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Skandha 8, adhyayas 8-12 · Saptah day 4
From the churned sea rise Lakshmi and the jar of nectar; Mohini enchants the demons into handing it over, and later bewilders Shiva himself.
Once Lord Shiva had swallowed the *halahala* poison into his throat (`8.7.42`), the fears of the gods (`devas`) and the demons (`asuras`, led by King Bali) subsided, and in the eighth chapter of the eighth skandha (`8.8.1`), both hosts returned with fresh vigor to pulling the serpent Vasuki around Mount Mandara. Now, from the churned depths of the Milk Ocean, auspicious wonders began to rise one after another (`8.8.2–7`).
First appeared Surabhi, the celestial wish-fulfilling cow (*kamadhenu*), whom the sages who speak of Brahman received with joy so that her pure milk and clarified butter might supply the Vedic sacrifices that lead to heaven (`8.8.2`). Next rose Uchchaihshravas, a stallion white as the moon (`8.8.3`); King Bali claimed the horse for himself, while Indra—remembering the Lord's strict instruction (`8.6.25`) not to covet or quarrel over early prizes—expressed no desire for it (`8.8.3`). Then came Airavata, the king of elephants, whose four gleaming tusks eclipsed the splendor of Kailasa, Shiva's silver mountain (`8.8.4`), followed by eight more celestial bull-elephants and eight female elephants that sustain the quarters (`8.8.5`). Next rose the ruby-like jewel Kaustubha, which Lord Hari desired as an ornament for his own chest (`8.8.5`), then the wish-granting Parijata tree that fulfills every longing of those who shelter beneath it (`8.8.6`), and then the Apsaras, celestial nymphs draped in golden necklaces and fine garments who charm the inhabitants of heaven with their sidelong glances and graceful gait (`8.8.7`).
Then appeared the supreme fortune of the worlds: Goddess Rama—Lakshmi herself—devoted forever to the Blessed Lord (`8.8.8`). Like a streak of lightning illuminating a range of crystal mountains, she lit up every direction with her beauty (`8.8.8`). Captivated by her majesty, brightness, youth, complexion, and nobility, gods, demons, and mortals alike yearned for her (`8.8.9`). Indra brought a marvelous throne for her to sit upon; the sacred rivers came in person carrying golden jars of pure water; Mother Earth brought all the herbs needed for a royal consecration; the cows offered their five sacred products (*panchagavya*); and Spring himself offered the blossoms and fruits of the season (`8.8.10–12`). As the great rishis conducted the rite according to scriptural rules, the Gandharvas sang, the Apsaras danced, clouds sounded drums, and the elephants of the directions bathed the chaste goddess with golden pitchers while the Vedic hymns were chanted (`8.8.12–14`). The Ocean of Milk gave her twin garments of yellow silk, Varuna gave her the Vaijayanti garland humming with bees, Vishvakarma gave her priceless ornaments, Sarasvati gave her a pearl necklace, Brahma gave her a lotus, and the Nagas gave her earrings (`8.8.15–16`).
After performing auspicious rites, holding a garland of buzzing lotuses in her hand, her smiling cheeks reflecting her earrings (`8.8.17–18`), Mother Lakshmi walked slowly through the assembly of Gandharvas, Yakshas, Asuras, Siddhas, Charanas, and Devas to choose a husband who was eternal, faultless, and unchanging in every virtue (`8.8.18–19`). Yet as she examined each great figure in the hall (`8.8.19–22`), she found that everyone possessed only a partial virtue while lacking its companion:
> "This one practices great austerity, yet he has not conquered anger (like Durvasa). Some here possess knowledge, yet are not free from attachment. One here is very great, yet has still not conquered desire. How can he be the Lord (`ishvara`) when he depends on another for assistance? Another knows dharma, yet lacks affectionate kindness toward all creatures. In another is found liberation, yet no protective rule over devotees (`8.8.20–21`). Another possesses vast longevity, yet lacks auspicious character and auspicious attire (like Shiva in the cremation grounds). And another has character and shelter, yet lacks long life. Only in one Person do both majesty and sweetness dwell together—yet even he, being utterly complete in himself (`nirapeksha`), does not seek me as a consort (`8.8.22`)."
Reasoning thus with steady discernment (`8.8.23`), Lakshmi chose Mukunda—Vishnu, the Supreme Person who possesses every eternal virtue, remains untouched by the three modes of nature, and is looked up to by all while depending on none. Stepping before him, her eyes lowered in bashful grace, she placed the radiant lotus garland buzzing with drunken bees around his shoulders (`8.8.23–24`). The Lord gave her a permanent home upon his chest (`8.8.25`), from which her compassionate glance immediately restored peace, prosperity, and virtue to the three worlds while the Daityas and Danavas, overlooked by her, fell into envy, greed, and shamelessness (`8.8.26–29`).
Next rose Varuni, the lotus-eyed presiding maiden of intoxicating liquor, whom the Asuras took with the Lord's permission (`8.8.30`). And finally, as the gods and demons churned with renewed hope (`8.8.31`), a wondrous man rose out of the ocean: young, muscular, long-armed, with a neck marked like a conch, red-rimmed eyes, a dark bluish complexion, clad in yellow garments and decked with earrings, bracelets, and garlands (`8.8.31–33`). This was Dhanvantari, a direct portion of a portion (`amshamsha`) of Lord Vishnu and the original promulgator of Ayurveda (`8.8.34`, `8.8.36`), holding in his hands a jar filled to the brim with *amrita*, the nectar of immortality (`8.8.34`).
The instant the Asuras saw the jar, their greed boiled over (`8.8.35`). Forgetting their pact, they lunged forward, snatched the vessel of nectar right out of Dhanvantari's hands, and carried it off (`8.8.35`). As the gods sank into dejection and turned to Hari for shelter, the Lord reassured them (`8.8.36–37`): "Do not grieve; through my own deluding potency (`maya`) I will stir up a quarrel among them and accomplish your purpose."
Indeed, among the demons a fierce dispute immediately broke out (`8.8.38–40`). shouting "Me first! Not you!", each snatching the jar from the next, while the weaker demons cleverly argued that since the Devas had shared equally in the exhausting toil of churning, the law of righteous sacrifice required giving them an equal share (`8.8.39–40`). At that exact moment (`8.8.41–46`), Lord Vishnu, who knows every art, assumed the dazzling female form of Mohini. Dark-complexioned as a blue lotus petal, in the fresh bloom of youth, her belt and anklets chiming softly as she walked, her eyebrows playful and her breasts moving beneath her fine saree (`8.8.41–45`), she strolled near the quarreling Daityas while glancing shyly from the corners of her eyes (`8.8.46`).
Spellbound (`8.9.1–8`), the demon chiefs dropped their quarrel, ran to her side, and asked who she was—whose daughter, from what realm, and why she wandered here like a personified garden checking their senses (`8.9.3–6`). Pleading with her to settle their family feud so that enmity would not divide brothers born of the same father Kashyapa (`8.9.7–8`), they handed the jar of nectar straight into her hands.
Laughing with a sidelong glance, the Lord in the guise of Mohini gave them a candid warning (`8.9.9–10`): "How can you sons of Kashyapa place your trust in me, a wanton woman (*svairini*)? The wise never trust playful women, whom learned teachers compare to wolves hunting fresh prey in secret (`8.9.9–10`)!" Yet that teasing warning only made the demons feel safer (`8.9.11`). Laughing deeply with solemn faces, they promised unconditionally to accept whatever she did—whether fair or unfair (`8.9.11–13`).
Taking the jar, Mohini asked both sides to fast, bathe, offer *homa* oblations, give gifts to cows and brahmanas, dress festively, and sit down on *kusha* grass (`8.9.14–16`). When the Devas and Asuras sat in two separate rows inside an incense-perfumed hall (`8.9.17–18`), Mohini walked in holding the golden pitcher (`8.9.19–20`). Thinking that it would be catastrophic to give immortality to cruel serpents like the Asuras (`8.9.20`), she drew the demons from afar with her smiles while pouring the entire nectar to the row of gods (`8.9.21`). Bound by their own word of honor, Infatuated by her beauty, and terrified of making a scene that would displease a woman, the Daityas sat in silence without uttering a single word of protest (`8.9.22–23`).
Only one demon, Rahu, disguised himself in celestial ornaments and slipped quietly between the Sun and the Moon in the gods' row (`8.9.24`). Just as he took a sip of nectar, the Sun and Moon recognized him and signaled to the Lord (`8.9.25`). Instantly Hari severed Rahu's throat with his razor-sharp discus (`8.9.25`). The headless trunk, untouched by nectar, fell dead; but the head, made immortal by the drop of *amrita*, was raised by Brahma to the status of a planet (*graha*) that still pursues the Sun and Moon in eternal enmity during eclipses (`8.9.26`). Once the gods had drunk the last drop, the Lord dropped the female disguise and assumed his true four-armed form on Garuda's back (`8.9.27–29`), explaining to Shukadeva's listener that even though both armies had labored on the same ground with the same tools, the gods achieved the fruit because they had taken shelter of the Lord's lotus feet, whereas the demons worked only for themselves (`8.9.28–29`).
In the tenth and eleventh chapters (`8.10–11`), the furious Asuras attacked the nectar-strengthened Devas on the seashore. Despite Bali's magical illusions created by the demon architect Maya (`8.10.38–50`), the Lord entered the battlefield (`8.10.52–57`) and Indra struck down Bali and Jambha with his thunderbolt (`8.11.10–28`), until the sage Narada descended to stop the gods from slaughtering the remaining defeated Daityas (`8.11.43–48`).
Then, in the twelfth chapter (`8.12.1–47`), the Bhagavatam adds an extraordinary coda. Hearing how Hari had taken a female form to bewilder the Danavas, Lord Shiva rode his bull with his wife Uma (Bhavani) and his attendants to the Lord's abode (`8.12.1–3`). After praising Vishnu as the Supreme Brahman and Soul of the universe (`8.12.4–11`), Shiva made a candid request (`8.12.12–13`): "I have seen your earlier avataras, O Lord, but I wish to see with my own eyes that female disguise by which you bewildered the Daityas and fed nectar to the gods (`8.12.13`)."
Laughing deeply (`8.12.14–16`), Vishnu replied that the form was meant to delude the demons hungry for sense pleasure, but since Shiva desired to see it, he would show it. Instantly Vishnu and his mansion vanished (`8.12.17`). In their place stood a delightful garden of red-blossoming trees where a young woman clad in fine silk was playing with a bouncing ball (`kanduka`, `8.12.18–21`). As the ball bounced here and there, her waist bent beneath the weight of her breasts, her necklace and hair swayed, her left hand caught at her slipping garment while her right struck the ball, and her restless eyes darted between the ball and her onlookers (`8.12.21–24`).
Watching her, even Lord Shiva—seated right in front of Bhavani and his own attendants—lost his self-control (`8.12.25–28`). When a breeze blew her garment aside as the ball bounced far away, Shiva's mind followed the ball and her glances (`8.12.27–28`). Abandoning Uma and his retinue without shame, he ran after her like a bull elephant chasing a female (`8.12.29–31`). Even when he caught her by her braided hair and embraced her as she tried to break free, his seed fell along the earth, turning every spot it touched into mines of gold and silver (`8.12.32–33`), as he followed her across rivers, lakes, mountains, forests, and sage-hermitages (`8.12.34`).
The moment his seed was spent (`8.12.35`), Shiva woke from the spell, realized he had been deluded by the Lord's *maya*, and stood steady again in his own glory as the self of the universe (`8.12.35–37`), wholly free from anxiety or remorse. Pleased by Shiva's unperturbed return to himself, Lord Madhusudana reappeared in his masculine form and spoke with affection (`8.12.38–40`): "Well done, O best of the gods! Who else besides you could ever recover his own natural state after being seized by my outer *maya* of qualities (`gunamayi maya`), from which those of uncontrolled senses never escape (`8.12.38–39`)? And having touched her today, this Maya of mine will never again be able to overpower you (`8.12.40`)." Circling the Lord along with his attendants, Shiva looked toward Bhavani and declared to his followers (`8.12.42–44`): "Did you see the power of the Maya of the unborn Supreme Person? Even I, foremost among the masters of every discipline and completely independent, was rendered helpless by her (`8.12.43`)! What then of others who remain dependent upon time? When I rose from a thousand-year samadhi of yoga, you asked me who it was I had been worshipping—behold directly before you that very Supreme Person, above whom neither Time nor the Vedas hold sway (`8.12.44`)."
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