Thoughts on the Above
We have already seen that the ascent of spirit commenced in the Vaivasvata Manvantara. If the fourteenth Manvantara or the second half of the Seventh Round he left out of consideration, as the Manvantara of Dissolution or Pralaya, the middle of the remaining 13 Manvantaras will be in the Vaivasvata Manvantara. But the ascent could not commence without preparation. That preparation was made in the Châkshusha Manvantara or during the latter half of the Third Round.
Srî or Lakshmî is the Sâtvic energy of preservation. This energy was so much overpowered by Materiality, that she was not to be found in Trilokî. The spiritual forces, the Devas, lost life and energy. The Asuras were at the height of their power. But as the ascending arc was near at hand, the Devas were promised Amrita i.e. immortality for the remaining part of the Kalpa. But that Amrita was to be obtained, the arc of spiritual evolution was to be raised by the churning of the ocean of Milk.
The ocean of Milk does not appertain to Jambu Dwipa, but it is the ocean of Saka Dwipa. The seven oceans are transformations of Prakriti, differing in the admixture of Satva, Rajas and Tamas and determining the character of the globe they surround. Vishnu, as the Third Purusha, is the divine source of evolution in every Jiva. The seat of that Vishnu is the ocean of Milk, the ocean where Satva prevails.
It is Vishnu who from His seat in the Ocean of Milk sends down Prânic Energy and the mineral becomes a vegetable. He sends down the power of perception and then the power of conception and the vegetable becomes an animal and at last a man. Throughout this course of evolution, there is a development of the self element in us. There is no idea of self in the mineral or in the vegetable. It faintly asserts itself or rather makes an effort to assert itself in the animal kingdom. The early history of humanity is the development of the selfish element in him. The Jiva has two sides in himself and non-self. The self side is caused by limitation due to his own senses They put him in contact with the outside world, and make him a centre of sense perceptions. He becomes lost entirely in the sense products, which form a world by themselves. The non-self side of a Jiva, is his spiritual nature. He begins with this spiritual nature. But the development of selfishness eclipses this nature, the true, the real nature of Jiva, and he identifies himself entirely with the acquired and false nature.
Then comes a crisis in the evolution of Jivas. Were men to be lost for ever to their spiritual, their real nature? Were they to be tempted away by the senses, which had done their work of training, past all chance of return?
Vishnu, the God of human evolution, willed otherwise. He caused a re-adjustment of the Daivic and Âsuric forces, and the Devas by His help got the better of the Asuras. This is the churning of the Ocean of Milk. It averted a crisis and is therefore a great event in the history of the Universe.
The Asura element could not be altogether wiped away. For the Deva or spiritual nature evolves out of Asura or selfish and material nature. Unselfishness grows out of selfishness, spirituality rises out of materiality.
In the act of churning, the Devas could not do without the Asuras. Churning itself, implies the action and reaction of two contending forces. “Make peace with them, as long as you are not strong yourselves.” The compromise of the Devas with the Asuras is the development of spiritual faculties out of the personal element in man. It is the grafting of higher Manas on lower Manas. The element of mind is in the Asuras as well as in the Devas. But the Asuric or lower mind thinks of self as separate from other selves. The Daivic or higher mind breaks through the trammels of personality and finds oneness all round.
To use a better expression, we shall say higher self and lower self, rather than self and non-self.
Jivas are carried on in their course of life evolution by the force of past tendencies, and nature unaided produces the personal man. But when the past tendencies are exhausted, there is nothing to keep on the Jivas in their course of evolution.
Kûrma comes to the help of humanity at this stage. He gives a new power to men, the power of discrimination. With this power men become free agents, and they become responsible for their actions. They then generate new Karma for themselves, which takes them through infinite births and becomes a most potent factor in their future evolution.
The three Purushas have three Oceans as their correspondences. The first ocean (Kârana) gives the materials of the Jiva body. The Second ocean (Garbhoda), gives the germs of all Jivas. The third (Kshira) is the ocean of Jiva evolution. This ocean is churned for the spiritual evolution of Jivas, and it yields all that is necessary for that evolution. Vishnu himself appears as Kûrma and becomes the sustaining force of that evolution.
It is a Kâlpic revolution. Vasûki sustains the earth and its inhabitants for one Kâlpic period. The thousand hoods represent the thousand Maha yugas of every Kalpa. The Asuras held the mouth end of the serpent king and the Devas held the tail end. And the Devas acted wisely. For as the Kalpa waned, they got the supremacy.
The tortoise thrusts out its limbs and draws them in. Man is drawn outside by his senses during material descent and he is drawn in by his spiritual ascent. It is by the power of discrimination when fully developed that a man returns to his higher nature.
Srî or Lakshmî is the divine energy of Vishnu. She is the Energy of preservation, of evolution and progress She works out all that is good, all that is beautiful, and all that is powerful in this Universe. The possibilities of purely material development or of Nature’s own evolution, are limited, and they are worked out in time. Then there is a void. There was this void in our universe and Trilokî become deprived of Sri. This was the curse of Durvasas, an Avatâra of Śiva.
The Churning took place as a remedy for this evil. Fresh forces had to be brought into requisition, fresh elements that could secure the spiritual evolution of the universe. Lakshmî herself reappeared in a most enchanting form, as the energy of a new evolution, the very best that man was capable of. The necessaries of this evolution also appeared and became powers in the hands of those that had to take part in the spiritual evolution of the universe.
All evolution is preceded by dissolution. Unless we give up the evil element in us, we can not acquire the good. The evil has to be destroyed and the Lord of destruction, in his infinite compassion, accepted this poison for himself, to do away with the evils of the Universe.
The Poison only opens the door for Amrita, the spiritual nectar. The famous Purusha Sukta says: — “He placed Amrita or eternal bliss in the higher three Lokas.” The Bhâgavata renders this famous saying into the eighteenth sloka of the 6th. chapter of the Second Skandha. Commenting on this sloka, Śridhara says, bliss in our Trilokî is only transitory and the dwellers of Mahar Loka have also to leave their abode for the higher Jana Loka, when they are oppressed by the fire of Kâlpic dissolution. Amrita was secured to the higher Lokas, as there is no selfishness in them. (III. 10-9.) Could the Asuras, the gods of selfishness, aspire to have life immortal and unlimited bliss. Vishnu decided otherwise.
The way was thus prepared for the Vaivasvata Manvantara, when men learned to discern between right and wrong.