will be the last part J]

Part 4 – Understanding the story of Churning the Milk(y) Ocean (క్షీరసాగర మధనం, क्षीरसागर मधन)

Click here for PART 3

This episode starts with all the Gods reaching Mt. Kailash. Observe that, whenever there was a problem, it was always the gods who reach out for help of Brahman but not the demons. They want the result but they don’t try it on their own. They depend on others to do their work for them, and with ego, that there is no one who could match them. The security at the gates of Mt.Kailash stopped the gods from entering it and then started shouting for Him from outside the gates. He listened to their painful cries and came out to meeting them. Lord Brahma and others started praying and praising Him before telling what happened. Few beautiful verses out of many praising Him are as below.

1)     నీయందు సంభవించును | All Worlds are Created in You

నీయందు వసించియుండును నిఖిల జగముల్ | Lives in You

నీయందు లయముబొందును | Gets Destroyed in You

నీయుదరము సర్వభూత నిలయము రుద్రా! | Oh Rudra! Your stomach is the home of all living beings

2)    కొందఱు కలడందురు నిను | Some people say You are there

కొందఱు లేడందురతడు గుణి గాడనుచున్ | Some people say You don’t exist while some say You do not have qualities

కొందఱు కలడని లేడని | Some are in doubt if you exist or not

కొందలమందుదురు నిన్ను గూర్చి మహేశా | And Behave accordingly.

3)    మూడు మూర్తులకు మూడు లోకములకు | For 3 Lords (Brahma, Vishnu, Siva), 3 worlds

మూడు కాలములకు మూలమగుచు | 3 Times, You are the axis

భేద మగుచు తుది నభేదమై యొప్పారు | although you appear differently in different shapes and bodies in this universe

బ్రహ్మ మనగ నీవె ఫాలనయన | Oh Siva, You are the Brahman.

Reading the above verses, a serious reader of the previous parts will get a doubt. The gods did a similar praise to Lord Vishnu as he is the Brahman and he can only save us. Now they are doing the same with Lord Siva. What’s wrong? Who is the Brahman? The answer to this, I already mentioned in Part 3. There is no difference between Siva and Vishnu. They are same at heart. They/He is the father of the worlds. As per situation, one or both of them take responsibility. Similarly in the 2^nd verse above, it’s clearly explained about how various people think of Him, isn’t it apt to the current age?

The gods explained the issue of Haalahal with Lord Siva and surrendered (Saranagathi) to Lord Siva. This is very similar to children pleading their father. Lord Siva is father of the worlds. He turned to his wife Parvathi and said “Dear Parvathi, did you hear what they say? As a Lord with powers, it is my responsibility to save them from Haalahal which brings name. This is the primary quality of a person to save others life giving away his life.” And then he said.

పరహితము సేయుడెవ్వడు | one does help to others

పరమ హితుండగును భూత పంచకమునకున్ | will get close to the 5 elements of nature (“others” include life created by 5 elements of nature)

పర హితమె పరమ ధర్మము | thinking about good of others and doing good help to others is the right way of living

పరహితమునకు నెదురులేదు పర్వేందుముఖి | and there is nothing that stands on par with Service to other living beings.

If you observe this verse, the Hindu culture already mentioned ages ago that helping others is the best work that cannot be overridden by any other good work. Now a days, people needed to get reminded about it through PK and Oh My God.

Then He decided to tell the final word to for her go ahead related to the matter.

శిక్షింతు హాలహలమును | I will punish the Haalahal

భక్షింతును మధుర సూక్ష్మ ఫలరసము క్రియన్ | I will eat is as if it is a small and sweet fruit juice

రక్షింతు ప్రాణికోట్లను | I will save the crores and life

వీక్షింపుము నీవు నేడు వికజాబ్జముఖీ | Oh Parvati! See this today.

Observing closely, why was there a need for Lord Siva to tell everything to Parvati? Instead He can straight away take the action without informing her. He did not do that but rather was waiting for her go ahead. This has been the beauty of Husband – Wife relationship, especially in the Indian Sub-continent. By mandate, the husband has to learn telling everything to his wife. Gradually, this will lead to a successful married life as proven by the first pair Lord Siva and Parvati.

More surprisingly Parvati said “Do as your will says”. At this point Maharshi Suka, who was narrating this story to King Parikshit, was interrupted by Parikshit. The king said “What? May the gods prayed Lord Siva or let them request Him to take up Haalahal, how could she let her husband to drink the fire spitting Venom?” Maharshi Suka said “

మ్రింగెడి వాడు విభుండని | She knows that the One who is swallowing is her husband

మ్రింగెడిది గరళమనియు మేలని ప్రజకున్ | She knows that haalahal is getting swallowed for good of all people

మ్రింగుమనె సర్వమంగళ | she agreed to let her husband swallow it

మంగళసూత్రంబునెంత మదినమ్మినదో ! | how much she believed in her sacred thread? (I don’t know equivalent English for this)

This has been the greatness of any Indian wife. They believed in their husbands, God and their sacred “thaali” (the Yellow thread tied during marriage). No matter how their husbands behave, they still stay with them throughout their life believing in the greatness of that sacred thread (I am lacking English words here) which has been a boon to the husbands.

Source : indomagic.com

With all the hails from Gods, Lord Siva had made that haalahal into a small fruit and swallowed it. However, he didn’t swallow it completely but only till his throat as the worlds in his abdomen get destroyed because of this. This is the second time, it’s mentioned that there are worlds inside the Lords’ stomach. One was for Vishnu and this for Siva. This again proves 2 points. One, Brahman stays outside the worlds and inside the worlds. Two, by heart, Vishnu and Siva are same Brahman. It’s only the physical appearance that changes.

When He did that, the moon on His head didn’t get hot. The snakes on His body, didn’t move. There was no sweat on his body. His eyes didn’t turn red. His lotus face didn’t fade. But the venom has created a blue mark on his throat. Parvati felt happy as she had a wish to decorate her husband’s neck with a blue stone necklace on his pure white body. Her wish got fulfilled. All the gods including Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma praised Him, that it was only possible for Him to do this.

Gods, again joined by demons, continued the churning again.

……….. [Watch out for Part 5 for interesting story part]

Part 3 – Understanding the story of Churning the Milk(y) Ocean (క్షీరసాగర మధనం, क्षीरसागर मधन)

Click here for PART 2

Moving on to the next episode, the demons and the Gods had come together to Mt. Mandara and they started to plough all the earth around and beneath it. The design of instruments used in lifting the big mountain was done by the one of Architects in the Gods named Thwasta. They had put big rods under the mountain, tied long ropes around it and finally were able to move it. Few of them were shouting their names, few of them were shouting about their greatness and few of them were just make huge sounds. When we lift heavy objects, this is so common and we should understand the weight of the mountain keeping in mind the super powered demons and Gods were trying to lift it. Moving it few units towards the ocean, they lost all their energy and dropped it. With this, few of them died underneath the mountain and few of them were injured. Some wanted to drop off this idea.

Gods went into depression and said

ఏలా హరికాడకేగితి | Why we went to the God?

మేలా దొరకంటి మధిక హేళనశైలిలో | Why we started this work with illusion?

న్మూలనము వేసి తెచ్చితి | Why we plucked this mountain and brought it?

మేలా పెక్కండ్రు మడిసిరేలా నడుమన్ | Why so many died?

ఏటికి మము బని బంచెను | Why He appointed us for this work?

నేటికి మనబోటి వారికికింతలు పను లిం | Is this possible for people like us?

కేటికి రాడు రామేశ్వరు | Why He didn’t come and neglected us?

డేటికి ఉపేక్షించే మఱవనేటికి మనలన్ | Why He forgot us?

Image Source : www.indomagic.com

Just read the poems and correlate with our daily life. Didn’t you ever asked this question to yourself at least once in your life? This is true with almost every one of us to go to depressed state when we start something and it starts back firing. In such scenario, they thought of Lord Vishnu and immediately he came to the rescue on his Garuda, the eagle. He didn’t ask anything to anyone, lifted the mountain off the ground with so much ease (remember Govardhanodharana?), placed it on Garuda and ordered Garuda to drop it on the shores of the Ocean. Adding to this, those who died came alive, those who got injured got healed and those who ran away, came back. This is all the empathy of Him. This is why, when we start try doing something and face difficulty in doing it and get depressed, we should practice to say “Narayana”.

 Now, the Gods and demons were happy, called up on Vasuki, the serpent king and talked to him so that he turned pleasant and agree to get tied around the mountain. They gently soothed the skin of the serpant, praised him saying there was no one capable to do it and finally tied him around the mountain. Looks like, the concept of appeasing others to get the work done is there from long time J. Now the Milky Ocean was made like a pot with milk in to which the Mt. Mandara was put as a churning stick with Vasuki as the thread. See the images to get the idea.

Source : krishna.com

Source : krishna.com

At this time, Lord Vishnu ordered the Gods to stand on the head side of Vasuki and demons on the tail end of Vasuki. The Gods were surprised by it because they did not want to stand on the head side which was dangerous end. However, the demons started to fight saying that the Gods were on the UPPER (head) side and we were on the LOWER (tail) side and we do not accept it. So on Lord Vishnu’s advice, they changed sides and started churning. Now, all the fire and venom from the Vasuki’s mouth was getting sprinkled on the demons because of which some of them died. Now they did not have an option to change because they opted for it. Lesson learnt, do what God saysJ. Every damn thing that happens is for your good. Be satisfied with what you are and what you have and say bid farewell to greed. One who says I do not need what I have been given but I need what was given to others is a demon and will face consequences.

Let’s move on to next episode. As soon as the churning started, since there was no base, Vasuki couldn’t hold the mountain and it slipped off into the ocean. Everyone were disappointed again and they felt ashamed. Its impossible to go against fate. Immediately, on the other side, Lord Vishnu dived into the ocean, incarnate into a Tortoise which is called Kurma Avatar. It was a gigantic tortoise with area of its back about few hundred acres, a big mouth enough to drink an ocean’s water and stomach enough to keep all the life, a mouth which moved inside and outside and eyes as good as lotus. On seeing this, everyone praised Lord Vishnu, “Hail Srihari, Hail Srihari”, just like how people praise their favorite leader. He put his back under the drowning mountain and brought it back to top of ocean. It formed as a base to the mountain.

తరిగాండ్ర లోన ఒకడట | He is one among the people standing on the shores

తరికడవకు కుదురు నాక త్రాడట చేరుల్ | He is the One forming the base of mountain and as rope

తరి గవ్వంబును తానట | He is acting as the churning stick and the pot (Vasuki, the mountain and Ocean)

హరి హరి ! హరి చిత్ర లీల హరియే ఎరుగన్ | Oh Hari, only you can know your magic. (Remember this line, it comes useful later)

There are lot of padyams (poems) like this which determine the quality of the Brahman, who/which primarily got divided into the Creator, the Maintainer, the Destroyer and the Energy behind all these.

So the Gods and demons took the sides of Vasuki again and started churning it. They were churning it with their full power that the sounds of churning reached the higher worlds where Lord Brahma stayed. Everyone showed their power as the mountain was quickly rotating clockwise and anticlockwise while churning. All the ocean life was scared and got scattered as they reached the shore for safety. It had been written that the itching of the tortoise’s back has not been soothed because of the churning.

Because of this heavy churning, a dangerous venom got generated from the ocean. It was so mighty than the fire that gets generated after the end of a Kalpa (a Hindu chronology time unit) when all life comes to an end. It set fire everywhere from all high worlds to lower worlds in the universe. This was the HalaHal. Some were burnt to ash, some were poisoned, some got disappeared, and some fell on the ground. It looked like the mistimed apocalypse.

