On 2/13/2014 1:57 PM, jr_...@yahoo.com wrote: > this is a parable about meditation which tells of its many benefits, > the greatest of which is Amrit, the elixir of life. Along the way, > the asuras got disturbed in the churning when the apsaras appeared. > As such, the gods obtained more benefits such as the appearances of > Dhanvantari and Shri, the beautiful Goddess. Eventually, Vishnu > awarded the amrit to the gods. > The most popular version this myth, The Churning of the Milk Ocean, is found in the Eighth Canto of the Bhagavata Purana. In Buddhist mythology, "amrita" is the "Nectar of the Gods", which grants them immortality. The Ninth Mandala of the Rigveda is known as the Soma Mandala. In this epoch Dhanvantari, the physician to the gods, first appeared during the great churning of the cosmic milk ocean to deliver amrta (nectar) for the nourishment of the demigods. The churning of the milk ocean is one of the most famous episodes in Puranic history and is celebrated in a major way every twelve years in the festival known as Kumbha Mela. The story is related in the Srimad Bhagavatam, a major work that describes the avataras in great detail.
Soma and Haoma was a ritual drink of importance among the early Indo-Iranians, and the later Vedic and Iranian cultures. It is frequently mentioned in the Rigveda, which contains many hymns praising its energizing or intoxicating qualities. It is described as a decoction prepared by pressing juice from the stalks of a certain mountain plant, which has been variously hypothesized to be a psychedelic mushroom, cannabis, or ephedra. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephedra
