churning of the ocean of milk

Churning of the ocean of milk, How fascinating!!!!!!!

This story is one of my favourite stories among Hindu mythology stories.

The story has never ceased to amaze me and I have always loved telling it.

The devas(gods) and the asuras(demons) join together to churn the ocean of milk to obtain the nectar of immortality.

The ocean being so huge is churned using the mountain Mandara as the churning staff and the serpent Vasuki as the churning rope. The mountain starts to sink in the huge ocean, Lord Vishnu takes the form of a tortoise(kurma avatar) and bears the weight of the whole mountain on his back.

As the churning continues  what comes out among lot of other things is a deadly poison , the poison spit by the snake Vasuki.which threatens to destroy all living things around. Lord Shiva takes pity and gathers the poison in his palm and drinks it. His wife Parvati clasps his throat and prevents him from swallowing and the poison remains there.

Finally when the nectar comes out ,the asuras are cheated out of the nectar and the gods drink it to get there powers back.(that's another story)