This time, they went to Lord Siva for rescuing them.If something goes out of hands, who can give the direction and help us out? The Brahman himself.  Till now, if they got a problem, every time, they went to Lord Vishnu. This time everyone including Lord Vishnu, went to Lord Siva. Initially in the story, everyone including Lord Brahma and Lord Siva, went and prayed Lord Vishnu as the rescuer. Why? What made them choose? Things to note here are that, whether they go to Lord Brahma or Vishnu or Siva (Creator, Maintainer and Destroyer), it is equivalent to going to the Brahman. By the virtue of responsibility, they might be different but by the virtue of mind they are all same. They chose Lord Siva here because they might have thought that the Destroyer had some plans of partial Apocalypse with the venom that got generated, although Lord Siva had no plans about it. Also they might have thought that, he is the One who wore snakes and should have ideas to deal with poison.

……….. [Watch out for Part 4 to understand abouthusband wife relationships and other story]

Part 2 – Understanding the story of Churning the Milk(y) Ocean (క్షీరసాగర మధనం, क्षीरसागर मधन)

Read part 1 here....

Ok, now let us put on some magnifying glasses to understand what happened here. The story gives us obvious lessons with out in depth analysis in both spiritual and motivational perspectives like,

“When we aim a target in life to achieve something, the first thing you face is generally something that hinders your travel towards the target either mentally, relationally or physically. That is, you might face troubles or you might encounter people who support you in life to reach your goals. No matter what, you should not give up to reach that top position of the ladder, and SUCCESSfully reach your target. When you lose hope, God will assist you. However, there is another point to note that, he will assist you when you put the effort but he will not do anything like spoon feeding. This is what Lord Vishnu, the Brahman, did while the Gods and Daemons churned the ocean to get Amrit. They got dangerous venom first and later they got some wealth in different forms, they didn’t fear nor got satisfied with what they got before getting Amrit.”

However, analyzing each episode of this story will be giving us more satisfactory explanations and observations.

First of all, this story did not happen on Earth. So humans need not discuss about whether it happened or not, as if they have clues about it. One has to either believe it that it happened on the upper worlds or just run through the story.

Image Source : geeksutra.blogspot.com

The first episode is about Indra getting cursed by Maharshi Doorvaasa and the Gods losing their riches before consulting Lord Brahma for getting them back. Lord Indra had that arrogance or self-pride when he won the war against the daemons. He was going back to heaven on his holy and mighty elephant Iravat when Maharshi Doorvasa had passed through. Maharshis are people who see oneness, the Brahman, in the universe. They will neither have love nor hatred towards anyone. They occasionally curse others so as help others get away and learn through their mistakes. That is the reason why they immediately give a solution to the problems faced by the curse. The same thing happened when Indra neglected the gracious “garland” gift by Maharshi. He wanted to curb the arrogance of Indra and then he cursed him that whatever the Wealth that you were proud of, would be gone. The lesson learnt is never ever disrespect great people, adults and neglect any kind of gift (“prasad”) of God. If you are in deep troubles and problems, you will anyway trust God and behave with all respect in His matters for his blessings but when life is happier than you ever expected, when you were on a winning streak wherever you go, there is a fair chance to forget that God has given you his blessings and behave as if it is your achievement. Even in such comforts of life, you should behave with all respect in His matters. Else the results will be disastrous. Here the garland was the outcome when Maharshi prayed Lord Vishnu. Indirectly, lord Vishnu got angry over his children (the Gods) because they were arrogant. But Lord Vishnu himself is an embodiment of Brahman. He does not have any feelings that He keeps in His mind forever just like how a Father treats his kids. Today he might be shouting at them but tomorrow, he will take them close and lullaby them. He is just a representation of indefinite love and sympathy. So effectively, because of the curse, the God lost wealth, in other words, they lost the blessings of the Goddess of wealth, Lakshmi.

