29: Churning of Ocean

[ NB:
1. All expressions appearing in the blue bold shoulder implied and implicit meanings -- sometimes with allusions.
2. The ordinary black italics also carry meanings implied; some of them -- not all -- are used in place of the blue, to avoid too much repetition of blue.]

[ Fairly edited draft, to be refined. ]

[ No of words: about 1500]

Purāṇas of Hindus are a genre of their religious texts. They narrate not only genealogies of kings, heroes, sages, and demigods. About cosmology -- the creation, destruction and creation of the Universe -- also they speak!

My assimilation of anthropology with bits and pieces of Hindu Purāṇas:

Lord Śiva was, and is, known and worshiped in various ways.
The Elāmites, the fraternities of us Knānāyas/Knānites -- of us the Chaldeans, virtually -- settled in Indus Valley, with Solar Calf as the symbol of their God. Once in the Valley, they began to call their God Paśupati, meaning "Lord of all animals"; and ages later, they changed the name into Paramaśiva.

The Lord was then given another name later -- Gangādhara, meaning "Holder of goddess Ganga who personifies River Ganges(Ganga)".
So the Elāmites called the Lord several centuries after their settlement at the eastern plains of Ganges-Brahmaputra duo -- in today's Bangla. The Elāmites had settled there, fleeing from the Aryans, the occupiers of Indus plains and most of the plains of today's Ganga.

Hindus of modernity -- the Arya-Dravidian combine -- call the Lord just simply as Śiva, not with any diminished respect!

Why did the Elāmites call Śiva Gangādhara?
Their habitat of the eastern plains turned almost dry for seven years. They prayed to Śiva for rains. They were not heard. Their massive adventure on prayer began. Seventy-seven days later, one fine morning they found their plains in Bangla flooded, with no drop of rain at night!
They thought: that the water came flowing down from the hair-knot of the Lord, the abode of goddess Ganga hiding from goddess Pārvati, the Lord's Sweetie; and that the water reached them through one river only, River Ganges.

Today's Brahmaputra was Ganga of the Elāmites, and today's Ganga their Brahmaputra, so the rivers had been named by their ancestors.
It was the Aryans who later interchanged the names of the rivers.
Why did they change?
The Aryans were always seeking the whereabouts of the fleeing Elāmites. The chasers wanted to extinguish the civilization of the fleeing ones! The chasers called Brahmaputra Ganga and vice versa.

Another fact:
The Elāmite settlers in the eastern plains, let alone their ancestors, knew not exactly: whether both rivers started from the Mānasarovar region -- from hair-knot of the Lord; whether the rivers took two entirely different directions and ultimately joined together in Bangla!

The poor Elāmites! Poor ones with their bronze weapons fighting against the ancestors of Hitler with their iron weapons!
Elāmite sojourn in Bangla did not last; the chasers arrived.
War broke out this time; and it went on for decades between bronze and iron!

Vāsuki the king of serpents arrived at the scene. He suggested a solution to the ancestors of World War II.

