Once, Indra was enjoying the songs sung by Gandharvas when sage
Vashishth arrived. But, Indra was so engrossed in music, that he forgot to
welcome his distinguished guest. Sage Vashishth was enraged by his behaviour
and went away fuming with anger.When the demon King Bali--the lord of
Patalloka, learnt about this incident he attacked Indraloka with a large army.
A fierce battle took place in which all the deities were defeated. Bali and his
army brought all the wealth to Patalloka. But the demons were not destined to
be the owner of this plundered wealth for too long as the whole wealth got
submerged into the ocean. Bali was surprised and asked Shukracharya about the
reason. Sage Shukracharya revealed to Bali that he could not enjoy the
splendours of deities' wealth because he had not performed 100 Ashwamedha
yagyas.
The deities, after being defeated went to seek Lord Vishnu's help. Lord
Brahma was also present with them. After giving a deep thought to the whole
issue, Lord Vishnu advised them to patch up with the demons so that all the
wealth could be retrieved from the ocean bed.The deities went to Patal-loka and
convinced the demons to participate in the churning of the ocean. When the
process of churning of the ocean began, Mandarachal mountain was used as a
churner and the serpent -Vasuki as the rope.Both the parties immersed the
Mandarachal mountain into the ocean but it sank down, as there was no base upon
which it could be placed. So, Lord Vishnu took the form of a tortoise and held
the mountain on his back.
Churning of the ocean resulted into the emergence of many things like
Chandrama, Surabhi (cow), Kalpa tree, Kaustubh, Uchchaihshrava (Horse), Eravat
(elephant), goddess Laxmi, poison, ambrosia, intoxication etc.When poison
emerged from the sea bed, neither the deities nor the demons made any claim for
it. The poison was so venomous that the whole world started getting inflamed by
it. Lord Shiva then drank the Halahal poison and thus the world was saved.
(This
instance of all of the gods, mortals and demons worshipping Shiva, for the act
of saving the Universe from the dreaded poison, is believed to have occured
during the pradosha kaala (the time period
just before sun set). The pradosha kaala puja in Shiva temples is considered to
be very sacred on all occurrences of pradosha days, two
days before the new moon and the full moon each month. )
When Dhanvantri appeared with a
pot of ambrosia in his hands, a demon named Vrishparva snatched it from him.
All the demons then fled to Patal loka with the pot of ambrosia.Lord Vishnu
disguised himself as an enchanting beauty and went to Patalloka. There, he
found all the demons quarrelling among themselves. Each of them wanted to have
his own share of ambrosia.The demons were stunned by Mohini's beauty the moment
they saw Lord Vishnu in the form of a beautiful lady. Mohini took control of
the ambrosia pot and summoned the deities to Patal loka.
All the deities and demons were made to sit in separate rows. Mohini
then started distributing ambrosia to the deities. A demon named Rahu, who had
disguised himself as a deity was also sitting among the deities. Hardly had
Rahu gulped down some ambrosia then Mohini severed his head on the information
given by chandrama (Moon).The severed head of Rahu tried to take revenge by
swallowing chandrama, who took the refuge of Lord Shiva. Shiva kept chandrama
within the lock of his hair. Meanwhile, Rahu too came chasing chandrama and
Lord Shiva wore his head as a garland in his neck.
Another legend of
Rahu and Ketu has it that two asuras,
aware of Mohini's trickery took the guise of devas and begot a dose of the
nectar from her. Vishnu discovered their act, only when they had consumed half
their portion of Amrita, and proceded to destroy them. Protected by the nectar
of immortality, the demons took the form of Rahu and Ketu.
Rahu with a snakes head and a human body, and Ketu with a human head and
a snake's body are regarded as celestial bodies - shadow planets, or the node
positions at which eclipses are caused. Rahu is the ascending node while Ketu
is the descending node. Popular belief has it that eclipses are caused when
Rahu or Ketu swallow the moon or the sun.
Yet
another legend has it that the serpent Vasuki consumed the celestial nectar
much against the wishes of the sun and the moon, and that it was split into
two, and still continued to live in the form of Rahu and Ketu, the so called
enemies of the sun and the moon, threatening to eclispse them at the right
moment!
Mohini avatara sevai
is celebrated in many Vaishnavite temples,
where Vishnu is decorated as Mohini the enchantress. Vishnu worshipping Shiva
in his Koorma avatara is enshrined at Tirukkachur, near Chennai.
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