The Ocean in Each of Us

"Our life, it probably began inside of the ocean. About four thousand million years before now. Probably near hot places, like volcanoes, under the sea. And for almost all of that long time, all the living beings were water things, living inside the sea. Then, a few hundred million years ago, maybe a little more - just a little while, really, in the big history of the Earth - the living beings began living on the land, as well.

But in a way you can say that after leaving the sea, after all those millions of years of living inside the sea, we took the ocean with us. When a woman makes a baby, she gives it water, inside her body, to grow in. The water in her body is almost exactly the same as the water of the sea. It is salty, by just the same amount. She makes a little ocean, in her body. And not only this. Our blood and our sweating, they are both salty, almost exactly like the water from the sea is salty.

We carry oceans inside of us, in our blood and in our sweat. And we are crying the ocean, in our tears."

Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram

Read this bit in this book I'm reading now - Shantaram.

Spawned a sea of thoughts... The inexorable pull of the sea when one stands on the shore long enough… the sheer wildness of the beauty of the sea… the comfort of the waves enveloping you when you goes far enough out to sea for the waves to overpower and throw you off-balance… of course till the panic button for survival is pressed and you rapidly get back to shore…

I had read somewhere that the ‘samudra manthanam’ of Hindu mythology is really symbolic of us churning the vast oceanic depths of knowledge that is present within the self… taking help from both the good forces (Devas) within us and the evil forces (Asuras)… using the mountain (Mandara) of self will tied up by the serpent (Vasuki) of cooperation and conflict…

Various items kept coming out of the depths – prominent among them being the deadly poison (Halahala) symbolic of the fear of death (this was consumed by Shiva the God of destruction in the myth)… and finally the nectar of immortality (Amrit) – the non-fear of death so to say.

However, that’s not the end – the good forces and evil forces have equal rights to it since as the self gains from the churning, so does good and evil (the self being bipolar always). It requires Vishnu (the Absolute) to protect the self by denying the evil forces the nectar… (In the myth the Devas and Asuras fight over the Amrit and Vishnu comes in as Mohini to deny the Asuras and give the Amrit to the Devas)

The symbolism hit me… Left me in the throes of introspection… Have I churned myself enough... Have I not been lax with myself? Just a wee bit?

Guess many before me would have been hit by this… And many after me...