The Reason Behind Samudra Manthan From Vishnu Purana

July 5, 2009

Lord Vishnu Samudra Manthan or Sagar Manthan means the churning of the great cosmic ocean. Many of us know about the great riches that came out from the ocean but what we don’t know is the real reason why this event took place.

Every epic is written to teach us lessons and these lessons should not be taken lightly as a story but must be imbibed in our soul because these have been laid down by Lord Vishnu Himself.

This legend is stated in the Vishnu Purana and we are attempting to explain this to the best of our knowledge and spiritual capacity. We will take our readers a little back before the Samudra Manthan was called for. It is vital to know why this particular event took place. The image on his post is depiction of Samudra Manthan at the international airport Suvarn Bhoomi In Thailand.

The great learned sage Shukracharya secretly desired to become the Guru (Teacher) of the Gods. But no one ever considered him or gave him a chance. All of them expressed that Brihaspati (Jupiter) should be their Guru. This hurt Shukracharya’s pride and decided to become the guru of the Asuras or demons.

There was a constant battle between the Gods and Asuras because the latter were power hungry. They wanted to control the Bhu- Mandal or cosmic planet and in turn all the living beings in it. They were dark, evil and followed the path of Adharma (Dharma is the path of righteousness)

Lord Vishnu has taken ten incarnations to stop Adharma from taking place. Each of those Vishnu Avatars has immense significance and teachings hidden in them. Anyway, back to this legend.

Shukhracharya desperately wanted to prove his superior knowledge and as a Guru, he always made sure he did everything for benefit of his demon disciplines. He wanted the Sanjeevani Mantra from Lord Shiva. This mantra when recited could bring a dead person, back to life again. Lord Indra, the king of the Gods too wanted this. Lord Shiva laid down the terms that whoever wanted this Mantra had to perform severe penance and austerity and only then did he deserve such a powerful mantra.

The austerity was to hang upside down from a tree’s branches and stay away from food and water. He was only allowed to inhale the smoke of burnt leaves and stay in this position for one year. He cannot talk during this austerity.

Lord Indra wasn’t even planning to attempt this feat. Instead he planned to make sure that Shukhracharya wouldn’t succeed as well. But Shukhracharya was steadfast in his decision. He followed all the conditions laid down by Lord Shiva and started his penance. Lord Indra had his trusted people around keeping an eye on the great sage’s progress.

When the penance was in its final stages, Lord Indra couldn’t believe in power of tolerance, breathing in only the burnt leaves, hanging upside down without food and water for a year. So in his last attempt to ruin this, Lord Indra sent his daughter. She disguised herself as a Brahmin woman and passed the courtyard-filled with demon guards. The moment she got closer to the fire where dried leave were being burnt, she threw dried chillies into it.

The fumes of hot, red chillies caused Shukracharya’s eyes to bleed. Seeing this, the demon guards realized what had happened and dragged the disguished woman out. She too realized what a grave sin she had committed but it was too late. Meanwhile, Lord Shiva seated in his abode Mount Kailash in the Himalayas, sensed the tortureous pain of his devotee Shukhracharya and instantly appeared on the scene. He wiped away all the pain and sufferings and gave Shukracharya the Sanjeevani Mantra and condemned the devious act of Lord Indra.

With the power of this mantra, the demons became invincible. Any demon that died could be brought to life instantly. Battles raged between the gods and demons and with Shukracharya on their side, they were achieving great success. Lord Indra was greatly ashamed that he failed in this task and approached Lord Vishnu to give him a solution.

Lord Vishnu explained to Lord Indra that there was a way that this could be tackled but he would have to befriend the demons and their Guru. He continued to clarify that he would have to go to Shukracharya and say that he indeed had the power to bring back anyone from death’s clunches but if something were happen to him, who would be there to bring him back to life? Only he alone had the Siddhi from Lord Shiva to acquire the special Mantra. This would definitely astonish Shukracharya. The solution to this would be obtaining the Amrit (nectar of immortality) from the bottom of the ocean.

Thus the situation arose where the great churning of the ocean had to take place and Lord Vishnu took the second incarnation of the tortoise Kurma avatar.

The video on this page is Vishnu Sahasranamam (The thousand names of Lord Vishnu) and the images displayed are truly divine.