“And, when you want
something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” Said Paulo
Coelho in his book The Alchemist; this happened in the Vedic story of the
churning of the ocean— the samudra manthan
You may also read this
story:
http://bhoj11.blogspot.com/2013/04/what-does-story-of-shiv-avatar.html
The nectar was lost
in the vast ocean and so were the blessings; In order to regain them the ocean
required to be churned (separation process), the ocean represents the
collective consciousness, both virtue and vice; the ocean is both stable as
well as chaos, symbolizes formlessness, the unfathomable, the ocean is
considered to be boundless, a place where one can easily be lost, and can
therefore be seen to represent the boundless span of life, and the way one can
get lost on the journey through life.
The churning was only
possible with the Devas and Danavas (Asuras) coming opposite and participating,
the tug of war, the eternal quest between the good and evil
Vasuki the King of snakes
became the churning rope--Snake represents creative life force
Mount Mandara was
used as the churning rod—Mandara comes from the root word mana meaning mind, and
dhara meaning one line or flow, so it was very obvious that amidst the pull
between the good and bad (balancing the yin yang) the mind soon become unstable
and could not hold on; here comes the Kuma the turtle, who comes below the
mount and gives it stability, the turtle represents the withdrawal of ones
senses, like it withdraws its limbs from the outside world; hence the mind can only be stable when
senses are withdrawn
Samudra manthan
symbolizes the spiritual endeavour of a person, trying to achieve his desires
and also self-realization by concentrating his mind, withdrawing his senses, while
all the time engaging in the eternal tug of war between what seems to good and
evil
We do not always get
what we desire and hence instead of nectar first came out the halahal (poison),
the Gods had drank the nectar of immortality before, yet they were afraid to
drink the initial outcome of the churning-- the poison—everyone wants only the
good while not accepting the bad which comes on their way, no one realizes that
they also deserve the bad as per their karma
Here comes the
Mahadev, who starts drinking the poison the mahadav represents Tamas guna, not
only he has the ability to absorb the poison but also the character to voluntarily
consume the poison to save all, the snakes too voluntarily (by free choice)
came to drink the poison, Parvati his consort came besides him and by putting
her hand on his throat stopped the poison from entering his body hence only his
throat became blue, hence he is also called the Nilkanth—the one with the blue
throat…the story goes on
Enjoy the video
A good Mahadev chant:
