Vishnu Purana and Kurma Avatara

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Dear DasAvathAra RasikAs :

 

In this posting , I will cover KoormAvathAram

of the Lord . This posting will again be in

the form of memory jogs .

>** Bhagavaan"s KoormAvatharam is the second in

>the series of Ten avathArams . The first is MatsyAvathAram

>in the age of Truth , the first of four yugAs ( Satya Yugam ) .

>There, He incarnated as a fish and saved the seventh law giver ,

>Sathyavratha Manu , the legendary founder of the present-day

>humanity . Lord NaarAyaNaa warned the Manu of the impending

>praLayam and ordered this Manu to build a ship and seek protection

>there along with all the Rishis , plants and animals .

>Our Lord Himself took the form of a giant fish during Pralayam

>and fastened His horn to the ship with sesha naagam seving

>as a rope and guided the ship out of danger . Our Lord appeared

>as a giant Koorma or tortoise on the occasion of His

>second avathAram for dharma samsthApnam .

>

>** The earliest reference to this avathAram as koormam

>is found in satapatha BrAhaNam ; MahA BhAratham

>(1.18) , Srimadh RaamAyaNam ( 1.45) , the third

>chapter of Agni PurANam , 259th chapter of Koorma

>PurANam , Sri VishNu purAnam ( 1.9), Padma purAnam (6.259),

>Srimadh Bhaagavatham (8th canto Chapters 5 to 12 ) and

>Sri NaarayaNeeyam ( 27th to 29th Dasakams ) ,

>Swami Deikan's dasaavathAra sthOthram as well as in

>AzhwAr's paasurams dealing with dasAvathArams of

our Lord >similar to the ones that I referred to in

>the posting on VaraahAvathAram .

>

>** There is thus a rich source material dealing with

>amrutha Mathanam ( Churning of the Milky Ocean for

>Nectar/ambrosia ) , BhagavAn holding the manthara mountain

>on His back to stablize it , Lord churning the ocean

>all by Himself , the appearance of MahA Lakshmi ,

>Her Svayamvaram , where She chooses Sriman NaarAyaNA

>as Her Lord , the emergence of Dhanvanthri , the physician of

>the celestials with the pot of nectar , the emergence of

>VaaruNI devi (wine goddess ) , Haala Haala Visham ,

>which is consumed by Lord SivA to become NeelakantA

>at the command of Sri NaarAyaNA , the appearnace of

>the sacrificial elixir (SomA ) , the celestial nymphs

>(Apsaras ) , the divine horse Ucchaisravas, the celestial tree ,

>PaarijAtham , the divine jewel , Kousthubham , the royal elephant

>with four tusks , IrAvatham , the Conch Paanchajanyam

>and the divine bow Saarangam .

>

>The DevAs and the asurAs churned the milky ocean using

>the slow mountain ( Mandara) with the serpent Vaasuki

>serving as the rope and got tired quickly . Our Lord took

>over and supported the slipping mountain first as

>a gigantic tortoise and then appeared from below to complete

>the churning of the Milky Ocean that resulted in the emergence

>of above items .Koorma PurAnam with its 17,000 verses

>touches on this avathAram . It is set up as the KoormAvatharan's

>narration of this purANam to one Indradhyumnan . Though it is a

>VaishNava Puranam by name , it abounds in descriptions of

>the eminence of Lord MahEsvarA , forms of SivA worship and

>places of pilgrimage related to SivA .Perhaps , Koorma rUpi

>wants to highlight perhaps the mahOpakAram of MahEsvara

>in drinking the kaalakUta visham and protecting

>the world at His behest .

>

>** Origin of the AvathAram : Once Sage DhurvAsa known for

>his short temper prsented Indran a flower garland that

>was given to him by Devi Paarvathi Herself. Indran placed

>that sacred garland on the neck of his royal elephant

>and that in turn pulled it and crushed it under its feet .

>DhurvAsA was enraged at the disrespect shown by

>the king of DevAs and cursed Indran and said that

>he will lose all his isvaryam and royal status as

>the king of the DevAs .The traditonal enemies of DevAs

>defeated soon Indran in battle and drove him away

>from his throne . Indran and the DevAs went to the milky

>Ocean and prayed to the Reclining Sriman NaarAyaNan there

>to save them from their misfortunes . Our Lord ordered

>the DevAs to make peace with their enemies and churn

>the milky ocean together to get nectar that on drinking will

>free the DevAs from death and provide immortality .

>

>The 33 crores of dEvAs made peace with the sixty six crore

>asurAs and as per the command of Sriman NaarAyaNA and lifted

>the Mandaraadhri to place it in the milky ocean for serving

>as a churning rod ( matthu ) . They suddenly got arrogant

>about their feat of lifting this mighty mountain and at

>that moment , the mountain slipped from their hands and fell

>down. Our Lord appeared in front of the humiliated crowd

>of AsurAs and DevAs and lifted the mountain like he would

>lift a Ilanthai fruit ( badari palam ) and put that on the

>back of Garudan and transported it to the milky ocean .

