Churning The Milk Ocean - Is This Epic Story A Splendid Space Science?

"Samudra Manthan" - This is one of my favorite myth in Sanathan Dharma. But now I have other ideas about this legend story. Let me tell you why.... For some time I had the following questions in my mind. "What if this story is not a myth at all?" "What if it is a true science about the cosmos?" "Were our ancestors aware of formation of Galaxies and stars?" . The above questions drove me to go in search for answers and I am amazed by the results. "Hey... I am not alone man!!!" was my typical response. It was because there were already many people who had thought in a similar way and even had written research articles and books about this subject.  So here I am, to share my opinions along with plenty of links for your reference. You are welcome to accept or contradict this idea. The choice is yours. I am not authenticating that my opinion about this subject is 100% true, but only stating that a different thought process about Sanathan Dharma myths might bring out more subtle details about the cosmos and the Universe around us which in turn, might unlock innumerable mysteries.

By ESO/M. Kornmesser (http://www.eso.org/public/
images/eso1327a/) [CC BY 4.0 (http://creativecommons.
org/licenses/by/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

QUICK VIEW :

Key concept	"Samudra Manthan" - Churning the Milk Ocean
Spiritual version	The legend behind the story, The process of churning, The products emerged, The distribution of nectar, Vishnu's two avatars Kurma and Mohini.
Scientific version	Churning process compared to evolution of Galaxy, Supermassive black hole as the Galactic center compared to Mount Mandhara, Great rift compared to Vasuki, Uchaishravas, the horse, compared to that of Pegasus of Greek Mythology and to a constellation shaped like horse, Products emerging from the churning process compared to birth of celestial objects like stars, planets and constellations.
Other details	Depiction of "Samudra Manthan" in Thailand Airport, Understanding vaikuntha planet, mount kailash and other celestial abodes, Small personification of celestial objects in Earth planet, Views of believers in mythology. Many reference links included and I suggest the readers to go through them to get a clear picture of this analysis.

The Legend :

By Raja ravi varma [Public domain],
via Wikimedia Commons

Let us first explore this epic story from mythology point of view to aid us in better understanding. According to Bhagavata Purana, this incident happened during the 6th Manvantara, during the period of Caksusha Manu. (We are now living in the 28th Chaturyuga of the 7th Manvantara. Hence this happened approximately about 427.68 million years ago (4320000*71 = 306720000 + 4320000*28 = 120960000 = 427680000). During this reign, the king of heaven was known as Mantradruma (we already saw in one of the previous posts that Indra is only a position and many people come to this position over a period of time) and the Avatara of Vishnu was knows as Ajita. Refer the following links for more details :

http://connectsciencetodivinity.blogspot.com/2015/03/manvantara-and-kalpa-timeline-which.html

http://www.gita-society.com/section3/BhPuran.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manvantara

Once Sage Durvasa got a special garland from Lord Shiva. He offered that garland to Indra when he met him as a notion of blessing. Indra, due to his ego, placed the garland on his elephant, which in turn threw it on the ground. Durvasa, who became furious at this sight, cursed Indra and all Devas to be deprived of all strength, energy, prosperity and fortune. After the curse, Indra realized his mistake but he could not do anything. Soon after, a war occurred between the Devas and Asuras preceded by King Bali where the Asuras defeated the Devas and gained control over the Universe. Devas, then went to Lord Vishnu for protection. Vishnu advised Devas to be in union with Asuras for some time and to churn the milky ocean along with Asuras for obtaining the nectar which ensures immortality.Vishnu secretly reassured the Devas that even though Asuras help in the process of churning the ocean, the nectar would ultimately be consumed only by the Devas. 

A depiction of "Samudra Manthan" in the Suvarnabhumi Airport - Bangkok, Thailand

By Ram Samudrala (Own work by the original uploader) [Public domain],
via Wikimedia Commons

The churning process was not easy. Mount Mandhara became the churning rod and Vasuki, the king of serpents, became the churning rope. The Asuras held the head of Vasuki while the Devas held the tail and the churning process started. But the mountain started to sink in the ocean and Vishnu came to their rescue in the form of Kurma, the giant turtle and held the mountain on this back for support. Many products emerged from this churning process and important ones among them were :

• Lakshmi - The Goddess of wealth and fortune
• Airavatha - The white elephant which was taken by Indra
• Kamadhenu - The wish granting divine cow
• Karpakavriksha  - The wish granting divine tree
• Halahala - The poison - Lord Shiva swallowed this to rescue them
• Shanka - The conch which was taken by Vishnu
• Parijat - The divine tree which was taken by the Devas
• Uchaishravas - The seven headed flying horse (Greek Mythology also refers to a winged  white horse called Pegasus)
• Chandra - The moon which Lord Shiva placed in his head
• Dhanvanthri - The divine doctor with nectar of immortality in his hand

See page for author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Devas and Asuras started to fight fiercely again for the nectar. To save the nectar for Devas, Vishnu ordered Garuda to fly away with the pot. While he flew over Earth, four drops of nectar fell in four places viz. Prayag, Haridwar, Ujjain and Nasik and because of this legend, these places were believed to have acquired certain special mystic powers. A Kumbmela is celebrated in these four places every twelve years for this reason. Vishnu, then took the charming "Mohini Avatar", distracted the Asuras and distributed the nectar only to the Devas. However, an Asura named Svarbhanu, disguised himself in the form of a Deva and drank the nectar. Noticing this, Mohini  (Lord Vishnu in disguise) cut off the throat of Svarbhanu with sudarshan chakra. Since the nectar already went in his body, this asura did not die but his body was cut in two pieces. The head part of svarbhanu is called as "Rahu" and the body part is called as "Ketu". After consuming the nectar, the Devas regained their strength and defeated the Asuras. This is how the legend goes.......

picture taken from creative commons search

Clarifications before proceeding further :

Sanathan Dharma units of time are infinite and cyclical in nature. Hence we should understand the scriptural stories from this massive time line. "Space" is also infinite according to Sanathan Dharma. The stories sometimes, speak only about Earth, sometimes about the material Universe, some other times, about the whole Cosmos (including multiverse). This is what is making the scriptural stories more confusing and complicating and make us believe that they are only myths. But they are not, if we properly understand them from the massive time and space limits and do not restrict them only to our Earthly objects. For example, when we talk about "Kshir Sagar", we should not think that there is only one milk ocean and it represents only our milky way galaxy. Look at the following statement....

"Garbhodakasayi Visnu also has His own Vaikuntha planet in every universe, where He lives as the Supersoul or supreme controller of the universe"

http://vaniquotes.org/wiki/Garbhodakasayi_Visnu_also_has_His_own_Vaikuntha_planet_in_every_universe,_where_He_lives_as_the_Supersoul_or_supreme_controller_of_the_universe

http://www.stephen-knapp.com/descriptions_of_the_spiritual_world.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaikuntha

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kshir_Sagar

http://vaniquotes.org/wiki/Category:Vaikuntha_Planets

Likewise, when we talk about Mount Kailash, we should understand that that is a depiction of Lord Shiva's abode in this Earth planet, but the originial abode, the original Kailash (in the material Universe) is in the celestial world.

River Ganges, Mount Meru/Mount Mandara and many other things mentioned in scriptural stories do have their own celestial place (probably they might be in different forms too), though a small personification of these exist in Earth. Understanding this concept before proceeding further will result in more clarity. Through out this article, we will see many such things mentioned in mythological stories from a totally different perspective which will enable you to view these stories from an entirely new dimension.

In Modern Cosmology :

Before analyzing further, let us take a quick peek at the following statements. These statements are taken from two different sources. I have included the source links below. Please click and explore the articles to get a clear picture. These statements provide two different dimensions  to this legend story.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kshir_Sagar
http://www.aeongroup.com/churning.htm

Statement 1 - source : wikipedia :-

"In modern cosmology, the Milky Way (The galaxy in which we live) is similarly depicted as a white spiral cloud. The rotating spiral galaxy structure of the milky way corresponds with the ocean of milk being churned. The super massive Black Hole at its center correlates with the extremely heavy Mount Mandara. It is also to be noted that even the name used in modern cosmology is analogous with this ancient reference. This shows that this particular story might have been transmitted as a metaphorical source of knowledge about the cosmos from the ancient times".

By NASA/CXC/Stanford/I. Zhuravleva et al. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Statement 2 - source : Aeongroup :-

"The myth is concerned primarily with establishing the central role of the Axis in creation. This much is very clear. But there is more involved and this has reference to certain important  or key features of our material dimension. This simple tale in fact sheds light on the very structure of Form. Indeed this, it must be stated, is the purpose of the myth. And this feature  pertains to macrocosms as well as microcosms. It pertains as well to the primordial age as well as to the stages of cosmic evolution well beyond the so-called Big Bang. But was there ever any such thing as a Big Bang? According to the myth creation did not come into being by anything of the sort, and especially not through any process of collapse of energy. It was simply the emergence of an axis and then the conspiracy to set that 'churning'. That the myth refers to the elaboration of the physical components of our universe is obvious from the fact that it adopts the symbol of churning the Milky Ocean, or the Milky Way, and then from this motion gradually the treasures arise as butter would from the curdled, churned creamy substance. There is, in addition, a separation process in the manufacture of butter; the same does indeed occur in the cosmic process until finally the substance of form emerges from this primordial soup, as it were, and the dross is discarded. "

We proceed with statement 1 as our base :

So these two sources talk about two different dimensions. One about celestial bodies emerging and the other one about axis. For this article, let us consider the first one and proceed with our analysis. We already understood that there is one Vaikuntha planet with milk ocean in every material Universe. Churning the milk ocean here could represent our milky way galaxy being churned. It is just a speculation, because there are many spiral galaxies with black hole as center, exactly similar to that of our milky way in the Cosmos. So we cannot pin point exactly that it is our milky way galaxy but it could probably be. And remember this story does not talk about formation of galaxy as it tells only about churning. That means the galaxy already existed at the given time. The products generated from churning the milk ocean could probably be celestial objects within the galaxy like stars, planets or even constellations.

