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
.
dAsan
vanamamalai
padmanabhan
mandharam nATTi -madhurak kozhum
sARu koNDa
In the second Paasuram ,
Thirumangai Azhwar celebrates the churning of
the Milky Ocean by
Bhagavan and refers to the bhAgyams obtained by
the DevAs , Lord Siva and
the Lord Himself , who got the best of the rewards
from that effort
:
aNNal seythu
alai kadal kadainthu athanuL , kaNNuthal
najunAAnk-kaNDavanE
ViNNavar amuthuNa amudhil
varum , peNNamudhuNda EmperumAnE !
ANDAi unaik-kANbhathOr
aruLenakkaruLithiyEl
vENDEm amani vAzhkkayai ViNNagar mEyavanE
(meaning ) : Oh Lord
who showed in so many ways that You are the Supreme Master
of
both the DevAs and the
Asuraas during the churning of the Milky Ocean and took
on
the leadership to churn
that ocean full of turbulent waves all by Yourself ! The first
object that came out of
Your effort was the greatest among poisons , the Haalaahala
Visham . You looked
over Lord Sivan --with His third eye on His forehead--
partaking
that poison and gaining
the name of Neelakantan or the Blue-throated One . Next
arose
the amrutham , which
You distributed among the DevAs . Amrutham was almost like
the husk compared to
the delectable essence of that nectar that appeared next in
the 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 NaaTan
and enjoyed Her as Your
dhivya Mahishi . Oh Lord of such clever acts of
managing
the churning operations of the Milky Ocean ! adiyEn will
cast
aside the
samsAric bhOgams immediately , if adiyEn is granted the boon of
Your darsanam in person
.
(Comments) : For Rudran ,
the poison was his preferred food . He consumed that
and saved the world from
being destroyed by it . For Sriman NaarAyaNan , the
femenine
nectar ( PeNNamudhu) was
the most enjoyable food ( BhOgyam ) . The DevAs got
what 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
as
a result of consuming the
nectar that arose from the Milky Ocean through the
Lord's
efforts . The dEvAs were
content with the nectar and did not perform SaraNAgathy
to 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 PrApyam
and the purpose of the
KoormAvathAram was completed . You came to be
known since then as "
PeNNamuthu uNDa EmperumAn : the Sarva Swamy ,
who orchestrated the
whole drama of the churning of the Milky Ocean and
reserved 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 operations
and assigned the duties
to the various participants and when they failed , He had
a solo operation to bring it to a successful end . He
rewarded Himself
at the end . His various
acts of valor and supervision is referred to by
Thirumangai AzhwAr as
"aNNal seythu" . Let us reflect on those critical
supervision of the Lord
to complete this gigantic effort and the provision of
leadership 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 all
his Iswaryam . Indran
became desolate and joined with Brahma and the DevAs
to pray to Sriman
NaarAyaNan for the restoration of his Iswaryam . Pleased with
their prayers , the Lord
of Sri Vaikuntam appeared befre them , blessed them
and commanded them to
make peace with their enemies , the asurAs ,
and join with them to
churn the Milky ocean for nectar for restoration of
their
wealth .
Start of the Churning
Operations
********************************************
The dEvAs made peace with
the asurAs and then followed the command of
the Lord to lift the
Mandara mountain to be used as the Churning rod . The 33 crores of
DevAs and the 66 crores
of AsurAs were full of pride and as a result ,the mountain
that they
lifted slipped
from their hands . Our Lord stepped in , lifted that mighty
mountain
single
handedly , placed on the back of Garudan and positioned it in
the middle of
the Milky
Ocean as a churning rod . The great serpent , Vaasuki was
the strong
churning rope
and the dEvAs and the asurAs held on to the rope
to start the churning .
As they
churned strenously under the direction of the vigilant
Lord , the mountain
( the
churning rod ) became unsteady . Our Lord took on
the avathAram of a
giant Tortoise
( Koormam ) , dived in and steadied the mountain
by holding it on
His vast back
. Meanwhile , the assembly of asurAs and dEvAs
were tiring and were
unable to
carry on with the churning . The fiery breath of snake
Vaasuki did not
help them
either . Our Lord then decided to churn the ocean
single 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
Lord
and 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 of
lightning that brightened
all directions ( Ranjayanthi disa: kAnthyA
vidhyuth-soudhAmanee yaTA
) . Her youth , hue, udhAra svabhAvam
and other KalyANa guNams
attracted evey one's mind. She however was
interested only in Her
Lord . She walked towars Her Lord . Maha Rishis
perfomed abhishEkam for
Her and the DevAs beautified Her with special
pieces of Jewelery and
silken garments . MahA Lakshmi took a flower
garland in Her hand
and placed that garland around the neck of Her
Lord
as if it was a
svayamvaram . Our Lord placed Her on His chest . The
whole
world was filled with
happiness over Her choice of Sriman NaarAyaNan
as Her husband
.
Dhanvanthri arrives with
the amrutha Kalasam
*************************************************************
Our Lord disappeared now
from the side of MahA Lakshmi and then
emerged out of the Milky
Ocean as a Sundara Purushan with amrutha
kalasam in HIs hands
. SrImath Bhaagavatam describes the appearance
of
ParamAdhbhutha Purushan ,
Danvanthri ( 8. 8.31-35)
:
amruthApoorNa kalasam
Bibrath valaya-bhUshitha:
Sa Vai Bhagavatha:
SaakshAth VishNOr-amsaamsa sambhava:
Dhanvantaree ithi khyAthO
AayurvEda dhrugijyabhAk
The 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 and
distracted the asurAs ,
who began to run after Mohini forgetting their
desire for the nectar.
Mohini persuaded the smitten asurAs to sit in
a seperate row and and
selectively fed the dEvAs with the nectar so
that they could become
immortal and be freed from old age. The asurAs ,
the sworn enemies of the
DevAs , were cheated by the Lord
Thus , there were many
adhbhuthams performed by the Lord during
the churning of the Milky
ocean for Nectar . All of these wonderous acts
are summarized by
Thirumangai as " aNNal seythu alai kadal kadainthu--
atanuL PeNNamuthu uNDa
EmperumAnE " . All of these are the results of
the crafty orchestration
of the events by the Supreme Master ,
Sri Hari NaarAyaNan.
Thirumangai salutes the Lord as KoormAvathAram
in htis context here .
ThruviNNagrappan ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam
,
Srimath
Azhagiya Singar Thiruvadi ,
Oppiliappan Koil Varadachari
Sadagopan