Week 7 Story: Churning of the Ocean
One day there was a quite an ill tempered sage by the name of Durvaasa. He was traveling one day when he noticed a divine woman who happened to be wearing a garland of flower. He thought the woman was beautiful, yet he thought the garland of flowers were even more beautiful. Thus, he asked the divine beauty for the flowers. She hesitantly gave Sage Durvaasa the flowers, for if she said no to the Sage's request he may have cursed her. Durvaasa left happily with his garland.
The god Indra then came down to earth on his elephant named. Airaavat. Durvaasa payed his respect to Indra by giving him the garland. Indra then put the garland on his elephants head. Airaavat then shook the garland off his head and smashed it with his huge feet. This made Durvaasa extremely upset, for he had a bad temper. Durvaasa then cursed Indra because he believed Indra had insulted his gift, so he cursed Indra taking away all the luxuries, strength, and powers of the gods which then caused chaos on Earth. Humans become more greedy and evil spread rampant
The demons saw the perfect opportunity to attack the gods and went and raided heaven. However, the gods went to Vishnu and Vishnu told them a way to gain back their powers. They needed to work together with the demons to church the ocean to gain the ambrosia (nectar) of immortality. Therefore, the gods and demons worked together to churn the ocean.
Mount Mandaraachal was used as the churning rod. As the mountain began to sink, Lord Vishnu became a giant tortoise and held the mountain on his back. During the churning process much poison was released, so Shiva breathed in all the poison turning him blue. The demons had a plan though, they sought to keep the nectar for themselves. Once the churning was over and the nectar was obtained, Vishnu transformed into a beautiful woman to distract the demons. The demons were distracted and the gods were able to drink the nectar of immortality gaining their splendor back.
The gods then went to Sage Durvaasa, for Sage Durvaasa was constantly giving various people and gods curses (this is true, he is always cursing people in other works of literature). The gods thought he went too far with his curse and locked him away for all eternity. Of course, Sage Durvaasa was still ill-tempered as always, so he was found screaming in rage as they took him away to lock him up.
Authors Note: I decided to follow the main storyline of the Churning of the Sea in the Vishnu Purana. I kept to the original story, up until the end of my story involving Sage Durvaasa. Within other works of literature Sage Durvaasa causes much trouble, sometimes unnecessary trouble with his various curses, so I wanted him to be locked up at the end of my story. In the actual story it is unsure what happens to Sage Durvaasa after the end of the churning of the ocean; however, I assumed he kept on living his normal life. Therefore, I wanted him to be locked up. I was unfamiliar with the churning of the sea, so I thought it would be a good idea to talk about this event because it does bring up important point of the demons and gods working together to save the Earth.
Bibliography: HinduOnline, Vishnu Purana: Churning of the Sea
The god Indra then came down to earth on his elephant named. Airaavat. Durvaasa payed his respect to Indra by giving him the garland. Indra then put the garland on his elephants head. Airaavat then shook the garland off his head and smashed it with his huge feet. This made Durvaasa extremely upset, for he had a bad temper. Durvaasa then cursed Indra because he believed Indra had insulted his gift, so he cursed Indra taking away all the luxuries, strength, and powers of the gods which then caused chaos on Earth. Humans become more greedy and evil spread rampant
The demons saw the perfect opportunity to attack the gods and went and raided heaven. However, the gods went to Vishnu and Vishnu told them a way to gain back their powers. They needed to work together with the demons to church the ocean to gain the ambrosia (nectar) of immortality. Therefore, the gods and demons worked together to churn the ocean.
Mount Mandaraachal was used as the churning rod. As the mountain began to sink, Lord Vishnu became a giant tortoise and held the mountain on his back. During the churning process much poison was released, so Shiva breathed in all the poison turning him blue. The demons had a plan though, they sought to keep the nectar for themselves. Once the churning was over and the nectar was obtained, Vishnu transformed into a beautiful woman to distract the demons. The demons were distracted and the gods were able to drink the nectar of immortality gaining their splendor back.
The gods then went to Sage Durvaasa, for Sage Durvaasa was constantly giving various people and gods curses (this is true, he is always cursing people in other works of literature). The gods thought he went too far with his curse and locked him away for all eternity. Of course, Sage Durvaasa was still ill-tempered as always, so he was found screaming in rage as they took him away to lock him up.
Churning of the Ocean Source: Wikipedia
Authors Note: I decided to follow the main storyline of the Churning of the Sea in the Vishnu Purana. I kept to the original story, up until the end of my story involving Sage Durvaasa. Within other works of literature Sage Durvaasa causes much trouble, sometimes unnecessary trouble with his various curses, so I wanted him to be locked up at the end of my story. In the actual story it is unsure what happens to Sage Durvaasa after the end of the churning of the ocean; however, I assumed he kept on living his normal life. Therefore, I wanted him to be locked up. I was unfamiliar with the churning of the sea, so I thought it would be a good idea to talk about this event because it does bring up important point of the demons and gods working together to save the Earth.
Bibliography: HinduOnline, Vishnu Purana: Churning of the Sea
Hi Carlo!! I love how you took the story and changed it to better fit what you thought should have happened! It was like reading an altered history. Or like a true history conspiracy thingy. So I guess you really wanted the Sage to be locked up afterwards. Even when I read the original story I was king of confused at what all was going on, but your version helped me to understand and was really fun to read!
ReplyDeleteCarlos, I really enjoyed how you called out the Sage Durvaasa character for always cursing people across different works of literature. It is like he is the George Wilson of the Indian Epics always yelling at people to “get off my lawn!” It would be very interesting to see you take one of your future stories and dive deeper into the cranky Durvaasa character and explore why he is the way he is.
ReplyDeleteHi Carlo,
ReplyDeleteSages seem to be rather dangerous people to meet or know in these Indian Epics, don’t they. They do have a nasty habit of cursing whoever crosses their path…
I liked how you added a little bit of closure and some deserved comeuppance for our sage after causing so much trouble. After everything he brought about, it only seems reasonable that someone would start to wonder who was responsible for all this mess…
Best,
A.M.