Ancient Tale of Samudra Manthan and Rahu,Ketu

Samudra Manthan 

The Origin of Amrit - the nectar of immortality

Sketch of Samudra Manthan

Samudra Manthan as in churning of ocean of milk is a legendary tale in hindu mythology narrated in Bhagwatha Purana. This tale evolves around churning ocean to gain amrit in order to regain the power which devas lost to curse of great sage Durvasa.

The Curse!!

The sage Durvasa once visited lord indra (king of Svarga) with the garland given by Goddess Lakshmi and offered it, indra ignorantly placed it over  the trunk of Airavat (the god of elephants who mounts Indra) who inturn trampled it.  This annoyed short tempered  Durvasa and for disrespecting the garland he cursed indra and all demi gods to loose their power and austerity, arisen to this difficulty all the worried devas reached Lord Vishnu to seek help.

Lord Vishnu suggested them for churning samudra manthan by the help of both asuras and devas to get amrit, followed to this he also suggested Indra that he could win over Asuras once he gets immortal by drinking Amrit which made Indra convince the Asuras.

In order to get immortal both Asuras and Devas agreed for the equal share and moved ahead. Garuda, the bird then gets the mountain mandara with vasuki(snake) and they approach Lord Vishnu for help, in order to support the drowning mountain Lord vishnu turns into giant turtle named kurma avtar and lord Brahma sits on mountain to balance it. Asuras and Devas made vasuki (snake) a medium rolled around the mountain as a rope to churn the ocean without which it wasn't have been possible to churn the ocean. Initially Devas took the position at head  and Asuras at tail to which asuras got enraged and demanded to get to the head side as they believed the lower part of animal is impure as that of compared to the part that contained head. Vishnu was very well aware of the poisonous flame that would emerge from vasuki once used twisted and pulled so he suggested devas to change and get the position at tail without letting them know the reason.

Sketch of Samudra Manthan

Why is Shiva Called Neelkanth?

Churning started and after a lot of churn  the first thing emerged out of the ocean was Vish (lethal poision) named halahala(poison) which started destroying everything, this made devas approach lord shiva for  help who came out the ocean to drink the poison inorder to save everyone. Drinking all the poision Lord Shiva turns  out blue henceforth named Neelakanth.

14 Ratnas that emerged from Ksheera Samudra in the process of Churning

Later the churning resumed and there appeared the following ratnas out of ksheera ocean one after the other:

Kamadhenu - 

The sacred wish fulfilling cow who granted it if asked with good intentions. This was given to Saint Jamadgani (one of the saptarishis and said to be the sixth incarnation of Lord Vishnu) and his wife Renuka.

Uchhaishravas- 

Seven headed flying horse which is said to be vahana of Sun god was taken by Bali, the king of Asuras.

Kaustubha-

Precious divine jewel, demon king bali offered this precious jewel to vishnu honoring him for holding Mandara  on his back by turning in kurma avtar (tortoise).

Kalpavruksh - 

A wish fulfilling divine tree was taken by Indra.

Airavat - 

The god of elephant to which sage Durvasa cursed, was returned to Indra.

Jyestha - 

The goddess of misfortune considered to be the elder sister of Goddess Lakshmi. Goddess Jyestha is associated with inauspicious and sinners and did not go to either sides Devas or Asuras.

Varuni - 

The goddess of sura i.e alcohol, demon to which argued and was bestowed to the demons

Parijata tree - 

A divine flowering tree, Goddess lakshmi uses this. This divine coral tree was given to devas.

Sharang -  

A divine bow which is used by Vishnu or his incarnation was offered to Vishnu.

Apsara - 

Beautiful girls which included Rambha, Urvashi, menaka, tilottama.

Shankha - 

A conch shell that holds great religious significance is a sacred emblem of Lord Vishnu, one holds this to signify victory/belief that reaches people through the power of sound from it.

Chandradev - 

Moon and its gravity resulted in tides to which Lord Shiva placed it on his head.

Goddess Lakshmi - 

Goddess of good fortune, wealth and prosperity who was separated from vishnu before kurma avtar and all asuras and devas fought for. This made lakshmi seek for brahmas help and on his request Vishnu married Goddess Lakshmi.

Amrit -

The actual reason of churning the ocean so long has finally emerged, god Dhanvantari appears with it.

Mythological Story of Rahu Ketu

A demon named Svarbhanu snatched away the pot of amrit to which vishnu turned into a beautiful lady named Mohini  and seduced the demons by dancing and asked them to hand over the amrit to her so that she could pour it to all. Mohini received amrit and started pouring first to devas, sensing the cheat Svarbhanu switched the sides and joined the queue of devas between surya and chandra. Mohini unknowingly poured the amrit and Svarbhanu immediately drank it. Later surya and chandra realized this and informed Mohini, furious to which vishnu gets back to his form and threw sudarshan chakra which cuts svarbhanu into two pieces but he doesn't die as he did drink amrit. Brahma then divided a snake in two and tied it to the two pieces of svarbhanu hence resulting the head of Svarbhanu tied with a part of snake as rahu and body with the other part of snake as  Ketu.

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