Koorma Avatharam 2
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God's
second incarnation was Koorma (turtle) Avatar. The next in evolution
from a fish was the amphibian. To illustrate this, the second avatar
(incarnation) of Vishnu was as a koorma (turtle). Incidentally, the
turtle also happens to be the most sacred living thing in most of the
South Asian cultures. For instance, in the South Asian
mythology, it is believed that the world is balanced on the back of a
giant turtle. The legend of the Koorma Avatar goes that, many ages
ago there was a war between the devas(gods) and the daityas(demons).
The gods lost this war. Heady with the victory, the demons harassed
and oppressed the gods. Unable to tolerate this, the gods prayed to
Vishnu for deliverance. Vishnu told the gods that there is the nectar
of immortality at the bottom of the ocean, which can be obtained by
churning it. However, the task of the churning the ocean is no simple
task. This required the strength of the demons as well. As can be
imagined, the demons are not going to be willing to help churn the
ocean, in order to make the gods immortal. Vishnu devised a plan to
get the demons to help churn the ocean, and at the same time, to
deprive them of the nectar! Vishnu assembled both the gods and the
demons and proposed that both should churn the ocean and share the
nectar. The truce was agreed upon and the two sides got ready to
churn the ocean. The mountain Mandara was used as a churning rod and
the great snake Vasuki as the rope for churning. The devas grasped
Vasuki’s tail and the daityas grasped Vasuki’s head. But as the
churning began, the mountain Mandara which had no base, began to sink
into the ocean. Lord Vishnu assumed the form of a turtle and balanced
the mountain on his back. As the churning continued, Alakala, a
terrible poison emerged from the ocean. The gods and the demons were
affected by the poison and began to lose their strength. Upon seeing
this, Lord Shiva swallowed the poison. Sakti, Siva's consort,
stopped the poison at Siva’s throat. Upon which, his throat turned
blue. From then on Siva was called Neelakantam (one, whose throat is
blue.)The poison was not the only thing to emerge from the ocean.
Many wondrous things followed it. Varuni, the goddess of wine
(sura), emerged next. The gods readily accepted her and thus they
came to be known as suras. But the demons rejected Varuni and were
therefore known as asuras. She was followed by the Parijata tree,
which came to occupy the pride of place in the garden of Indra, the
king of the gods. A jewel named Koustubha emerged and was accepted by
Vishnu as his ornament. Three wonderful animals came next - the cow
Kamadhenu, the horse Ucchaishravas and the elephant Airavata.
Airavata became Indra's mount. They were followed by the apsaras,
beautiful women who became the dancers of heaven. The goddess Lakshmi
or Sri came out next and was united with Vishnu. Finally, a divine
being, Dhanvantari, emerged with a pot of amritam (the nectar of
immortality) in his hands.
Dhanvantari,
the bearer of the nectar of immortality became the god of healing and
was the originator of Ayurveda, the discipline of herbal medicine.
The daityas led by Jambha gave half of the amrita to the devas and
departed with the other half. Lord Vishnu assumed the form of a
beautiful woman, Mohini, the enchantress. The demons were enchanted
and begged her to serve them the nectar. She deceived them and served
it to the gods instead. The demons were unaware of this, with the
exception of one of them. This demon, Rahu took on the form of the
moon and succeeded in drinking some of the amrita. The Sun and the
Moon noticed this and reported it to Lord Vishnu.
Vishnu thereupon cut off Rahu’s head with a sword. He was cursed to become a snake. But Rahu had drunk the amrita and so could not die. Now, he was neither a god, nor a demon. He suffered in a lot and he could not live or to die. He prayed to Vishnu and Vishnu granted him a boon that his two parts (the separated head and the tail) became two shadow planets, as Rahu and Kethu. There is a belief they will be also cause the eclipse of the celestial gods Sun and the Moon, the two gods who had caused him to be beheaded. Thus the celestial gods obtained the amritam and the demons did not. With the newly attained immortality, the celestial gods defeated the demons, and regained to the heaven. This is proven the science second theory of amphibians, such as turtles.
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