Take a look at this video to know about how stars and planets are formed :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy_formation_and_evolution

http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/how-do-stars-form-and-evolve/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermassive_black_hole
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_galaxy

Mount Mandhara - Super massive black hole at the galactic center :

When we talk about spiral galaxies, the super massive black hole occupies the center. Let us proceed with our possibility of milky way galaxy is what described in the churning process and study the super massive black hole at the galactic center of milky way. 

By ESO/L. Calçada (ESO website) [CC BY 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The role of supermassive black hole in formation and evolution of galaxies is predominant according to modern science. Refer the following links to know more about this.

http://www.cosmotography.com/images/supermassive_blackholes_drive_galaxy_evolution_2.html
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/econf/C0507252/lec_notes/Di_Matteo/dimatteo.pdf
http://phys.org/news/2009-02-astronomers-link-supermassive-black-holes.html


The legend story states that Mount Mandhara became the churning rod in the ocean churning process. The supermassive black hole which acts as the galactic center, (according to wikipedia) correlates with that out mount mandhara. Let us close our eyes once and imagine the vast milk ocean as milky way galaxy and the churning rod, mount mandhara as the galactic center. Let us also imagine the churning process. Many stars, planets and constellations are born with the churning. Doesn't it correlate with the role of supermassive black hole in evolution of galaxy?

Vasuki - Great Rift ??? 

Vasuki, the rope used in the churning process roughly correlates with the great rift, also referred as dark rift. Though it is not very clear at this point, we might get some clarity later,

By NASA [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-underlying-symbolism-of-the-Samudra-Manthan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Rift_%28astronomy%29

Uchaishravas vs. Pegasus : 

Let us take one product emerged out of the milk ocean, "Uchaishravas" - the snow white seven headed flying horse. Initially I had mentioned that "Pegasus" - the horse referred to in Greek Mythology correlates with that of Uchaishravas. Let us explore this concept. According to Greek mythology, this horse is transformed into a constellation and placed in sky by the Greek Sky God Zeus. (In one of my previous posts, we saw that Zeus corresponds with the Vedic God Dyaus). Now when we say "Uchaishravas" came from churning the milk ocean, why can't it be a constellation which has the shape of a horse? Though we can't connect dot to dot (due to our lack of knowledge) that a specific constellation is Uchaishravas, the possibility of this product being a constellation is there right?

Pegasus - Flying white horse in Greek mythology :

By Mary Hamilton Frye [Public domain],
via Wikimedia Commons

Uchaishravas - Flying white horse of Indra :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_horse_(mythology)

Horse shaped Constellation - A sample :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_horse_(mythology)

http://mythicistmke.publishpath.com/white-horses-another-common-mythological-thread

http://www.constellation-guide.com/constellation-list/pegasus-constellation/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegasus_(constellation)

Conclusion :

This mythical story makes some sense now. Isn't it? Though we are not able to identify each and every item associated with this legend story, we now understood that it is connected with cosmic evolution and formation of celestial objects. Kurma, the tortoise, Halahal, the poison, Soma - the nectar and all other things involved in this churning story should also have some insights about cosmic evolution, though we are not able to interpret them properly, at this time. We need to recollect the story of "Dhruva" too. This particular story mentions that "Dhruva" got boon from Vishnu and became a star. "Pole star", is what we call Dhruva in modern astronomy. Even this story talks about formation of a star only, in particular a pole star.  Hence, there is every reason to believe that the Vedic seers and our ancient scriptures knew the subtle details involved in the creation and evolution process of the cosmos as a whole, though they are told as stories which most people consider as myth.

A word for believers in myth :

For believers in mythology, including me, even these stories make sense. We believe in the entire concept as a whole, not only the scientific version of it. It is because we believe in the wisdom and knowledge of our ancient seers and firmly trust that they have made these stories also for some purpose. Though we are not able to perceive them, we understand that it is only because of our lack of knowledge. We are already seeing that as and when science advances, we get new dimensions of the same old scriptures and keeping this in mind, we presume that we will encounter more amazing scientific facts in the future too, which will certainly provide more clarity to these epic stories. 

Thank you all for reading. Don't forget to share your feedback!!!!