We all must have heard of the mighty story of the Samudra Manthan, some consider it to be a part of Mythology while others remember it as Shruti or Smriti Sahitya. The story revolves around the search of lost jewels from the world for which the Devas and Asuras had to churn the ocean together. If we look closely, this story is very symbolic of the human nature or behaviour which consist of both the negative and positive characteristics. The Asura powers which are negative and more materialistic in nature along with the Deva Shakti which is positive and Saatvik in nature.
In today’s scenario this story becomes relevant where we are constantly attracted by the lust of power and greed depicting our Asura nature whilst the positive charms of life like the Devas took a back seat and are somewhat lost. We lost them due to our ignorance and mindless race to achieve the materialistic components.
The human race is supposed to evolve constantly and we are doing that. We are utilizing science and technology to create a new world of comfort and pleasure for ourselves. However, we have restricted the use of science and technology to that purpose only. The undying desires and madness to accommodate wealth.
The Samundra manthan or churning of ocean is a simile for our human lives.
When was the last time we churned the ocean of our inner self. Not sure right!!
So let’s see what happens when you start this process of your internal Samudra Manthan. The first object which comes out from this churning is the Halahala poison. The dangerous poison which is imbedded in us for centuries, which has blocked our vision and thought process. The poison which has stopped us from achieving the very best out of our selves.
So in this thought churning process we need to first get rid of this poison which reside in us in the form of anxiety, fear, anger, jealousy and greed. The churning of our innersole between the positive and negative “Me” is long pending.
There are many jewels hidden within us which are just waiting to be churned out. The legends says there are 9 to 14 Jewels. Few of them are
• Laxmi (wealth)
• Apsaras (nymph)
• Kamdhenu (fulfilment of desires)
• Kausubh Mani (The ultimate source of light from knowledge)
• Parijat tree (The divine tree which gives flowers of inner peace and self-attainment)
• Chandra ( the symbol of purity and calmness)
• Dhanvantari (the Vaidya or the doctor)
So what is the importance of these Jewels? These jewels are symbolic in nature. Each and every Ratan has to be achieved through the hard and dedicated process of churning the ocean. For example Laxmi is not just money and wealth. It means way beyond that it talks about prosperity, it talks about the wealth we attain by being human and social. Similarly the Apsaras symbolizes the beauty of life which is present in colour, dance, music, arts, literature and more. The Dhanvantari is a doctor of Devas, nursing and taking care of unhealthy components of our body. The attainment of this jewels means that we have achieved the level of self-criticism and self-improvement.
The ultimate jewel “Amrit (nector of immortality)” is available at the end of this process.
The question is what is “Amrit”? I think we need to discuss this in detail and will try to do that in my future articles.
Those who are aware of this story know that the Amrit was distributed by Lord Vishnu in his Mohini roop (Female version). Does this symbolize that all of us have a male and female side within ourselves. The female part is more responsible, caring, beautiful and intelligent. It is this part that helps us to keep the nector of mortality away from our Asura (negative) character. This female version is Judicial in nature and feeds the positive (Deva) character with the Amrit (nector).
There can be many thoughts to this and I request you to share yours. Though one thing I am certain of that we cannot achieve Amrit without taking out the Poison from our life and that has to be achieved by the churning of our inner selves between the Devas and Asuras of our positive and negative characteristics.
