Mahabharata

Kurma (giant tortoise)- I

This chapter is dedicated to granger_leena .

The universe was in the process of being formed. The planets, the stars, asteroids, all were being created once again and like every time, there were some forces in the nature, forces which were necessary for the birth of the humans, like rain, wind, ocean, rivers, etc. The king of those forces, those gods was Devraj (king of the gods) Indra, the God of the rain and thunder, basically the sky.

After becoming the king of the gods, Indra became arrogant. Maharshi Durvasa, one of the seven sages (he was one of the first humans who came with that boat) made a garland for Devraj Indra. Indra gave it to his elephant and vehicle, Airavat. Airavat, blinded by his power and arrogance, crushed it under its foot. Maharshi Durvasa, who is known for his anger, cursed the Gods that all their richness, prosperity, power, etc. will get destroyed. Indra lost all the nymphs in the heaven (gods live in heaven), the kalpavriksha (wishing tree), kaamdhenu (a cow which can give everything you wish), the Airavat (his elephant), his strength and many more important things which make heaven a heaven.

The gods rushed to Lord Vishnu for help. Lord Vishnu knew about the arrogance of Lord Indra. So, for punishing him, he said that the gods will have to take help of their enemies, the demons. Indra was unhappy with it but he had no choice. The gods and the demons will have to churn the sea of milk, Kshirsagar, present in the heaven with the help of Mt. Mandara, present in the heaven too and use Vasuki, king of the snakes as a rope. Lord Vishnu would support Mt. Mandara on his giant back in the form of a giant tortoise. The gods and the demons would pull Vasuki from both the sides and thus, Kshirsagar would be churned.

That's how you churn milk to make it butter. Now, imagine the thick stick as the Mt. Mandara, the milk as the Kshirsagar, the rope as Vasuki and Lord Kurma as the vessel, which is supporting the stick. But, why will the demons support them? Because the end result of this churning will be a nectar, which upon drinking will make you immortal.

The gods turned into mortals because of the curse and the earth couldn't manage after these gods or the forces would die. That's why Lord Vishnu had to help them, although they were at fault. Anyways, demons had great powers but they were creatures who always wanted to become immortal like the gods and more powerful than the gods themselves and that's not something that the gods could afford. This was the chance for the demons to become immortal and that's why they will help the gods with this work but there was one condition given by Lord Vishnu. Gods can't fight those demons before they get the amrit (nectar) because the demons would easily overpower them and the gods would be no more.

So, the gods and the demons started churning the milk. The demons thought this to be the perfect opportunity to kill their enemies, the gods. So, they started pulling Vasuki faster and hence, the air was full of halāhal (poison). The demons and the gods started choking but the demons were happy because at least the gods would be no more now and the earth will be their future generations. Lord Kurma announces, "Pray to Lord Shiva. He will help you."

They start praising Lord Shiva. The Lord sensed their calls and came to drink the poison. Since then, he is called neelkantha (yes, since then. This actually happened. No, I'm not joking. Read the next chapter to find out. Neelkantha means the one with a blue neck. H Lord Shiva's neck became blue because of the poison but he didn't die because he was the controller of the death and the time). They start churning again. Goddess Laxmi, the Goddess of prosperity and good wealth comes out of the Kshirsagar. The gods lost her the way they lost all their fortune.

Lord Indra joins his hands and begs, "Please O beautiful one, come to the heaven and increase the prosperity of us once again."

Goddess Laxmi smiles and says, "Okay but I have one condition. I will live among the gods only as a consort of Lord Vishnu." The gods pray for him and he comes and accepts her as his wife. After churning some more, they get other things like the kalpavriksha, kaamdhenu, the moon, Airavat, the nymphs and other such things as the byproducts. Indra declares that he wants to keep those things and the demons wanted to interfere but they thought they they will defeat Indra and get those things themselves.

The churning starts again and this time, they get their desired amrit (nectar). As soon as they see it, demons start to fight for the nectar. The gods wanted to fight too but Indra reminds them about the condition of Lord Vishnu.

Lord Vishnu takes the form of Mohini (his female form, which is quite mesmerising) and mesmerises and distracts all the lust driven demons while on the other hand, the gods start sipping the amrit one by one. After they are done, Mohini suddenly disappears and Guru Shukracharya (the teacher and guide of the demons) tells everyone that she was no one other than Vishnu and Lord Vishnu had cheated with them. The demons tried to kill the gods but the gods ended up killing the demons instead because they, once again got their power and strength...

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Scientific explanation behind this? I will tell you whatever I know about these things so yeah, science of these things (whatever I know) would be included too. Hope it helps. Moreover, did you notice how similar the story of Matsya (fish) avatar was with the Noah's ark? Maybe you just got an explanation behind Matsya avatar too because every religion talked about this calamity. Moreover, remember that they travelled through the cosmic sea and not an actual sea. People end up cursing Hinduism because they think that it was an actual sea.

Anyways, thank you granger_leena for telling me that you want me to continue with this story.