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]