Devas may be divine beings enjoying the fantastic pleasures of heaven, but they are always prone to fear lest they should lose their exalted status at the hands of their arch rivals, the Daityas.
But who are Daityas? We are told that Daksha of the Ramayana fame married his daughters Diti and Aditi to Kashyap rishi. Daityas were born to Diti and Devas to her sister Aditi. Half-brothers they might have been, but an intermittent tussle went on between them.
Ancients Speak
Suman K Sharma
This time, the Devas were under the curse of Durvasa Rishi who had been insulted by their king, Indra. Things turned so bad that they had to leave swarga and hide themselves in hills and mountains like so many goats.
As a last resort, they sought Narayan’s help. Narayan said that a sip of amritmay revive their strength and make them immortal. But they would have to seek Daityas’ co-operation to extract it by churning the KsheerSagar – Ocean of Sweet Milk – like women on Earth made butter from curd.
That required a huge effort for which they were incapable in their weakened state. So what they could do was to request Daityas for help, reminding them that they were brothers after all. Devas went to Daityas asking for help.
The proud Daityas said why would they cooperate with them? In response, Devas invoked ties of brotherhood, as advised by Narayan. To this the Daityas said it was good to be brothers with one’s rivals, but what would they gain from the awesome task of churning the ocean.
Hard pressed as the Devas were, they had to give Daityas an assurance that they would share amrit with them and both the offspring of Diti and Aditi would attain immortality if the enterprise was successful.
We generally associate ourselves with the Devas, thinking that they stand for all that is good. Daityas we detest and fear as demons, giving them the bad attributes. But the Devas and the Daityas come from the same father – the good and the bad have the same origin. If we want that the good should remain with us ever and always, so will be the bad. That is the scheme of the world. Light is contrasted with darkness and the good with the bad. More often than not, the power of evil and of darkness seems much greater than that of the good. To save our goodness from being overwhelmed by the bad, a churning – introspection – is required to understand what is bad and why it is so.
feedbackexcelsior@gmail.com
Follow our WhatsApp channel