The Metaphor of Churning of Ocean and different levels of interpretations

The amazing side of all the mythological stories and parables is that no matter how many times you feel that you have understood the story, there is always something new which comes up if you try to interpret them all over again.


Majority of these stories carry multiple layers of meaning simultaneously and your interpretation or understanding of story only shows the level or layer at which you are operating. Osho says that each parable told by Jesus to his disciples used to have at least 7 parallel layers of meaning and these 7 layers of meaning would correspond with 7 Chakras. Now, if a disciple takes the very basic meaning of the story told by his Guru then it means that he is functioning at Root Chakra and Guru will come to know as to the type of practices he will need for the evolution through Chakras. This is the utility of these parables and stories.


Although, I have talked about story of Churning of Ocean by Gods and Demons many times but in recent times, I have got some new realizations of that story which I would try to share here. It can get little complicated but if we go through this article twice or thrice then I am sure that we will understand what I am trying to convey.


Mythological Story – Mythological Story of Churning of Ocean as given by Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samudra_Manthana) is here –


“Indra, the King of Svarga, was riding on his divine elephant when he came across the sage Durvasa, who offered him a special garland given to him by an apsara. The deity accepted the garland and placed it on the trunk (sometime the tusks or the head of the elephant in some scriptures) of Airavata (his mount) as a testament to his humility. The flowers had a strong scent that attracted some bees. Annoyed by the bees, the elephant threw the garland on the ground. This enraged the sage, as the garland was a dwelling of Sri (fortune) and was to be treated as a prasada or a religious offering. The goddess Lakshmi vanished into the oceans. Durvasa cursed Indra and all the devas to be bereft of all strength, energy, and fortune.

"In the battles following the incident, the devas were defeated and the asuras, led by Bali, gained control over the three worlds. The devas sought Vishnu's wisdom, who advised them to treat with the asuras in a diplomatic manner. The devas formed an alliance with the asuras to jointly churn the ocean for the nectar of immortality, and to share it among themselves. However, Vishnu assured the devas that he would arrange for them alone to obtain the nectar.

"Shiva drinks the kalakuta

"The churning of the Ocean of Milk was an extensive process. Mount Mandara was uprooted and used as the churning rod and Vasuki, a naga who resided on Shiva's neck, became the churning rope after being promised that he would get his share. While carrying the massive mountain, several devas and asuras fell to their deaths and some perished due to sheer exhaustion. Vishnu flew upon his mount Garuda and revived them all, and placed Mandara on his mount and carried it towards its destination, the midst of the ocean. Reaching their destination, Vasuki coiled himself around Mandara. Vishnu counseled the devas to tug from the head of the serpent and the asuras the tail, but perceiving it as inauspicious the asuras refused. The devas relented and held the tail henceforth and the churning commenced. However, Mandara was too enormous and sank to the bottom of the ocean. Vishnu, in the form of his Kurma avatara (lit. turtle), came to the rescue and supported the mountain on his shell.

"The Samudra Manthana bequeathed a panoply of substances from the Ocean of Milk. One of them was the lethal poison known as halahala. In some variations of the story, the poison escaped from the mouth of Vasuki as the demons and gods churned. This terrified the gods and the demons because the poison was so powerful that it could destroy all of creation. The asuras were poisoned by fumes emitted by Vasuki. Despite this, the devas and the asuras pulled back and forth on the snake's body alternately, causing the mountain to rotate, which in turn churned the ocean. Shiva consumed the poison to protect the three worlds, the consumption of which gave a blue hue to his throat, offering him the epithet Neelakantha (the blue-throated one; "neela" = "blue", "kantha" = "throat" in Sanskrit).”


As we can see that even in story there are different versions in different scriptures. Hence, there will be different interpretations too.


Let me try to convey my understanding of this story –


Sage Durvasa – I have contemplated long and hard over this name. Sage Durvasa is a unique figure in Indian Mythology who is Sage but carries no traits of a Sage. He is always angry, easily triggered and forever ready to curse others. Our normal understanding of a Sage-like figure is a wise, knowledgeable person who is always calm and patient person. Sage Durvasa is nothing like that. Osho says Sage Durvasa is very much Grigori Rasputin ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigori_Rasputin ) kind of person.


Now, if we split this word Durvasa then we will get Du + Vasa. Vasa means Residing. From Vasa only came Vasana; i.e. Desire, and Du means Bad or Evil. So, I would interpret Durvasa as Evil Desire or someone who is caught in evil desire. Du can also mean Two. So, another meaning of word Durvasa can be someone who is caught in pursuing multiple desires. I think, in the context of the story, “or someone who is caught in evil desire” is more apt meaning of this word Durvasa.


