CHURNING THE MILKY OCEAN

The Vedic texts provide not only a geographical picture of the galaxy, but also a mythological account as to its origin. Recorded in the Puranas, this myth describes the creation of the galaxy in terms of the Samudra-Manthan, the ritual churning of the milky ocean.

According to this myth, the galaxy existed initially in a formless state described as a luminous or milky ocean and representing the field of pure consciousness filled with virtual light. To create the spiral form of the galaxy, this milky ocean had to be churned, leading to “curds” and “whey.” In this analogy, the lumps of white curd correspond to clumps of luminous stars and the transparent whey corresponds to the regions of interstellar space that lie in between.

The myth tells us that both the gods (suras) and antigods (asuras), which have opposite natures, churned the milky ocean. The suras and asuras represent the two sets of metaphysical layers above and below the half measure, and therefore are endowed with the synthetic and analytic powers of consciousness, respectively. The churning process is compared to a tug of war between the gods and antigods: Supposedly, the suras and asuras tugged on the ends of a cosmic rope, which was compared to a cosmic serpent representing the swirling streams of consciousness within the milky ocean. These streams were wrapped around the central axis, where the galactic mountain was to be. The result of this churning process: The created galaxy obtained a spiral form, like a coiled serpent.

The myth goes on to explain that the ultimate purpose of the churning process was to obtain the amrita rasa—the nectar of immortality, which has the potential to render the soul immortal. In other words, the galaxy was created to fulfill the ultimate purpose of creation: to provide worlds in which mortal souls could evolve to become immortal souls whose bodies are pervaded by the amrita rasa, the “immortal blood.”