Hindu Mythological story - Churning of Ocean
In Hindu mythology there is a very famous story of churning the
oceans by Hindu gods and demons to bring out precious treasures from the
depth of ocean. Gods and Demons are always in fight with each other but
this is the only occasion where they work together. One of the thing
they wanted to extract from the ocean was the divine nectar which would
have made them immortal.
When they started churning the ocean they many things came out from the
ocean. But the beginning was not so good. As the first thing that came
out was a very deadly poison and the poison started affected everyone
very badly. But Lord Shiva came to rescue everyone and He drank the
whole poison.
After the poison many more things came out from the ocean like Lakshmi
(Goddess of prosperity and beauty), Moon, Parijata the Celestial tree,
Goddess of wine, White Horse, Kaustubha a jewel, Airavata a white
elephant Surabhi the cow of Plenty, Dhanus a mighty bow, Rambha the
nymph, Sankha a conch shell came. But Gods and Demons were not looking
for these things and they wanted the divine nectar which would have made
them immortal. So they kept on churning the ocean and in the end Divine
nectar came out from it.
This story looks mythological. I don't know how much true this story is.
But from a meditation point of view, this story carries a deep meaning.
When we start meditating, then we feel lot of thoughts coming into our
mind and many times beginners in meditation complain that when they sit
for meditation their mind becomes more active.
But the case is that these thoughts were always there but we now when we
sit for meditation then we become aware of them. So every one has to
face this problem and come out of it.
Secondly, when we go deep in meditation then many suppress desires from
our unconscious mind comes to surface they torment the meditators. These
desires could be of money, sex, power, fame or any thing else. Meditator
should not indulge in any of these desires and instead watch them
passively. When we witness on these desires then their energy is
transformed into the highest form. e.g. sex into love, hate into
compassion etc.
If despite all this one goes on putting energy in meditation and keep on
growing then the door of samadhi opens and that is meaning of real
immortality. Meditation is the seed and samadhi is the flowering of that
seed. Meditation is the door to nirvana.
Meditation Stories: