Kshīrasāgara Manthana (Brahma Khaṇḍa)

Chapters 8 to 10 of the Brahma Khaṇḍa of the Padma Mahā Purāṇa tell of the churning of the Kshīrasāgara (the Milky Ocean). The account begins with Durvāsa’s curse on Indra. Lakshmī disappears and the three worlds suffer. The devas go to Brahmā and then to Bhagavān Vishṇu, and the churning follows. In this account Bhagavān Śiva drinks the Kālakūṭa poison while meditating on Vishṇu. Alakshmī rises first, Lakshmī rises on Dvādaśī, and Candra (the Moon, Lakshmī’s brother) and Tulasī also rise. Alakshmī is given to the ṛshi Uddalaka, and Rāhu is struck by Vishṇu’s golden pot, so that his head becomes Ketu.

The curse of Durvāsa

The great brāhmaṇa ṛshi Durvāsa was born of a portion of Parameśvara. He was blazing with light and was a great ascetic. He went to svarga to visit Indra. He found Śaci’s lord seated on the elephant Airāvata. Indra saw the Pārijāta garland on Durvāsa, took it, and put it on Airāvata’s head. The elephant seized the garland and threw it to the ground.

Durvāsa was enraged. He cursed Indra at once: “Since you, endowed with the glory of the three worlds, have thought lightly of me, that very glory of the three worlds shall perish.”

Lakshmī disappears and the worlds suffer

Indra went back to his city and slept. The Mother of the Worlds, Lakshmī, saw his carelessness and disappeared. When she vanished, prosperity vanished from all three worlds. All beings were afflicted by hunger and thirst and wept without end. The clouds held back their rain. The water tanks dried up. The trees dropped their fruits and flowers.

The devas, weighed down by hunger and thirst, went to Brahmā and told him of their distress. Brahmā the Creator went to the Milky Ocean with hosts of devas and ṛshis, among them Bhṛgu.

The command of Bhagavān Vishṇu

On the northern shore of the Milky Ocean, Brahmā muttered the ashṭākshara mantra (the eight-syllable mantra) and meditated on Bhagavān Vishṇu. Pleased, the kind Bhagavān Vishṇu appeared, seated on Garuḍa. He wore a yellow garment and had four arms holding the conch, the disc and the mace. He had lotus eyes and was adorned with a Vaijayantī garland and the Kaustubha gem. The devas, their eyes full of joyful tears, greeted him with cries of victory.

Vishṇu asked them to name their vara (boon). The devas said that Lakshmī had vanished from the three worlds because of the brāhmaṇa’s curse, and that all the worlds were now in distress.

Vishṇu replied: “Lakshmī — by whose mere glance the world is endowed with glory — has vanished. Now all of you, with the asuras, uproot the golden Mandara mountain, make the serpent-king go around it as the churning rope, and churn the Milky Ocean. From it, Lakshmī, the mother of the world, will spring up. I myself, in the form of a tortoise, shall hold the mountain.”

The Kālakūṭa poison

The hosts of devas, with the gandharvas and asuras, uprooted the Mandara mountain and set it in the ocean. The great and compassionate Bhagavān Vishṇu held the mountain on his back. They wound Ananta, the serpent-lord, around the mountain as the churning rope.

They churned on the day of Ekādaśī, and the fearful Kālakūṭa poison rose from the ocean. All the devas fled. Bhagavān Śaṅkara saw this and said: “O hosts of devas, give the poison to me — I shall quickly inactivate it.”

Śiva, the lord of Pārvatī, meditated on Vishṇu in his heart, spoke the great mantra, and took the fearful poison. By the power of the great mantra, Śiva digested the terrible poison.

The Brahma Khaṇḍa adds that a person who keeps reciting the three names of Vishṇu, Acyuta, Ananta and Govinda, with Praṇava (Oṃ) at the start and at the end, has no fear from poison, fire or death.

Alakshmī rises first

The devas, glad in mind, began to churn again. Alakshmī (Evil Fortune) rose first. She had a dark face, red eyes, rough tawny hair and an old body. She asked: “What should I do?”

The devas told her to live in these places:

  • houses where there is quarrel
  • houses where cruel and false words are spoken
  • houses where food is eaten at dusk
  • houses holding skulls, hair, ashes, bones and chaff-fire
  • houses where people eat without washing their feet
  • houses where people eat mushrooms, leftover coconut, sesamum flour, garlic, onion shoots and similar forbidden foods
  • houses without yajñas, without gifts to guests and without Vedic recitation
  • houses where husband and wife quarrel, where the ancestors are not honoured, and where there is gambling
  • the houses of adulterers, thieves, and those who do not respect brāhmaṇas, virtuous people and elders

Lakshmī and the others rise

Next Airāvata, the divine elephant, rose from the ocean, and the horse Uccaiḥśravā. Then Dhanvantari rose, holding the vessel of nectar. The fragrant Pārijāta tree came up, and the apsarās of svarga.

Then on the day of Dvādaśī, in the morning, when the sun had risen, the great Lakshmī rose. She had every auspicious mark. She is the mother of all beings, and her home is in the heart of Bhagavān Vishṇu. All the devas were filled with joy.

Then the cool-rayed Moon, Lakshmī’s brother, rose with the nectar. Then Tulasī rose, the wife of Bhagavān Vishṇu and the purifier of all the worlds.

The marriage of Vishṇu and Lakshmī

The devas sang the Śrī-sūkta in praise of Lakshmī. The pleased devī offered them a vara. The devas asked her to protect their lives. Then they begged Bhagavān Vishṇu to take Lakshmī as his queen.

Lakshmī herself spoke: “O Madhusūdana, how can you marry me, the younger sister, without first marrying the elder Alakshmī? Does the younger get married while the elder remains unmarried?”

Bhagavān Vishṇu heard this and, following the Vedic rule, gave Alakshmī to the ṛshi Uddalaka. Then he accepted the great Lakshmī. The devas bowed to them again and again. Together they struck the asuras, who fled in the ten directions.

The nectar and Rāhu

By the order of Bhagavān Vishṇu, the devas sat in a line to drink the nectar. Vishṇu himself took a woman’s form and gave out the nectar with a golden vessel.

Rāhu, an asura, slipped into the line in disguise and drank the nectar. The Moon and the Sun pointed him out: “This is an asura who came here deceptively.” Vishṇu, angry, struck Rāhu with the golden pot. Rāhu’s head fell to the ground and came to be known as Ketu. Rāhu and Ketu, afflicted with fear, fled.

Even now, when the day comes (at the time of eclipses), Rāhu fights with the Moon and the Sun. At that time all water becomes as sacred as the Gaṅgā, and all brāhmaṇas are equal to Vyāsa.

Sources

  • Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 8
  • Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 9
  • Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 10