Little things count

Little droplets of water make the mighty oceans and whether we are human or divine, it is not huge events, but the seemingly little things that wear us down. There is truism in saying that there is nothing little in this world as one of the greatest episodes of Hindu Mythology, the Samudra Manthan (churning of the sea) was actually precipitated by little bees.

According to the Ramayana, Lord Indra, mounted on Airavata (a white elephant who carries the deity Indra) paid a visit to Sage Durvasa to seek his blessings. As a boon, Sage Durvasa offered Indra a special garland of fragrant flowers which Indra thoughtlessly hung around Airavat’s tusks. The flowers soon drew in the bees and at first Airavat made valiant attempts to ignore them but later their incessant buzzing got to him.

Out of sheer frustration, Airavat threw the garland on the ground and trampled on it to avoid the bees. Seeing the garland thus treated, the infuriated Sage Durvasa exclaimed that fortune itself (Sri) inhabited the garland and now Indra and all the other Gods would be bereft of it. He cursed Lord Indra and all the Gods that they would lose their strength, fortune, and vitality. A shocked Indra urged Sage Durvasa to reverse the curse. Taking pity on Indra, Durvasa did present him with a solution. Lord Indra and all the Gods could retrieve what they had lost if they could find a way to consume nectar that would emerge by churning the milk ocean. The subdued Lord Indra went to seek the refuge of Lord Vishnu who realised that this task was not something the Gods could do by themselves. He asked the Devas to initiate a discussion with the Asuras and form an association with them to churn the ocean by assuring them a share of the nectar.

Now, churning is the simple process of forging butter from milk, but the mammoth task the Gods had ahead of them required massive planning. For the churning of the ocean, the Devas sought the help of the mountain Mandara to serve as the churning rod. Vasuki, the king of snakes (the snake around Lord Shiva’s neck), was approached to serve as the rope for the churning. The Devas were to pull one end of the giant serpent, and the Asuras, the other. It is said, the churning went on for a thousand years before the nectar was found.

All this because Lord Indra made a slight mistake which was compounded by the tiny bees. Whichever way we look at it, little things are not little and have the potential of becoming infinitely important.