>Srimadh Bhaagavatham describes this miraculous act :

>

>girim chArOpya GaruDE hasthainEkEna leelayA

>aaruhya prayayAvabhdhim SurAsura guNairvrutha :

>

>Our Lord advised the DevAs to churn tirelessly

>after adding Oushadhis ( medicinal plants ) into

>the milky ocean and suggested that they do not

>quarrel with the asurAs , who were not going to get

>any amrutham anyway and will only labor in vain .

>He asked the Devas not to be afraid of the poison

>that will emerge and also instructed them not

>to lose their mind over the wealthy and desirable

>items that were going to emerge out of the Ocean .

>

>The stage is now set for KoormAvathAram .As the assembly

>of AsurAs and DevAs start to churn the mountain

>that floated on the Ocean with the rope of Vaasuki ,

>the mountain began to sink into the ocean . The devAs

>got very worried and prayed to the Lord to save their

>efforts. The Bhaktha priya NaarAyaNan took the form of

>a giant tortoise and went under the ocean and supported

>the mountain on His back and stabilized it.Then , Our Lord

>entered into the asurAs and the dEvAs and energized them

>so that they could churn vigorously.The AsurAs were tricked by

>the Lord to hold the head side of the snake , whereas

>the DevAs held the tail side of the snake coiled

>around the mountain . The fiery and poisonous exhalations

>of Vaasuki exhausted the asurAs and the rain that fell

>on the devA's side energized them . When continued effort

>by both the devAs and the asurAs did not yield any amrutham ,

>Bhagavan Himself took the tail side and the head side

>of the snake in His hands and churned the milky ocean

all by Himself . The mesage is that dhaiva balam

is essential for success in one's efforts .

>

>First arose the fearsome poison , kaalakUtam . The nava

>prajApathis rushed to Kailasaam and begged MahEsvara

>to save the world by partaking it. He agreed with

>the comment that if NaarAyaNan wishes it , He will

>consume the poison and be unscathed , since He is

>the sthAvara jangama svarUpi and His Lord , the life of all,

>Sriman NaarAyaNan , will be pleased with him for

>consuming that poison . He took that poison in

>His hands and swallowed it and stopped it

>at the level of His neck and the neck became blue

>from the virulence of that poison . The spilled

>drops became the poison that we find today in all

>the visha janthus like scorpion , snakes et al .

>

>Next arose KaamadhEnu , the wish granting sacred cow.

>She was given by the Lord to the sages.Ucchaisravas ,

>the Haya rathnam (gem among horses ) , Kalpaka Tree ,

>and the divine damsels (apsaras ) followed . All the three

>were given away to the DevAs by the Lord .Kousthubha

>gem arose next and the Lord kept it as an aabharaNam

>for His broad and beautiful chest .

>

>After Kousthubham , the most enchanting MahA Lakshmi

>rose out of that milky ocean like lightning out of the sky .

>Srimadh Bhaagavatham salutes Her avathAram this way :

>

>ranjayanthi disa: kaanthyA vidhyuth SoudhAmani tathA

>

>(Meaning ) : Just like the flash of lightning that

>brightens the sky , MahA Lakshmi incarnated brightening

>all the eight directions . She cast Her glances at

>Sriman NaarAyaNA and chose Him as Her Lord .The sages

>performed the sacrificial thirumanjanam for Her

>and the DevAs decorated Her for Her wedding

>with the Lord. Amidst Vedic chants, celestial

>mangaLa vaadhyams' sounds , DivyAbhishEkam

>was conducted and AbhishEka Valli ThAyAr placed

the garland that She held in Her hand around the neck of

>Sriman NaarAyaNaa and chose Him as Her Lord.

>

>Next appeared VaaruNI devi . She is the devathai for

>the intoxicating liquor . Lord gave that intoxicant

>to the asurAs to make them lose their concentration .

>

>Dhanvanthri followed next with amrutha kalasam , now

>that the asurAs were becoming dim-witted from their

>enjoyment of the intoxicating beverage . AsurAs recognized

>that some trick was being played on them and began to

>quarrel with the devAs . Our Lord took on the Mohini rUpam

>to further bewilder the asurAs with the beauty of that rUpam .

>

>The asurAs lost their head totally over the beauty of

>the Mohini , who told the asurAs that they should not trust

>Her .The asurAs were so taken up by the Mohini's charms

>that they trusted Mohini with the amrutha kalasam and

>let Her distribute the nectar to them . Mohini seated the

>asurAs and the devAs in opposite rows and gave away the amrutham

>only to the devAs , while distracting the asurAs with Her charms.

>Raahu and Kethu moved over to the row of devAs and

>received nectar . Suryan and Chandran saw the trick

>played by Raahu and KethU and invited the attention

>of the Lord , who had just served them a portion of the nectar .

>Immediately , Lord cut off their heads with the Sudarsana chakram .

>Since the nectar had reached upto their neck level ,

>their head alone survived and they swore eternal

>enimity to the SUN and the Moon for letting their

>secrets out .

>

>A battle royal emerged between the disappointed asurAs and

>the devAs . The Lord took the side of the immortal dEvAs

>now and put an end to their fight .

>

>These wonderful episodes covered by Srimadh BhAgavatham

>are associated with BhagavAn's KoormAvathAram , where

>he showed His bhaktha DhAkshiNyam and dushta samhAram

>and estblished righteousness again .

>

KrishNArpaNamasthu ,

V.Sadagopan