UchaishravaaH

Here enters another character in the story, the celestial horse, UchaishravaaH.  or Uchaisravas.  Its colour is pure while from face to tail.  The birth of this horse is described below.  It was a secondary product of  the mega event of churning the milky ocean by devas and asuras for obtaining amritham. The graphic details are skipped for another occasion.  Suffice to say that many things good and bad came out of the ocean.  Gems came, devas took them.  Airavatha, the four tusked  shiny white elephant emerged and Indra made it his  mount.  Vaaruni the goddess of intoxicating liquours came and went to the side of Asuras.  The beautiful  damsel  Lakshmi emerged with a garland meant for the person meant  to be her husband.   The suave and beautiful Vishnu was ready with protruding neck and received her.  The moon emerged and went to the skies.  And remember, the muck of the churing process  produced the most potent  venom called Halahalam, and all the smart people including  devas and asuras  fled for their life.  The venom started burning out the universe.  Lord Shiva  saw it , and embodiment of selfless love for all creatures as He is,  was overcome by love  for His creations and without any hesitataion took the whole venom in  his hand and drank it.. The divine mother Uma was aghast.  The whole universe actually resided in his  stomach and if the venom reached the inner organs of the Lord, it would burn the whole world.  So she just held tight on the throat of her husband  to prevent the venom from going in.  
( May be all wives have learnt this art from the  Divine mother  Parasakthi).   Brahma was clever enough to cover the mouth of the Lord Shiva so that He did not vomit back.  Ultimately the venom solidified in the neck of the Lord and  therefore He is praised as Neelakanta.

Namaste astu bhagavan Visweswaraaya mahadevaya, thrayambakaaya, thripuranthakaaya, thrikaagnikaalayaa, kaalagnirudraaya, NEELAKANTAAYA,  mrutyunjayaaya, sarveswaraaya, sadaasivaaya, shankaraaya sreeman mahaadevaaya namaH..

Today is Shivaratri.  Let us praise His name.  NamaH Sivaya. 

Uchaaishravas the celestial horse was also a product of this churning.  The sisters who were apparently devoted utterly in love to one another, were actually  impossibly jealous of each other and Kadru  of the two was really scheming and not beyond stealth.  She addressed her sister and stared talking about the churning of the oceans and also the celestial horse which is immaculately white all over.  As if joking, she told Vinatha, " Look my darling sister, let us have a wager for fun.  Both of us have seen the Uchaisravas.  Can you say what colour it is.?  If your answer is correct I shall remain a servant of yours for the whole of my life.  If you are proved wrong it would be your turn to be my servant for ever."  

Vinatha was straightforward and she was happy at the idea of making her sister  her servant by giving the correct answer that the colour is white.  But Kadru had other schemes.  She commanded her sons the serpants to encircle the tail of the horse so that because of the venom of these snakes  the tail would look dark.   The sons, though cruel serpents first hesitated to do this treacherous act, but they were forced by the threat of motherly curse.  After ensuring the compliance of her sons,  when Vinatha declared that the horse was pure white, Kadru stated that  its tail was pitch dark.  The sisters haggled and decided to visit heaven and the horse, and to her utter dismay, Vinatha could see a black tail for the white horse  thanks to the presence of her nephews.  She was confined to eternal slavery of her sister and her thousand braggart  children.

Many lessons are to be  learned from this episode.  When good things are available there are many takers for them.  This was the case of gems, airavata, uchaaisravas and Lakshmi.   But when unwanted byproducts ooze out all the people turn blind eyes and if possible  slip out of the place. It takes a person of real character to take on the evil of the world  to protect it.  That great act of Sacrifice could be performed  only by the greatest Lord of Lords, Sri Parmeswara.  Namah Sivaaya.

Another  issue is jealousy and one-up-man-ship.  It is an inborn human trait.  Kadru was  fully conscious that she was doing this  cruelty to her own sister.  But her conscience did not prick her. We see lesser things happen in our day to day life.  For every  boy or girl  the aunt will appear to be very  affectionate.  But  when a person seeing something good happening to his own kin he is jealous and does all that is in his control, like word or action to decry of nullify such benefit.  Other people who are not very close would be having great achievements, but  that does not affect him much.

Third issue is that mothers often lead their children astray.  It was an unpardonable sin on the part of  Kadru  to use her sons  as false pigment  to the tail of  the divine horse, even against their wishes.  They had to pay heavy prices for this in the hands of Garuda later,  who annihilated the clan of his cousins except for  about ten of them, and even  that on the face of entreaties from the whole array of Gods.

Hope to continue..  Wishing you all the Graceful benediction of Lord Shamkara  on the day of Shivaratri, I stop for the day.

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