The Briny Muse Forum Churning the Ocean

       A primary feature in Indian faith is the process, every 500 years or so, when the world is reported to go through a major transformation and all the denizenry engage in a procedure of churning the ocean of the world, in order to better refine our social values and norms. To put it in a picture, it is like churning milk for butter, that used to be done in almost every home, until about 60-70 years ago. It is a curious analogy of the myth, but when we discover that the effort is headed by the goddesses, it seems less of an odd imagery. Having lived these last 50 odd years, I have begun to understand a little more what this ancient Indian myth is about. Change is inevitable and sometimes it takes place with the gravity of a grinder in your head or emotions. The legend also says that the denizenry involved a mix of the citizens, both of heaven and hell; an extraordinary cooperation made neccessary by the peculiar state of events. I suppose it might have been like Blake's, ' The marriage of heaven and hell.' To many, it may have seemed on occasion, like total chaos. Well, we seem to be coming out of it and here's hoping that the harvest from this effort will last us another 500 years, before the regular refining of our social norms becomes neccessary, in 2500 BCE.