Amrit Manthan - Churning the Inner self.

As said before, Indian mythology is an interwoven and interlinked junction of small stories that explain different forms of living life. Amrit Manthan is one of these stories that come from the first yuga i.e Satyuga. The story explains the mutual alliance of devas and asuras for the churning of Sheer-Sagar (ocean of milk) to produce valuable content from the divine ocean.

Legend

Indra, (King of Devas) was once travelling on his divine elephant Airavat and met a powerful sage Durwasa in between his journey. The rishi gifted him , a garland that was offered to him by Lord Shiva. Indra , to prove that he was not egoistic hung the garland on the neck of airavat who in return smashed the gift on the ground. On this account, the sage became angry and cursed him for what he did. As a result the devas were defeated by asuras and the heaven was ruled by the evil power Asuras (King Bali).

Samudra Manthan 

Devas asked help from Lord Vishnu as the heaven was not supposed to be in hands of the evil power at any cost. The lord suggested them to handle the asuras in a very diplomatic way and take the power back from Asuras. The devas formed an alliance with asuras and mutually decided to churn the milk of ocean and obtain Amrit (nectar of immortality) which they would share equally among themselves. Vishnu said that he would mange that the nectar comes all alone to devas side. 

The Mandar Parvat was used as the churning rod and the serpent that abides the shiva's neck became churning rope.

The Kurma Avatar   

The Samudra Manthan was an elaborate process. Many days were taken to churn the ocean with so heavy mountain with full power. In between the process, the mountain due to great force started to suppress into the ocean bed which led to great shocks experienced throughout the world. The earth started to shake and earthquakes started destroying everything. All this created a hassle and it became an uphill task for the devas and asuras to churn the ocean any more.

Vishnu helping in churning

Lord Vishnu was asked for help and he did the same by taking the form of a giant turtle called Kurma which went beneath the mountain to avoid sinking of the mountain. The problem was solved and the mountain was churned on the back of lord Vishnu.

The Neelkanth Story

The churning of the divine ocean led to discovery of many things. One of them being a lethal posion called Halahala which in some contexts emerged from the mouth of the serpent used for churning . Before amrit cound come out of the ocean the fumes of the deadly poison started killing the both sides. The devas ran to Brahma for help who told them to go to Lord Shiva on Kailash.

Shiva inhaling Halahala

The Lord Shiva accepted the request and agreed to swallow the poison which was deadly. As shiva tried to drink this deadly poison his throat started to shrink and become blue. As it was difficult for him also to drink this poison , his wife parvati which is always represented in form of shakti sat in his throat to save him. By this he was started to be called Vishdhar and Neelkanth.

The Nector of Immortality`

After all this hard-work and sacrifices that devas and asuras did , finally the Dhanvantari emerged from the ocean along with the most awaited amrit with them. After the emergence a massive fight started between the devas and asuras for the amrit. 

Mohini - Vishnu

The devas went to Vishnu for his help as he promised to do so. Vishnu thereafter, made the form of beautiful girl called Mohini. Mohini in between the fight of both sides distracted the asuras from the fight and made sure that devas drink it. She succeed in it but an asura named Rahuketu in disguise to be a deva drank a drop of the divine nectar. Mohini with Sudarshan Chakra cuts his head but as he drank the nectar he became to livings , his head being Rahu and body being Ketu. Both of them later formed planets. 

Rahu - Ketu Episode

The Kumbh Mela - Origin

According to Hindu mythology, during the fight of asura and devas Garuda once carried away the amrit pot from asura andd flew a long high. During this flight he dropped some drops of amrit which dropped at four places on earth namely : Ujjain , Prayag , Trimbak , Haridwar. According to the legend these place contains magical and spiritual powers and people who bath in the Kumbh Mela they can attain Moksha (salvation).

Kumbh Mela