Dear SrEvaishNavites,It was seen that the Lord churned the milky ocean and reclaimed thAyAr. IN nAchiyAr thirumozhi this event is aptly brought out by Sri ANDAL " mandharam nATTi -madhurak kozhum sARu koNDA" This is dealt by thirumangai mannan in the second pAsuram of the first thiru-mozhi of the sixth ten.Sri Sadagopan swAmy goes on to detail on the background of this divinely deed of the Lord Almighty .dAsanvanamamalai padmanabhanmandharam nATTi -madhurak kozhum sARu koNDaIn the second Paasuram , Thirumangai Azhwar celebrates the churning ofthe Milky Ocean by Bhagavan and refers to the bhAgyams obtained bythe DevAs , Lord Siva and the Lord Himself , who got the best of the rewardsfrom that effort :aNNal seythu alai kadal kadainthu athanuL , kaNNuthal najunAAnk-kaNDavanEViNNavar amuthuNa amudhil varum , peNNamudhuNda EmperumAnE !ANDAi unaik-kANbhathOr aruLenakkaruLithiyElvENDEm amani vAzhkkayai ViNNagar mEyavanE(meaning ) : Oh Lord who showed in so many ways that You are the Supreme Master ofboth the DevAs and the Asuraas during the churning of the Milky Ocean and took onthe leadership to churn that ocean full of turbulent waves all by Yourself ! The firstobject that came out of Your effort was the greatest among poisons , the HaalaahalaVisham . You looked over Lord Sivan --with His third eye on His forehead-- partakingthat poison and gaining the name of Neelakantan or the Blue-throated One . Next arosethe amrutham , which You distributed among the DevAs . Amrutham was almost likethe husk compared to the delectable essence of that nectar that appeared next inthe form of the most beautiful and auspicious Yuvathy , MahA Lakshmi . Oh Lord ,You made sure that the Supreme gem among women choose You as Her NaaTanand enjoyed Her as Your dhivya Mahishi . Oh Lord of such clever acts of
managing the churning operations of the Milky Ocean ! adiyEn will castaside the samsAric bhOgams immediately , if adiyEn is granted the boon ofYour darsanam in person .(Comments) : For Rudran , the poison was his preferred food . He consumed thatand saved the world from being destroyed by it . For Sriman NaarAyaNan , the femeninenectar ( PeNNamudhu) was the most enjoyable food ( BhOgyam ) . The DevAs gotwhat they wished for with the matchless valor of the Lord (viz)., the ordinary nectar ,which banished death and aging on consumption . The dEvAs became ViNNavars asa result of consuming the nectar that arose from the Milky Ocean through the Lord'sefforts . The dEvAs were content with the nectar and did not perform SaraNAgathyto the Lord and did not select Him as their PrApyam ( the PurushArTam to be gained ) .That most beautiful femenine nectar ( BhOgyam ) , MahA Lakshmi chose You as PrApyamand the purpose of the KoormAvathAram was completed . You came to beknown since then as " PeNNamuthu uNDa EmperumAn : the Sarva Swamy ,who orchestrated the whole drama of the churning of the Milky Ocean andreserved Yourself the Supreme Gift of MahA Lakshmi as Your Devi .Special Notes on Amrutha maTanam ( Churning of the Milky Ocean for Nectar)***************************************************************************************************Our Lord was the Master , who commanded the Churning operationsand assigned the duties to the various participants and when they failed , He hada solo operation to bring it to a successful end . He rewarded Himselfat the end . His various acts of valor and supervision is referred to byThirumangai AzhwAr as "aNNal seythu" . Let us reflect on those criticalsupervision of the Lord to complete this gigantic effort and the provision ofleadership to the dEvAs and the asurAs during that operation .Sage DhurvAsA's curse********************************Once Indran was cursed by Sage DhurvAsa for his insolence and lost allhis Iswaryam . Indran became desolate and joined with Brahma and the DevAsto pray to Sriman NaarAyaNan for the restoration of his Iswaryam . Pleased withtheir prayers , the Lord of Sri Vaikuntam appeared befre them , blessed themand commanded them to make peace with their enemies , the asurAs ,and join with them to churn the Milky ocean for nectar for restoration oftheir wealth .Start of the Churning Operations********************************************The