Samudra Manthan: The Creatures That Perished Nobody Talks About - Amrita came out of the ocean, but who remembers the creatures that died in the churning?
We all know about Amrita, and we know about the many things
that appeared during the churning of the ocean. We also know about the poison
halahala. But have we ever thought about the creatures that were harmed during
the churning?
Chapter 16 of the Astika Parva of the Adi Parva of
Mahabharata says that when the churning took place, all kinds of marine
creatures were crushed by the great mountain Mandara, and in hundreds they gave
up their lives in the salty ocean. Many living beings who dwelt in the
underground depths, in the land of Varuna, met their destruction.
What Happened on Mandara Mountain
The residents of Mandara mountain also suffered. From the
whirling of Mandara, great trees crashed against each other, were torn from
their roots, and tumbled down with all the birds in their nests. Great fires
blazed forth again and again from the friction of trees brushing against each
other. The mountain looked like dark clouds filled with streaks of lightning.
It drove out and burnt lions, elephants and many other creatures, and killed
them all.
Why Mahabharata Kept This Passage
Mahabharata could have ignored this passage completely.
There was no need to even talk about it. Modern day shorts will edit this out
completely. But Mahabharata retained it. It was adamant that this should be
there, because it points towards a bigger truth: the collateral damage that
takes place everywhere and always.
Big dams, big bridges, big factories, big housing societies,
big data centers, everything big that human beings create has collateral
damage. Nature, trees, fertile land, animals, birds, humans, they simply perish
without getting to enjoy what this Big brings. They are hardly noticed, and
they are not part of the celebration or success or gains.
What makes Mahabharata so great is that it keeps reminding
humans about such things. These things are now far greater in measure in the
modern world. Vyasa was always right. If you cannot find it in Mahabharata, it
is not anywhere in the universe.
Long before environmental activists, green army and
Greenpeace, the great sages of India had the courage to mention a few lines
about collateral damage even when they were talking about gods. That is
courage. That is real writing and real journalism.
Other Scriptures and Teachings
The story of Samudra Manthan is told also in the Bhagavata
Purana, Vishnu Purana and Ramayana. Each telling focuses on Amrita and the
victory of the Devas, but the Mahabharata is the one that stops to count the
loss.
This concern for all living beings is a common thread in
Hindu teachings. Mahabharata itself declares that ahimsa, non-violence, is the
highest dharma. The Isha Upanishad teaches that everything in this world is
pervaded by the Divine, so we should take only what we need and not grab what
belongs to others. The Prithvi Sukta of the Atharva Veda calls the earth our
mother and says we are her children. If earth is a mother, then the trees,
birds, animals and creatures of the ocean are our family, and their loss is our
loss.
The Lesson for Us
The churning gave Amrita, Lakshmi and many wonders, but it also gave death to innocent beings. Even the poison halahala had to be taken by Bhagavan Shiva to save the world. Every great achievement has a price, and someone always pays it. The scriptures do not hide this. They ask us to remember the unseen ones, to take only what is needed, and to respect the nature that carries our development on its back.