Next episode was that all Gods were lost to Daemons in war and lost their riches because of the curse. They went to Lord Brahma, the creator, to find a solution to the problem. Here Lord Brahma says you confessed your mistake before me and it is thus the right thing for me to excuse you. The lesson learnt here is that if you do a mistake, agree that you did it and confess it before the right people which might result in a lesser punishment. Then Brahma said for whatever that you have lost, you can gain them back only by praying the Brahman, He who does not have any beginning or end, He who does not have defined qualities and He is who is there in everyone and who has everyone inside Him. They prayed and praised Lord Vishnu in many ways and he appeared before them.

అన్నమవనీయందు నమృతంబు గోవుల | Rice from earth, Amrit (milk) from

యందు అగ్ని శమిధలందుసమక |cows, fire in dried grass

యొగవశతబొన్దు నోజానబుద్ధీచే | just the way these are found people with knowledge of soul

సగుణు నిన్ను గాంతు నాత్మ విధులు | will see you in this universe everywhere through their wisdom

They requested them to suggest a way to get their glory back. He was happy about the prayers offered. He told the Gods, “I will give more than what you wanted. Do friendship with Daemons and churn the milk ocean by putting Mt. Mandara into it and tying Vasuki snake around it”. This represents the infinite love of God towards his children. They asked for just the wealth they lost but God has given something extra because he was pleased with their confession. This also represents leadership qualities. A leader should bring all the people together irrespective of their qualities to achieve something great. Lord Vishnu would be taking the side of Gods just because they accept Vedas and follow them. This is not the case with Daemons who always go against Vedas and question their credibility. So He punishes Daemons just to bring them into the right path as a Father of the worlds. Also, Alliances with good or bad parties is a must to form the government J. This also shows that relationships are need dependent.

Then He said, “When you churn the ocean, you will get dangerous venom, and few other good perks. Don’t think about owning them, I will distribute them to the right people. Finally, you will get Amrit”. A great difference between Gods and Daemons is that they request the Brahman (Vishnu) to suggest them the way to achieve the goal and they trust him in good and bad. On reaching the goal, Gods give credit to the Brahman. This is similar to our daily worship to God where to the idol in our prayer room of our home, we offer the Gandha (sandalwood), Pushpa (flowers), Dhoopa (incense sticks), Deepa (small light lit in oil) and Naivedya (food) in a gratitude towards He giving us the 5 sense organs. On the contrary, the Daemons say, it is our achievement and we need no one to do this, although they fail to reach the target multiple times. They take the credit to their name. Humans can associate yourself to which side you belong to. Gods listen to Him when He says I will distribute whatever that comes out of the ocean. Lets see what Daemons do.

On hearing this, Lord Brahma and Lord Siva went to their homes (the World of Brahma and Mt.Kailash respectively) while rest of the Gods started their plans to make deal to share Amrit with Daemons and their emperor Bali. Gods heard Lord Vishnu and just trusted his words but never questioned or had doubts in what He said while Daemons expressed their doubts like is it ever possible? Is there Amrit in Milk Ocean? Etc. Who can tell what is there is every nuke and corner of His Creation other than the Brahman himself? :) 

That is how they started the Ksheera Sagara Madhan, the Churning of the Ocean of Milk and this is purely based on the trust on Him. Lesson learnt, trust the almighty even when you do not have options.

