Nov 24, 2024 - Grade 3 (Sunday PM)

Hari Om Parents,

This week we saw about Lord's next avatar which is KURMA AVATAR. The asuras kept on defeating the devas in each and every battle. The affected devas prayed to Lord Vishnu to come for their help. The Lord advised the devas to churn the milky ocean with the help of the asuras. 

Bali was the king of the asuras who was also the grandson of Prahlad.  The devas went to Bali and sought his help to churn the milky ocean. The Manthara hill was made the churning rod and Vasuki serpent was made the churning rope. The churning started. But the mountain started to sink in the ocean not able to bear the weight of the devas and asuras. So the Lord came down as a big and huge tortoise, KURMA AVATAR and bore the mountain on his back.

First emerged the most dangerous poison HALAHALA which was consumed by Lord Shiva and Parvati held his neck so tight that the poison could not go further. So Lord Shiva got the name NEELAKANTA.

Many other objects came out of the ocean.

OBJECT                                                           WHO GOT IT

Kausthuba gem                                               Lord Vishnu

Surabhi cow                                                  The rishis

Uchasrava                                                     Bali

Airavata(elephant)                                      Indra

Parijata tree                                                  The devas

Group of apsaras                                         The devas

Chandra deva(the moon)                           Lord Shiva

 

Then came the most resplendent and beautiful Goddess Lakshmi with a brilliant radiance which filled the entire world. All the rishis sang praises in her name. And the mother of the entire universe became the wife of the father of the universe, Sri Vishnu.

At last, a resplendent being called Dhanvanthri emerged out of the ocean carrying the nectar in his arms. The asuras became greedy for the nectar and snatched the pot from his hands and started running. The Lord came down as a beautiful girl (Mohini) and took the nectar pot from their hands. The asuras were greatly immersed in her beauty that they could not see what the girl was doing. The nectar was distributed among the devas. But an asura Rahu noticed what the Lord was doing and disguising himself as a deva sat among the devas and consumed the nectar. But the sun and moon pointed out and the Lord cut off his head with his Sudarshana Chakra. But since he has tasted the nectar he became two of the nine planets Rahu and Ketu.

At last, the devas won the battle with the asuras, and Bali was killed in the war. But Bali was not dead. What happened to him? 

We enacted the churning of the ocean.

We also discussed the nature of Turtle and what lord was trying to teach us in that form:

-Withdrawing all the parts inside oneself. Looking deep inside to understand oneself.

-Thick skin, not getting carried away by all the materialistic things outside.

Saratha Arthanari

Malathy Balasubramanian