Shunya

by Sri M.

The reason why Ayyappa was called ‘son of Hari and Hara’ went back to a story from the Puranas. It is said that in ancient times, when the cosmos was still young, the celestial beings called Devas, depicted in latter-day paintings as clean-shaven, fair, handsome, ornamented beings, the good Aryan type, and the dark-bodied brutes, the Asuras, the bad ones, who guffawed endlessly and had thick, turned-up moustaches of the kind associated with warriors, villains, dacoits and anti-heroes in general, were at constant war with each other. During a short period of ceasefire, they decided to churn the primordial ocean of milk together in order to obtain the nectar which conferred immortality on the imbiber. They used the great mountain Meru as the churning rod and the divine serpent Vasuki as the rope. The serpent was wound around the churning rod and the Asuras and the Devas holding the two ends began to churn the ocean. The first product that came out of the churning was the lethal hala hala poison which threatened to destroy the cosmos. The great god Shiva, who lived on Mount Kailash, came to their rescue by drinking it. His consort, Parvati, fearing that in the process of saving the universe,