Drinking the Poison

Many eons ago the gods and demons, who are always at each other's throats, for once decided to cooperate. They had learned that if they worked together they could churn the nectar of immortality out of the Ocean of Milk. Well, everyone wants to be immortal! So they stuck the great mountain Meru in the ocean, wrapped the serpent Vasuki around it, and started churning. For thousands of years the gods pulled on one end of Vasuki, and the demons pulled on the other end.

texts, the gods are the stars above the celestial equator and the demons are the stars below it. Over thousands of years the stars of the lower hemisphere push some of the stars of the upper hemisphere out of the sky. Then the upper stars push their way back. This apparent motion of the stars is due to the wobble of the Earth's axis. The Veda to this cycle many times.

Many amazing things congealed out of the churning ocean- magical jewels and horses, that kind of the stuff. The nectar of immortality finally came oozing out, but so did a poison so virulent it had the power to destroy the entire world. The gods and demons fought over the nectar but, with Vishnu's help, the pure-hearted gods won the battle and drank the ambrosia of immortality.

But what to do about the searing poison? Only the god Shiva was powerful enough to solve the problem. He swallowed the poison through his yoga power held it in his throat. This way it couldn't enter the rest of his system and do any damage. That's why you'll see Shiva's throat stained dark in paintings of him.

Hindu holy men and women explain that at one level, this is the story of the yogic process. When you "churn" the prana or life energy up and down Mount Meru, the spine, all kinds of wonderful things appear in your consciousness. The nectar of illuminated awareness eventually shows up, but so does all the poison in your subconscious. Some yogis advise that you not even try to deal with all that inner poison because it will tear you to pieces. Instead being who is far more capable of dealing with powerful negative energy than you are.