Gods and Demons – Then understand Gods and Demons as good and bad sides of each of us. We all have a positive side and we all have a dark side. So, Gods and Demons both reside within Self only. We Can also say God within us is Consciousness and Demon within us is Ego.


Durvasa Cursing Gods - So, if someone is caught in pursuing evil desire (Durvasa) then it is very necessary for him to abandon (curse) the Good within himself. Anything within us gets strong by giving attention to that particular thing. So, if someone is looking to pursue his evil desires then it is necessary for him to not to pay any attention towards the good within and divert all attention towards the bad within. So, it is not that Sage Durvasa cursed Gods but it is like that we have abandoned the good within us and focused on bad/ego within us to pursue the evil desires. When good within us (God) doesn’t get any attention then automatically it will become weak. Likewise, evil/ego within us will get strong as it gets attention and focus.


Gods Approaching Lord Vishnu – Among the trinity of Gods, Lord Brahma is the Creator, Lord Shiva is the Destroyer and Lord Vishnu is the neutral force of Sustainer. Lord Vishnu helps in sustaining anything. In human life, we can understand Lord Vishnu as the awareness. As good within us lost its strength due to attention and focus being diverted towards evil/ego, good within us (Gods) need to go towards Awareness. Awareness is the Oxygen or Lifeline or the Binocular we need to see things clearly as to where the energy or attention is going. So, in order to sustain good within us needed shelter or protection of awareness.


Process of Churning of Ocean – We can understand the whole process of Churning of Ocean as any spiritual pursuit, ritual or meditation/yoga method we follow. All these methods do one common thing that they destroy the evil/ego within us and make us more aware.


Understand it like this. Suppose you went to a Guru. He gave you a Meditation Technique. Now, the Human Ego would like to know that what will happen if you perform that Meditation Technique well enough. Guru replies that you will have such spiritual experiences. Now, you start performing the meditation technique. More you perform it, bigger gets the frustration that nothing is happening and you are not having any experience as suggested by Guru. Then a feeling starts coming in that maybe I am not doing it rightly or with full force. Then a feeling starts coming in that I am not good enough to have that sort of experience.


Now, if we just pay attention to this statement “I am not good enough to have that sort of experience”, it means that finally I/Ego has started losing strength and the evil/ego within us is getting destroyed. This is the only purpose of all rituals or methods of spiritual nature. They destroy the evil/ego within you and the attention and energy again flows towards the Gods or good within us and good within us regain its strength.


So, we can relate Churning of Ocean with any major spiritual pursuits which destroys the Ego/Evil and restores the good.


We can also relate this churning with churning of energy through spine after person goes through Kundalini/Chakra Awakening post any Strenuous Spiritual Process.


Lord Shiva Drinking Poison – As discussed, Lord Shiva is representation of Destructive Forces. In Gunas, Lord Shiva represents Tamasic Energy. Poison itself is Tamasic or Destructive Force. So, it is apt that in story Lord Shiva consumes Poison. It is just like that a certain type of Poison becomes Antidote to another type of Poison.


The evil within us (Destructive Tamasic Energy) can only be destroyed by Strenuous Spiritual Methods (by tiring ourselves down with extreme rituals or penances or meditation/yoga practices).


Nectar of Immortality – Finally, after the churning is over nectar of immortality came out. We can understand it as State of Enlightenment or Liberation or Moksha after all the spiritual pursuits are over. They say that Liberation itself means liberation from the cycle of death and re-birth. It is a kind of immortality as person is not going to die in physical sense anymore as he is not going to take birth also in physical sense anymore.


So, this is my understanding of the whole event of churning of ocean. As I see, it is more an internal battle within us of good vs evil rather than any outer conflict between Gods and Demons. In my experience of reading and understanding spiritual texts so far, I have realized that all texts are redirecting us to go within ourselves and fight with our inner demons rather than look for demons outside.


Another short interpretation of this story of Churning of Ocean can be like this –


Understand our Head or Mind as Ocean.


We are churning one or the other thought every time inside that mind. That is Churning of Ocean.


Every thought has its positive side and negative side. Whenever we think about anything, mind goes into these polarities as to what is advantage and what is disadvantage? What is good and what is bad? What is benefit and what is loss?


Understand these two poles of a thought as Gods and Demons who are churning the ocean.


Finally, nectar of immortality is nothing but the state of no-thought of mind or as I said enlightenment or liberation.


Liberation from?


Liberation from The Thought.


Gratitude!!!