Samudra
Manthan literally means: The Churning of the Ocean.
Our
Consciousness represents the Ocean or the Samudra.
And
the process of churning, is the Spiritual and/or emotional
process that one goes through while one experiences the
difficulties/pleasures that life brings.
The
story of the Samudra Manthan narrated in the Shrimad Bhaagvad
is interesting!
Let
us first understand the terms : Devas and Daityas.
Devas
Represent ‘Good’, and Daityas represent ‘Evil’.
It
is interesting to note that, it is mentioned in the Bhaagvad
that both, Good and Evil or Devas and Daityas are born of the
same father.
The
King of the Devas is called Indra.
Once
the Sage Durvaasa honored Indra by presenting him with a
garland of flowers.
Indra,
having become egoistic and insensitive, disrespectfully placed
the garland on the tusk of an elephant who trampled it with
his feet.
Durvaasa
feeling humiliated cursed Indra that he would lose his power
and position.
So,
Paradise, the Land of the Devas fell into the hands of the
Daityas.
The
Devas prayed to the Lord for help. The Lord realized that
though the Devas had committed an offence, it was more
favorable for Creation, that Paradise should be in the hands
of the Devas.
But
for that victory to come to pass, a Samudra Manthan had to be
performed.
To
remind you what it means: ‘The Churning of the Ocean’.
The
Samudra Manthan was not going to be easy, so the Devas would
have to take the assistance of the Daityas.
The
nectar that would come out of the Ocean after all the poison
that would emerge first, would make the Devas immortal.
For
the churning to take place, a big pole was inserted in the
Ocean. But no matter what they did, the pole would continue to
sink into the Ocean bed. So the Lord took the form of a
tortoise. The pole was placed on His back.
The
latter symbolizes the fact that whatever you undertake to do,
its support must be God.
The
rope that was used for the churning is symbolic of the string
of cooperation.
One
end of the rope was manipulated by the Devas and the other end
by the Daityas.
When
the churning commenced, at first an extremely potent poison
emerged which threatened to destroy Creation.
That
venomous potion had to be discarded. But where? No place was
powerful enough to contain it.
The
Devas and the Daityas finally decided to implore to God Shiv
to help them.
Shivji
did, by gulping it, yet retaining it in his throat.
This
is the reason why Shivji is called ‘Neel-Kanth’ the ‘Blue
Throated One’
Shivji
teaches us to hold the poison in our throat. This can only be
possible when we are also holding the Ganga of knowledge on
our head.
Symbolically,
when one is faced with troubles, take them to the Lord.
He
will help you out by swallowing your difficulties!
Lord
Shiva is the God of destruction. But when the work of
destruction is taken up in the light of knowledge it becomes
emancipating.
The
churning of the Ocean continued. A lot of Divine gifts emerged
from the Ocean.
These
were shared by the Devas and the Daityas.
Finally,
the much coveted Amrit (Nectar) appeared. The Daityas grabbed
it and ran.
The
Lord incarnated as a beautiful damsel named ‘Mohini’.
With
His/Her help the potion was attained by the Devas, who got
back their Paradise.
But
two of the Daityas managed to partake of the Amrit.
And
they both became immortal.
Therefore
the strife between good and evil continues to this day.
Krishna
in the ChIV, VerseVII of the Geeta claims:
Yada
yada hi dharmasya glaanir bhavati Bhaarata
Abhyuthaanam adharmasya tadaatmaanam srujaamyaham
Paritraanaaya sadhunaam vinaashaaya cha dushkrutaam
Dharma sansthaapnaarthaaya sambhavaami yuge yuge
Which
means:
Whenever
righteousness is on the vane, and unrighteousness increases,
Then I come in the body (Incarnate) from age to age, to
establish Dharma (Righteousness) firmly.
I
protect the virtuous and destroy the evil –perpetrators.
During
these troubled times specially, let us remind Krishna of His
promise to help us, yet one more time.
Feedback
from:
Suneel
This
story can be applied to ourselves. We start out as the
Heaven ruled by the devs. We have been graced by God
with good qualities. But as we (mind - Indra) gets into
pride and ego, it leads into our downfall and we get ruled by
the daityas (anger, greed, lust, etc). During some time
in our life, our soul turns to God for help. God then
says, OK, I will help, by showing you the path, but you will
also have to do some work. Hence
the churning. Through prayers, meditations, etc.,
we churn our mind. We get pulled by both sides of our
mind. Initially, in any detoxification process, the
toxins come out. This is where God comes to our help by
giving us the strength to overcome these problems.
Eventually,
we get back to our God like state. The bad
qualities which are left over, for us to keep on
remembering God as we should not let the ego overtake us.
