The story of the churning of the Milky Ocean to obtain ambrosia is a metaphor representing the struggle between right and wrong, between good and evil. Both the process and the outcome represent our innermost struggles, our quest to find the truth, to be on the right. The churning represents the struggle or the introspection and the ambrosia is the connection to our inner truth. Once we are aware and in alignment with our innermost reality then we can live a self-actualized life which is referred to as being immortal. The parable is a way for us to understand the perpetual conflict which is occurring within our consciousness to seek the righteous or moral moorings.
The milky ocean is a metaphor for Consciousness. “Vasuki” - the serpent used for churning represents awareness; “Mountain Mandara” represents focus. First, we need to be self-aware, and aware of who we are, our circumstances, our life stage, our strengths, the place we are, second, we should develop practices that will allow us to focus, a mountain is used to signify the enormity of focus which is needed on this journey of self-actualization. The churn or the journey starts when we introspect through awareness and with undeterred focus.
The first thing that happens to us when we embark on starting a significant goal or objective is that we face obstacles - both internal and external. Our internal obstacles are our flaws and shortcomings, our self-doubt, and our ego that makes things look worse than they really are. External obstacles are the obvious distractions that we face in our day-to-day lives, namely, unhelpful circumstances, relationships, lack of support, nonconducive environments, and many more. Any journey on the path of self-introspection needs us to have a compassionate view of our perceived internal flaws and a view that any external obstacle is just an impediment and with the right determination and effort, any obstacle can be overcome.
The churning happens only when the Mandara Mountain is steadily placed on the giant tortoise “Koorma”. The tortoise represents steadiness and stability which has the intelligence to retract within when the external circumstances are not worth responding to. Tortoise is a metaphor for motion in steadiness. One needs to have that stability from which one can act with wisdom. It is a symbol of sense-control as the foundation and necessity for any churning or self-reflection.
The journey to self-realization starts with three core tenets, namely, self-awareness (Vasuki), focus (Mandara), and steadiness and sense-control (Koorma).
The participants in the churn are always the devas and asuras, it does not take a lot of effort for us to realize the two sides within our consciousness - the righteous one - deva, and the not so righteous one - asura. Once the churn starts, often the first things which come out are poisonous - prejudice, hatred, selfishness, and other baser instincts.
Shiva represents heightened awareness and innocence or pure heart as those qualities helped him hold the poison in his throat and not let it contaminate his heart. The concept here is that one cannot live in a sanitized world without negativity, but when you operate from a prism of pure love and clear intent then you know that you can partake the poison, but keep it in your throat and not let touch your heart - meaning regardless of the available shortcuts or easy wrong paths one keeps steady and treads on the path aligned to one's inner truth.
The path of self-actualization has many stops, some we characterize as negative, and we should not allow the poison to stop us on our way, but also on the positives, we should not limit our journey to the pursuit of material benefits.
The state of bliss or Ambrosia is when we are connected to our innermost reality and then operate from a perspective where we are not deterred by our flaws and not too enamored with our successes. Amrit is the mindset of abundance and being in alignment with our innermost truth.
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