The Medicinal Qualities of Onion and Garlic.
Many of us know that onion and garlic contribute a lot to a healthy diet. Apart from scientific researches there is also on interesting puranic story which go to corroborate that these have medicinal values! Let us have a look at it!
क्षीराब्धि मथनं | The churning of Milky ocean:
Presumably many people might know about this story which appears in Srimad Bhagavatha puranam. However, for the benefit of others who might not know let me narrate it shortly.
Once when the Devas lost their strength and felt very weak, they went to Lord Narayan and requested him how to restore their strength. The Lord advised them that they have to churn the milky ocean to get the Nectar अमृतं and once they partake of that, it will restore their strength and give them a long and healthy life, totally disease free! But the task was not that easy. To churn an ocean they need a lot of help and equipment! The Lord advised them to request the asuras also to be their partners in the business! Then they had to get the Manthara parvatha to churn the ocean and to make it revolve and churn they needed a large and strong rope for which they had to request the Lord of Snakes called Vaasuki वासुकि to play the part of the rope!
When all the preparations were made everyone thought of having a share of amrutham in the end! பலனை எதிர்பார்த்து காரியம் செய்வது என்பது
அந்த நாளிலேயே உண்டு ! So with great difficulty and great expectations everyone participated. To cut a long story short, the by-products which came in the process were then and there distributed alternately to all of them including, rishis, devas, asuras and so on.
Finally, Bhagavan came in the form of Dhanvantri धन्वन्तरि which is also another incarnation of the Lord, carrying a pot which contained Amritham for which every participant was looking forward. The moment he appeared with the amritha kalasam अमृतकलश the asuras showed their true colours! They snatched the pot from the Lord and ran away to the Bhooloka भूलोक proving beyond doubt their selfish interest and not caring for any dharmam धर्मं |
The ultimate truth is you get what you give! Every action has an equal and opposite reaction! If one cheats others, ultimately he will be cheated in the process by someone else! Here, in this story also, that is what happened.
When the devas cried the Lord told them that He will dispense justice and asked them to follow him to the earth. There, Lord Narayan assumed a form of a most beautiful woman which is called Mohini avatara मोहिनि अवतार | When he appeared the asuras were fighting among themselves about the distribution of the nectar! The moment they saw Mohini they were so infatuated with her and requested her to distribute the contents of the pot to them! Mohini never lied! She told them how can they trust her, who is totally new and has her own whims and fancies! They said that they liked her and wanted her to distribute the contents. Meantime the devas also arrived there! Mohini said if they wanted her to distribute then she would distribute the same to all of them and asked them to form two rows:- One for the devas and one for the asuras! The asuras agreed and they followed her orders!
Then Mohini started distribution in her charming way! With her lovely smile and looks at asuras she walked in front of them and pretended to serve the nectar to them, but when the turn to serve devas came, she served them the real nectar! The asuras never realised in the beginning. At some point one of the asuras named Swarbhanu स्वर्भानु had a doubt and quietly changed his place to the row of Devas. But unfortunately when he sneaked into the only available place , it was between two illuminating planets, namely the Sun and the Moon! So he was seen by these two and was reported to the Lord!
The Lord knew! But still while serving, he served in the plate placed in front of svarbhanu also! Probably, He might have thought, when so many devas eat why not one asura also! and as such might have ignored him! But when pointed out by the Sun and the Moon He could not ignore the deliberate cheating done by the asura again! The asura was in a hurry to eat whatever he got in the plate and without waiting for any formality put a handful of amritham hurriedly in his mouth! His head was chopped off as a punishment and fell as two parts.
His head and body became seperate but he did not die as he had tasted amritham! Then he was also given the status of planets, but he became two ग्रहा: planets namely Rahu and Kethu and thus included in the navagrahas! That is why one planet has only the head and the other planet has only the body!
When his head was chopped off, from his neck the amrutham which he tried to swallow spilled on the ground. From there the plants onion and garlic grew! As they grew from the nectar they have the medicinal qualaities! But as they were grown from the nectar which was in his mouth with saliva and spilt after that, they are not used for naivadyam नैवेद्यं in any pooja or in any offering to the Lord!
So இது ஒரு தெரிந்த உண்மையும் தெரியாத கதையும் !
So இது ஒரு தெரிந்த உண்மையும் தெரியாத கதையும் !