dEvAs made peace with the asurAs and then followed the command ofthe Lord to lift the Mandara mountain to be used as the Churning rod . The 33 crores ofDevAs and the 66 crores of AsurAs were full of pride and as a result ,the mountainthat they lifted slipped from their hands . Our Lord stepped in , lifted that mightymountain single handedly , placed on the back of Garudan and positioned it inthe middle of the Milky Ocean as a churning rod . The great serpent , Vaasuki wasthe strong churning rope and the dEvAs and the asurAs held on to the ropeto start the churning . As they churned strenously under the direction of the vigilantLord , the mountain ( the churning rod ) became unsteady . Our Lord took onthe avathAram of a giant Tortoise ( Koormam ) , dived in and steadied the mountainby holding it on His vast back . Meanwhile , the assembly of asurAs and dEvAswere tiring and were unable to carry on with the churning . The fiery breath of snakeVaasuki did not help them either . Our Lord then decided to churn the oceansingle handedly . One by one emerged the objects and people from the Ocean .Products of amrutha MaTanam*****************************************First came the most potent poison with the name of HaalAhalam . For pleasing his Lordand to save the devAs and others , Lord Rudran assembled that poison and drank it.KaamadhEnu ( the boon granting Cow) , Ucchaisravas ( the beautiful White horse ),IrAvadham ( the white elephant with four tusks ) , Kalpa Vruksham and Apsaras women .appeared next one after the other. Our Lord allocated all these gifts to the DevAs .Appearance of MahA Lakshmi*****************************************After that , MahA Lakshmi arose out of the Milky Ocean like a streak oflightning that brightened all directions ( Ranjayanthi disa: kAnthyAvidhyuth-soudhAmanee yaTA ) . Her youth , hue, udhAra svabhAvamand other KalyANa guNams attracted evey one's mind. She however wasinterested only in Her Lord . She walked towars Her Lord . Maha Rishisperfomed abhishEkam for Her and the DevAs beautified Her with specialpieces of Jewelery and silken garments . MahA Lakshmi took a flowergarland in Her hand and placed that garland around the neck of Her Lordas if it was a svayamvaram . Our Lord placed Her on His chest . The wholeworld was filled with happiness over Her choice of Sriman NaarAyaNanas Her husband .Dhanvanthri arrives with the amrutha Kalasam*************************************************************Our Lord disappeared now from the side of MahA Lakshmi and thenemerged out of the Milky Ocean as a Sundara Purushan with amruthakalasam in HIs hands . SrImath Bhaagavatam describes the appearance ofParamAdhbhutha Purushan , Danvanthri ( 8. 8.31-35) :amruthApoorNa kalasam Bibrath valaya-bhUshitha:Sa Vai Bhagavatha: SaakshAth VishNOr-amsaamsa sambhava:Dhanvantaree ithi khyAthO AayurvEda dhrugijyabhAkThe Selective Distribution of the Nectar to the DevAs by Kapata Mohini*******************************************************************************************AsurAs rushed now towards Dhanvantari and fought for the nectar.Our Lord took on the Mohini avathAram through VishNu MaayA anddistracted the asurAs , who began to run after Mohini forgetting theirdesire for the nectar. Mohini persuaded the smitten asurAs to sit ina seperate row and and selectively fed the dEvAs with the nectar sothat they could become immortal and be freed from old age. The asurAs ,the sworn enemies of the DevAs , were cheated by the LordThus , there were many adhbhuthams performed by the Lord duringthe churning of the Milky ocean for Nectar . All of these wonderous actsare summarized by Thirumangai as " aNNal seythu alai kadal kadainthu--atanuL PeNNamuthu uNDa EmperumAnE " . All of these are the results ofthe crafty orchestration of the events by the Supreme Master ,Sri Hari NaarAyaNan. Thirumangai salutes the Lord as KoormAvathAramin htis context here .ThruviNNagrappan ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam ,Srimath Azhagiya Singar Thiruvadi ,Oppiliappan Koil Varadachari Sadagopan
azhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyAr thiruvadigalE saranam
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