
However, with the nectar now up for grabs, the gods and demons get into a terrible fight, with the demons getting their hands on the nectar through their relatively increased strength. Slowly, the elixir is obtained, along with a lethal byproduct, an intoxicant that is consumed by Lord Shiva. They take the assistance from mount Mandara, which acts as a rod, and Vasuki, the king of snakes, who acts as a rope. Agreeing to the gods’ proposal, the gods and demons start churning the ocean milk together. Vishnu asks the gods to make peace with the demons and invite them to extract the nectar of immortality from the ocean. The asuras take advantage of this and attack the gods, who seek refuge in Lord Brahma, who in turn calls upon Vishnu for help. Durvasa curses him for his folly, causing all the gods to slowly start losing their power. Lord Indra insults sage Durvasa, an incarnation of Shiva. The timeless tale of the churning of the ocean is very famous. It is available on the ACK Comics app, and on major e-tail platforms like Amazon, Flipkart and others. Read Amar Chitra Katha’s Saraswati to find out why she was called Nanda. Then she turned north again and flowed into the ocean and released the fire, saving the earth from turning into ashes. She flowed north towards Pushkar and then turned west where she came to be known as Nanda. Just like Ganga originated from Shiva’s hair, she originated from the Plaksha, the sacred fig tree. So Shiva asked her to take the form of a river. When he approached Saraswati, the goddess replied she wouldn’t be able to accomplish this in her current form. Shiva decided it would be best to request goddess Saraswati to deposit the Vadavagni in the vast ocean.

Troubled by the havoc wreaked on earth, the gods turned to Lord Shiva for help. The destruction resulted in the birth of Vadavagni, an all-consuming fire that lay waste to everything in its way.

Saraswati deposits Vadavagni into the oceanĪ long time ago, a war was waged between the Brahmins and the Kshatriyas of the world.
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Here are some such stories and incidents. From the epic tales of Rama and Vishnu to the legends of Saraswati and Hanuman, oceans have played a major part in our Puranas.

Since antiquity, oceans have been an integral part of our stories.