……….. [Watch out for Part 3 to analyze the next few episodesof the story in greater sense]

Part 1– Understanding the story of Churning the Milk(y) Ocean (క్షీరసాగర మధనం, क्षीरसागर मधन)

Shree Gurubhyonamah

[This is a DEVOTIONAL – Purana - story and did not happen on Earth. This is not a story I created but is taken from Maharshi Vyasa's Srimad Bhagavata Purana. This is One story that explains, teaches and make us think about many things and I thought it's a good idea to put this story as a blog post. Before I start, this story need not be treated as a story told for a religion but to be treated as story needed for every human being who trust in God in any form/religion. Heaven/hell, Angels/Devils/Deamons etc are some of common things found in most of the religious practices. It has few things to learn for people who do not trust in God as well. Also this story has few sections that praise Lord Vishnu and encourage others to do it. It's up to you if you do not want to read those. You can take that as part of story.
I am going to refer to few Telugu poems from the Telugu version of Srimad Bhagavata written by the great writer Sri Pothana. The reason being they are such wonderful verses and I will try to translate the same to English without losing the essence. I am grateful to my gurus because of whom I came to know this story. Any mistakes in the story are because of my ignorance.]


 
In this age, when you go to someone and tell them – once upon a time it happened that the gods and daemons under the leadership of Lord Vishnu churned the ocean of milk (What!) and the gods finally got the nectar of immortality, in a word, Amrit, after consuming which the Gods defeated the daemons and ruled all the worlds – what is the reaction? J Most probable answer will be, what the heck! Leave us and go away!

Why did the great saints and Maharishis give the stories like this to people? Even amidst the generation of mobile apps, how these stories are able to make some space and still breathe somewhere? The reason is simple. These stories, apart from providing the necessary entertainment, they inherently and subconsciously induce the right way of living and consequently the right way to attain salvation. So it's always good to read & understand these stories by actually 'feeling' them as if you were in that scene. In that way, there will be lot of questions that arise to which we start searching for answers. Each answer gives whole lot of information that actually touches every part of sanatana dharma.

Enough talking and let me tell what I am about to write here. This story is quite lengthy and so I am going to write this in parts. However, I am going to write the story as a brief first and then, I will provide the things to learn, the analysis and understandings of each scene that has been told in the story. I will try to make it interesting as possible. Finally, I will conclude with how we should understand the story on the whole from philosophical and spiritual perspective. So here goes the story first.

During the initial years of 7^th Manvantara which is Vaivasvatha Manvantara (click here to read more Hindu time chronology), a great war happened between the Gods and Daemons. The gods were led by Lord Indra and they won the war. While going back to the heaven after winning the war, Maharshi Doorvaasa met Lord Indra and congratulated him on winning the war. Maharshi Doorvasa gave him a flower garland as a gracious gift which was used while worshipping the Almighty. But Lord Indra has taken it and put on the hump of the elephant that he is sitting on. In other words, he was careless in accepting it and was self-proud that he won the war. The elephant took it away with its trunk and crushed it under its feet. Seeing this, Maharshi got angry and cursed him by saying you would lose all your wealth and prosperity because of your arrogance in accepting the God's gift.

Consequently, there was again a war with daemons. Now Lord Indra lost the war and all the wealth. They went to Lord Brahma with sad faces and confessed his mistake. Lord Brahma was happy that he confessed and asked everyone to pray Lord Vishnu, the Brahman. Lord Vishnu appeared before them and all the gods including Brahma praised and prayed him. Being happy with these words, Lord Vishnu told them, "you would get back whatever you had lost and also more than that, you would get eternal by drinking Amrit. I would advise about how to get Amrit. Have a peace talk with Daemons and both of you put the mountain named Mandara in the ocean of milk. Bring Vasuki, the king of snakes and tie it to middle of Mandara Mountain. Both you and daemons start churning the mountain in the ocean by pulling Vasuki head and tail alternatively. This generates, haalahalam, the dangerous venom of all times and many other good things from the ocean. Leave them and wait for Amrit to come up. I will help you when needed".

