'Samudra Mathanam' - The churning of the milky ocean! - Part 2

Hello all,

Namaste! Last week we looked at the Hindu mythological story of 'Samudra Mathanam' and analyzed how we can find gems related to everyday living. To reiterate once more, this is a story where the Devas, and the Asuras, churned the milky ocean for the elixir of immortality called Amrita. We saw how both sides can be taken as good, and evil, and there is the constant churning of the mind in the form of the milky ocean. We also saw that we can lead a balanced life by keeping the ego firm and impartial between the different emotions and desires.

Samudra Mathanam - Churning of the milky ocean

Today shall we tackle the rest of the story where, the churning of the milky ocean brought out many different things including vicious poison, divine beings, and divine animals. The Devas and the Asuras continued the churning for a very long time and the first thing to come out was the fuming poison called Halahala (or Kalkoot), which created thick dark clouds and made the visibility to a minimum. Due to the toxic and all destroying nature of the poison, Shiva the eternal protector of the Cosmos became concerned about the fate of the Universe and swallowed it. But his consort Parvathi became concerned about the well being of Shiva and caught the poison in his neck so that it would not go down to his stomach and kill him. Thus the poison spread on his throat and he became the blue throat-ed one (Neelakanta).

Okay, let us analyze this part. What can be the metaphorical meaning to this? The poison, Halahala (हलाहला), let us think as our vices like jealousy, greed, lust, pride, fear, and anger. Last week we understood the milky ocean as our mental space, where the waves are the emotions and thoughts. When we are in the grip of these vices, our thinking becomes clouded and black clouds similar to the Halahala is formed in our mind and the thoughts become dark and black. We are not able to think clearly and the dark thoughts overtake us.

At that time Lord Shiva is showing us what we are supposed to do; he took the Halahala poison in his mouth started to swallow, but ended up having it on his neck. From this what we have to understand? When the dark thoughts of Halahala take us over, should we bring out the poison of our thoughts into this world or should we swallow it so that we ourselves get destroyed? Instead, Lord Shiva is showing neither should we digest the Halahala nor should we spread it into the world. Instead, the poison should stay at our throat making a blue necklace on our throat. In short, we are not supposed to speak or spread the dark and evil thoughts that arise in our mind, nor should we destroy ourselves with those thoughts.The best thing to do is the realization that they are just thoughts and we can just release them from our mind and wear it as an elegant blue necklace by changing the dark thoughts into positive intentions.

Once we release the dark thoughts of Halahala, the next thing that comes in the row is the Moon (चन्द्रा, Chandra) from the churning. In Vedic Astrology and Mythology, the Moon is equaled to our emotions and thoughts.The next task to release from our mental space of the milky ocean is our attachment to thoughts and emotions. Once we realize that we are not the emotions or the thoughts and are the true divine essence behind that, we have cut our attachment to the Moon. Then we become more balanced and authentic without dilly dallying to our emotions.

After that a lot of materialistic things came out, like the divine wish-fulfilling cow (Kamadhenu), the divine wish-fulfilling tree (Kalpavriksha), lot of gems like Kaustubha (which Lord Vishnu wore), divine horse (Uchachaisrawas), divine elephant (Airavat), divine dancers (Apsaras), Goddess of liquor (Varuni). At last, the Goddess of wealth, Lakshmi herself appeared. Okay, let us now analyze. What does all this mean and what is the significance? Is it that once we conquer the emotions, we just enjoy all this wealth that comes up from the constant ideas that churn up in our mind? Or is there another hidden underlying layer of significance?

The meaning is that once we conquer our emotions and put our focus to solid concentration and work on our ideas, a lot of wealth and prosperity in the form of gems, money, wish fulfilling desires (metaphorical meaning of Kamadhenu, Kalpavriksha, Uchachaisrawas, Airavat etc) can be acquired. But should we stop our mental churning and enjoy the wealth and become immersed in materialistic pleasures or should we continue our work towards reaching the goal of Amrita? Here we are tested to see whether we have the intention and discipline to still pursue the effort to acquire the elixir, Amrita. Many times we can get immersed in the glitter and glamor of wealth and money and stop our effort towards the acquirement of our highest good.

Goddess Mahalakshmi

To further test us, finally the Goddess of wealth, Lakshmi, herself comes out of the churning. Here we are again being tested to see whether we are attracted to the opulence of wealth. Many times we are overtaken by this materialistic blessing and get thrown out of our pursuance of Amrita. But those who are intent on the wealth of Amrita, overcome this trial, keep their focus and intention towards the acquisition of the ultimate prize. Lakshmi became Mahavishnu's consort, which also hints that those who have the grace of the God, wealth also comes along to them.

Now, think we have overcome the enchantment towards wealth and are intent on the churning.The next things that appear are the divine dancers (Apsaras) and the Goddess of liquor (Varuni). Here again, our trial continues to see whether we can overcome the addiction towards the things that wealth can provide, like attraction towards vices like liquor and the enjoyment and dance associated with the same. Are we mentally strong and firm when the matter of liquor and other worldly vices come as obstructions? Many times we fall for these worldly vices and forget our true intentions.

 God Dhanvantari

Once we overcome this test, finally the God of medicine, Dhanvantari comes out of the milky ocean with the pot containing the elixir of eternal immortality, Amrita. To reach this stage each human being has to go through all the 'Samudra Mathanam', become humble leaving our pride behind and get to the ultimate prize of Amrita. What is this Amrita? Does God Dhanvantari come out of our mind with a pot of Amrita? No! The eternal pot of Amrita is the ultimate realization that we are not the body we assume in our lifetimes, but the divine essence or 'Atman', which is part of the eternal consciousness called 'Brahman' (Self-realization). But to realize this eternal truth, we have to go through the constant trials and tribulations of our mental space called 'Samudra Mathanam'.

This is the ultimate prize of eternal truth or Amrita waiting for us, only if we have the patience, will, and dedication to pursue it. Along with it comes the God, Dhanvantari, who blesses us with the wisdom of Self-realization, which provides us the blessing of health and wealth in the form of eternal happiness and peace, which is the ultimate blessing of all. When we get the ultimate happiness and peace, then all the gold, glitter, power and glamor starts feeling trivial to us. This is the real, but hidden meaning and significance of 'Samudra Mathanam'.

So now the question arises! Are we up to the task of our own 'Samudra Mathanam' of our mental space to reach our ultimate truth or should we just focus on the material blessings and emotional chaos that really obstruct us from reaching our ultimate goal? Food for thought and of course, it is always our own choice and free will!. May all of us have the will power and focus to pursue our personal 'Amrita'!
I wish you a good weekend and I'll see you next Friday! 😉

Next week: Lotus - What does it signify?

Note: Images taken from Wikimedia Commons. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson writes, "There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance ; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried".  

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