Vāsuki said:
I am an envoy sent by Lord Śiva. Treat me as the mediator. Listen to my suggestions. There is Amrita*1 in the Pālāzhi*2. You will get it if you both camps of warriors cooperate and make an attempt to churn it, standing on the opposite sides. There is a mount of single-rock called Mount Mandāra. I can go to it, twine around it, uproot it and bring it. Let it act as the churner-tool. And I will act as the churning rope. The Amrita will float.
Whichever camp of churners collect it, can share it equally, and eat it. They will become Devás*3 with immortality. They will go to the upper world of Indraloka(Devaloka*4) of Devas, Apsarāḥs and Gandharvas.
Let me present to you an allegory.
I tell you, Indra is the ruler of Indraloka, a self-made bachelor god.
Gandharvas are the hubbies of the Apsarāḥs. The hubbies are the court servants of Indra. The vast group of sweeties are beautiful, youthful and elegant, and proficient in the art of dancing. The whole band dance to the music sung, or played, by the Gandharvas, to entertain Indra, in the evening parties.
Hey Elāmites, you are after your God Lord Gangādhara.
With Solar Calf as his symbol, your predecessors worshiped him, treating him as the one who disciplined angels and devils after whom the ancestors were very often then.
You Aryans think Indra is your God, what the hey! Let me inform you a metaphorical god is not God. Indra, gods & goddesses, Apsarāḥs and Gandharvas, Asurás*5, angels & devils -- all metaphorical ones, created by your imaginative minds -- are all subservient to Lord Śiva.
Hi all! Lord Śiva is Paramaśiva, God of the entire Universe, not just a god of heaven or Indraloka; he is Aanandathāndvan, Lord doing dance in ecstasy -- doing it on the unreachable Mount Supreme Bliss, which is somewhere above Mount Kailāsh; he wants that holistic, metaphorical and allegorical Indraloka/heaven for all -- inviting all as Jewels to the Indra's Net.
With a message Lord Śiva has sent me to you the combatants!
The message is: "You are all dear to me. I came to the Valley along with you Elāmites. And I invited you Aryans of the North West. I know: both squabbled and clashed; you were, and are, at war! No more wars, I tell you. Listen to Vāsuki, my messenger. Those who consume Amrita -- when get hold of -- will be in Indraloka as my Jewels on Indra's Net. You have to leave your children, wives and parents behind; they and their descendants will rule the northern part of Bhāaratadesha*5. Let them retain the name of their race -- Aryan or Elāmite. Let the other camp that fails to catch and consume Amrita be called Dravidians; let them head towards the south -- along with their families. Each one of both groups have the right to enter Indra's Net as Jewels after their reincarnations. After trillions of years, I'll destroy the universe by my Rudrathānndavam, after which I'll give birth to a new Universe and continue with my Aanandathāndvam. After billions of years, I'll selectively send Jewels from the Indra's Net to the planets of my new Universe. "

*1Amrita - ambrosia of immortality
*2Pālāzhi - Milky Bangla Ocean
*3Devás - the maintainers of the realms -- comparable to the angels of Abrahamic religions -- as ordained by the Trimurti, virtually God in Hinduism.
*4Devaloka - Kingdom of gods and goddesses
*5Asurás - the enemies of Devás, the power-seeking deities of Hindus, considered sinful and materialistic, but not so satanic as the devils -- the angels demolished by the God of Abrahamic religions.
*6Bharatadesha - South Asia

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Churning began. It went on and on. Each churner sweated buckets-full. Vāsuki himself was in incredible strain. He vomited his Kālakuta*7. It appeared on the side of the Elamites. Simultaneously appeared the Amrita on the side of the Aryans!
The Aryans picked it. They winked at one another. One of them shouted: "We shall call these fleeing Elamites as Asurás."
There was collective clapping.
One guy turned sober and said, "How can we call them so? The Asurás are the enemies of Devás, not the devotees of Lord Śiva. We can't call Elāmites as Asurás; they are Dravidians."

*7Kālakuta - Universal Poison

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Nobody except Vāsuki knew that Kālakuta was the one that could burn the Universe into ashes. He at once prayed to Lord Gangādhara. The Lord appeared; he swallowed the poison; his throat trapped the poison; the throat swelled and turned blue. The Lord explained the reason for his instant act; upon which his devotees Elāmites called him Nīlakaṇtha*8. The winners bowed before the Lord and imitated the losers by calling Him: "Oh Lord Nīlakaṇtha!"
The Lord ordered the winners and losers: "Go and meet your wives, children and parents; and inform what all happened. You the possessors of Amrita! Go and sit on the river bank. Share and eat it. You will be taken up to the Indra's Net. You Dravidians the losers must move southward -- gradually-patiently, not immediately."

*8Nīlakaṇtha - Lord of Blue Throat

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Purānas back into my mind:
“In Lord Shiva rests the Universe until its dissolution into sort of nothingness,” so the Acāryas teach their devotees.
I uphold both the scientists and the Acāryas.
I praise the Shaivites!

Let me remind them:
Big Bangs of the universe, its quick transformations, gradual expansions, twists into Big Crunches, ends in the inexplicable nothingness that precedes the next Big Bang.
Lord Śiva starts his Rudrathāndavam a fraction of a second before each Big Bang of the Universe; he ends it just after another fraction, by which the new Bang happens; then begins his Anandathāndavam again; and ends it up 311 trillion and 40 billion years later, concurrently with the start of the next Big Crunch.
All is explained, or not explained, or cannot be explained, by our scientists. Their knowledge is limited, just based on studies on the last Big Bang. What can we simpletons understand what they explain, not explain, or cannot explain?