On listening this, the Gods tied up the Daemons and made a deal to give a share of Amrit. They started to bring the mountain towards the shore of the Milk Ocean but they could not do it. They prayed Lord Vishnu who, with his Garuda, took it easily and put it on the shores of the ocean of milk. The Gods again made a deal with Vasuki and tied it to the middle of the mountain. They put the mountain slowly into the ocean with the daemons on the head side of Vasuki and the Gods the tail side of Vasuki. Since there is no base, the mountain slowly dropped into the ocean. This is when Lord Vishnu took the avatar of Kurma, the gigantic tortoise and made sure the mountain falls on its back at the ocean bed. Then, it slowly swam up and formed as a base for the churning to happen successfully.

Having celebrated it, the Gods and Daemons started the churning again when the HalaHalam started to spread all over the worlds killing many. All the Gods left to Mount Kailash to request help of Lord Siva. Siva listened to their request and told his wife Parvathi that he was willing to help them. Surprisingly, Parvati agreed to it keeping in mind it is dangerous venom and can end his life. Lord Siva made the haalahalam like a small ball and swallowed it. He made it sure it would not reach the stomach where all the worlds exist but stays at throat. It showed up on the skin of the throat like a blue diamond decorated beautifully on the neck of the Lord.

Image Source : dampproofing.rssing.com

Thanking Lord Siva, they started the churning again which started producing Iravath (the powerful elephant), the KalpaVriksham (the holy tree), the Kamadhenu (The holy cow), horse, Apsarasas (the beautiful women), the moon which went back to Lord Siva's head and Goddess Lakshmi. After seeing the gods prayed her and married her to Lord Vishnu who was opted by her as her husband. After getting married, she went into and stayed at the heart of Lord Vishnu showering peace, prosperity, health and wealth to all the children, the Gods. The Lord Samudra who is the king of oceans gave a precious diamond called Koustubh as gift to his son-in-law. Note that the Daemons were only waiting for Amrit. They churned the ocean again and an incarnation of Lord Vishnu named Dhanvantari came up from the ocean and he had Ayurveda (that's where it came from) on one hand and Amrit on the other hand.

The daemons pulled away the Amrit from his hand and started fighting between themselves for drinking it because of the illusion created by Lord Vishnu. While the gods were sad about not getting it, they prayed Lord Vishnu again. Then he took the avatar of Mohini, the enchantress. She was the most beautiful lady in the universe and all the daemons wanted her. So in the craze to get her, they wanted her to distribute the Amrit equally to everyone.

Image source : www.aboutfestivalsofindia.com

She managed to pull Gods also into the picture and made them sit in 2 rows. One row there were gods and in the other Daemons. She started pouring the liquid in the hands of Gods first and on the other hand showed off her physical beauty to the Daemons same time. The daemons did not bother about the Amrit getting over but they were completely submerged in the "maya" created by Mohini. However, one of the daemon named, Rahu, sat in between the Sun god and moon God in disguise. He was identified as the wrong one but still she gave amrit to him. As soon as he drank it, Lord Vishnu cut his throat with his weapon, Sudarshan chakra. So his head remained eternal and stayed as a planet, taking revenge on Sun and moon in the form of eclipse till date.

Finally, the Gods got Amrit while the Daemons could not. Mohini disappeared. The daemons could not digest the betrayal and they had a war. The gods won the war and they got their riches back. Lord Siva enquired about what happened after he took the venom, his servants told him about the story of Mohini. So he along with his wife Parvati went to see Lord Vishnu. He requested Lord Vishnu to disguise in the form of Mohini again. Lord Vishnu did that and Lord Siva had completely fallen in love with Mohini. Forgetting about the presence of his wife and his servants, he ran behind Mohini out of desire and at a stage, his ejaculated his sperm which fell on earth and formed as Gold and silver. He then came out the "maya" created by Mohini. Lord Vishnu came back to his original form and congratulated Lord Siva that he only could stand outside of the maya created by Mohini.

 
This is the entire story. Let us analyse this story in detail about why all this happened. There is a need to understand whole lot of things. If you come out of the story mode and read it again asking why is it like this and why is it like that, this whole story is a big mystery. Let us continue in part 2.

 
……….. [Watch out for Part 2 to start understanding the story in greater sense]