various components, both good and
bad. One product is the deadly halahala
poison, which is neutralized by having
Shivahold it in his throat. Some of the
other products are the Kaustubhajewel,
the wishing cowSurabhi, the goddess
Lakshmi, and finally the physician of
the gods, Dhanvantari, who emerges
from the sea bearing the pot containing
the nectar of immortality.
The demons grab the pot of nectar
and begin to escape, but Vishnu takes
the form of the enchantress Mohiniand
beguiles the demons into giving the pot
back to her. She gives the pot to the
gods, who take off with the demons in
hot pursuit. According to more recent
traditions, in their flight the gods stop at
four different holy places on earth—
Allahabad, Haridwar, Ujjain, and
Nasik—over a twelve-(divine) day span;
this latter incident is cited as the charter
myth for the celebration of the Kumbha
Melaat these sites on a twelve-year
basis (because a divine day is believed to
equal a human year).
The gods finally manage to escape
their pursuers and divide the nectar
among themselves, but they fail to
notice that the demon Sainhikeyaslips
into their midst in disguise. As the
demon begins to drink, the sun and
moonalert Vishnu, who uses his discus
to cut off the demon’s head. Sainhikeya’s
two halves become immortal because
they have come into contact with the
nectar, and both halves are considered
malevolent celestial beings: the head as
Rahu, the body as Ketu. Rahu has par-
ticular enmity for the sun and moon,
since these deitiesare responsible for
his demise, and tries to swallow them
whenever he meets them in the heav-
ens. He always succeeds, but because he
no longer has a body to digest them,
they escape unharmed through Rahu’s
severed neck. This, of course, is the tra-
ditional explanation for solar and lunar
eclipses; the association with the malev-
olent Rahu has thus led eclipses to be
seen as highly inauspicious times. See
also ocean, churning of the.Tota Puri
An asceticinitiated into the Puriorder
of the Dashanami Sanyasis, as can be
seen from his surname. Tota Puri was
one of the teachers of the Bengali saint
Ramakrishna, who appeared to instruct
Ramakrishna in Advaita Vedantaas part
of the latter’s continuing exposure to
many different types of religious prac-
tice. In his earlier religious practice,
Ramakrishna had been a fervent devo-
tee (bhakta) of the goddess Kali, where-
as the Advaita Vedanta philosophy
claims that behind all things lies a single
impersonal reality that has no defining
attributes except for being, conscious-
ness, and bliss (sacchidananda). In the
Advaita understanding, because all con-
ceptions of particular deitieshave spe-
cific attributes, they are thus conditioned
forms of the ultimate Brahman
(Supreme Reality).
Although this conception ran
counter to his own previous experience,
Ramakrishna practiced diligently
under Tota Puri’s direction. When
Ramakrishna attained enlightenment
through the practices of Advaita, he
discovered that the essence of thisTota Puri
The god Vishnu’s Tortoise avatar. He takes this
form to help the gods regain their immortality.