CHENNAI: The guru swallows the bad and retains the good for us. He takes charge of our mind’s wandering. He gives stability and solidity to our heart. Our internal world is brought under his control. The guru teaches us to value our soul. He not only resides in our hearts but, presides over lives itself.
When we instill this unshakable faith in the guru, we will always be infused further with great zeal and enthusiasm to continue our sadhana. This is exactly what happened to the gods. They felt more energetic now to continue the churning of the ocean, as lord Shiva had already freed them from the poison. So, they continued the churning with renewed energy. Then, Shanka - conch as well as kausthuba, the priceless jewel emerald — two precious possessions of lord Vishnu emerged from the ocean.
Finally emerged the goddess of wealth - Mahalakshmi. Mahalakshmi surfaced with the lotus (Kamala) in her hand. This is the point of our sadhana where we start experiencing that we are heading towards success and victory. Conch is an instrument used to purify the atmosphere with its sound or naada. That is why before the start of any Pooja or shubh kaarya (auspicious event), we blow the conch to purify the air or place. This is to ward off negativity. In the same manner, when we dig out the ocean of our mind and throw out all the poison and toxic elements, automatically the guru makes sure that there are no residues of toxins left in us.
That is why he blows the conch within us so that if at all there are any traces of negativity; let that also be blown out in the wave of divine vibrations. We get an indication of this in our meditation itself. We begin to hear sounds of conch, temple bells and omkara. This also signifies that goddess Lakshmi is on her way to reside in us permanently. Just like Narayana adorned himself with the Kaustubha mani, we also need to adorn ourselves with one nugget of wisdom of the guru. Always. It can be any shloka of the guru Gita itself. This kausthuba mani symbolically means the nugget of wisdom itself. Then there will be devi Lakshmi’s advent in our life. We start seeing success in our materialistic life — Adi bhoutika jeevan. All departments of life begin to set right simultaneously.
For example, we will be blessed with good health as we will be invoking lord Dhanawantari’s grace into our lives. As you may know, Lord Dhanawantari is the god of medicines. He is the celestial doctor. He is the one who finally surfaced on the top of the milky ocean carrying the pot of nectar of immortality or amrit. Thus, through the chronicle of events of the churning of ksheera sagara — milky ocean we can understand the unfolding of negative elements as well as various divine entities along with their powers within us.
Lord Shiva makes us understand clearly that at every stage of our journey in life as well as our sadhana, the guru’s grace and timely guidance is instrumental. It is indeed by his existence the world exists within us as well as outside of us. Knowledge, which was hitherto hidden underneath heaps of ignorance, now shines through the form of the sun, and by whose love all are dear to us as much as our own kith and kin are.