KURMA AVATHARA
Story & Activity Book

	KURMA AVATHARA
		Once upon a time there was great sage called Kasyapa. He had two wives called Dithi and Adithi. The sons of Dithi are called as daithyas i.e. demons and sons of Adithi were called as Adithyas, they are devathas. Thus, demons and devathas are brothers. But, they always used to fight with each other. Both are having the magical powers. Demons were a little bit stronger and cruel than devathas by nature. In the ongoing battle between the gods and demons, on one occasion, devathas lost all their strength. All the devathas went to Lord Narayana and prayed Him to help them. Vishnu then told them to churn the Milky Ocean together with demons to get a divine energy drink called as Amrutha(Nectar). One who drinks even a drop of that Amrutha will live eternally young and strong without diseases. It is an interesting story involving both the devathas and asuras (demons). One fine morning along with demons, devathas decided to churn the milky ocean and get the nectar from it. To churn the ocean they decided to use Mandara Mountain as churning-stick. Then they requested serpent Vasuki to be the rope. They tied Vasuki around the mountain Mandara and started churning the ocean being devathas on one side and demons on the other side. Immediately because of the weight mountain started sinking into the ocean.
	Again all the devathas and demons prayed to Lord Vishnu. Then, Lord Vishnu incarnates himself as a Kurma Avathara (tortoise) and lifted the mountain on his back. He not only controlled the mountain, being inside devathas and demons He gave them energy to churn. Then they started churning the ocean again. After that an extremely toxic poison (halahalam) came out of it. Because of this toxicity devathas, demons and all the creatures started dying. They started to pray to Lord for the help. Then Lord Vishnu asked Lord Siva to consume that poison as an offering from the devotees to save the world. Lord Siva, seeing the fear of devathas, drank the poison as if it was nectar offered by his devotees. But, he didn’t swallow it totally. He kept the poison at his neck(kanta). Because of the poison Siva’s neck became blue. Thus he got the title Nilakanta.
	After churning again a few valuable things like gems, Kamadhenuvu(a divine cow), kalpavruksha(a divine tree which can fulfill our wishes), admirable horse named Ucchaisravam, Apsaras( a group of beautiful and divine ladies) along with the cool chandrama(moon) came out of the Milky ocean. Indra being the king of devathas took all those things to Swargaloka. The cool moon was decorated on the head of Lord Siva to reduce the heat of the poison in his neck. After that the divine mother Goddess Lakshmi came out of that Milky Ocean. Thus, she will be called as Kshirasagara thanaya. And the day on which she came out of the Milky ocean was Chaithra masa and uththara star. People celebrate it as a festival. People worship Goddess Lakshmi on that day with devotion. That is the incarnation day of our divine mother Lakshmi. All the devathas and demons were stunned looking at Her divine beauty. She directly went to Lord Vishnu and offered Him the garland denoting He is the only one who can marry Her. At last a divine one holding the Amrutha Kalasa (Nectar in a gold pot) came out of the ocean. He was Dhanvanthari, the divine doctor. For that nectar a major battle started between devathas and demons and they started to kill each other. While this conflict is going on, Sri Vishnu took the form of Mohini (a beautiful lady) to put an end to the war

She started drawing attention of the demons towards her with her beauty (in Mohini form) and made sure that she will distribute the nectar and also to take by her order of distribution. Then she started distributing the nectar to devathas first and making sure those demons would not get the nectar. Upon distributing the nectar to devathas, nothing left for demons. Thus, devathas after obtaining the nectar became more powerful than the demons and with that power they defeated demons and regained heaven.

Thus Lord Vishnu helped devathas to get the divine energy drink Amrutha coming in several forms. He took Kurma form to hold the mountain from sinking, and he entered in devathas, demons, Mandara Mountain and even in Vasuki to give them energy. At the end He came as beautiful divine lady (Mohini) to protect the Amrutha from demons and distribute only to devathas. Otherwise demons after drinking Amrutha become stronger and because of their cruelty will be more harmful.

HIDDEN MESSAGE

K A R A M R U T H A K A L A L S A U

U A P A L I E G T Z S W M A G A V N

I O L S T Q A E F A L R K G J R E A

U A O P A C E V N B L S X T W D D P

S E D O A R E K Z O H X F F U N P J

L D T I O V A N H M T T D U N A W B

Q O J S W R R S I J D H G F V H W U

K V P O A Y U U O P W O R W G C Y F

N A Q N V S A O K F K R T L O Q R Q

I U M J I G I M U S W Y R N Z U O U

S P P A O Z E X S J H R Q H V C F E

S E E Z D E E E G U I A A U F J H G

L D W D B H S C W U R U G L P V B U

U T V B K U E F M P C F D A S M E G

A W W T C E A N A Y A R A N X E Q E

C H J I C E K G U D V L N N D G E F

G O L U S Y E A P N D R M V L B S F

M W X B Y T Q J L Q Y T X R U R F U


APSARAS  CHANDRA   GEMS    KALPAVRUKSHA  KAMADHENU  LAKSHMI  NARAYANA  NECTAR  POISON  SANKARA

SAGARA MANTHANAM

Across

3. OCEAN IN, WHICH NARAYANA STAYS

4. A DIVENE TREE

5. BECAUSE OF POISON HIS NECK BECAME BLUE

8. A DIVINE ENERGY DRINK WHICH GIVES IMMORTALITY

9. THE POISON CAME WHILE CHURNING

10. DAUGHTER OF MILKY OCEAN

Down

1. A SNAKE USED AS A ROPE

2. WHO BROUGHT THE NECTAR

6. GOD IN THE FORM OF TORTOISE

7. A MOUNTAIN BECAME A CHURNING INSTRUMENT

Color the following Kurmavathara

Lakshmi wants to reach Lord Vishnu directly Please gave her a way