When Airavata existed earlier how did he appear during the churning of the milk ocean?
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So Ayurveda it is said that in the 6th and 7th canto he appears he crushes the garland of Durvasa Muni.
That’s why Indra gets cursed. But in the 8th canto it is said that that Ayurveda appeared from the Amrut Mantra from the churning of the milk oceans. How do you understand this? Actually in scriptures, especially in the heavenly planets, whenever characters are talked about they are not just characters they are posts.
It’s like Ganesh. Ganesh is a person but Ganesh is also a post. Now that means that it’s a post of a devata who has the power to remove obstacles and the different people may occupy that post.
So different people become Indra, different people become Surya, different people may become Ganesh like that. Now just to be open with an example like a Prime Minister or Cabinet Ministers they will change over when their tenure gets over. So that is true but there is a significant difference in the heavenly planets.
Actually when a soul becomes Ganesha at that time the soul doesn’t get the power of Ganesha the soul also gets the form of Ganesha. So in India if you have different Prime Ministers it’s not that all Prime Ministers have the same form. They are all different people with different forms.
But when it goes to the heavenly planets, they get the same form. So that means that Airavat is a post. There is a carrier of Indra who is called Airavat.
And at different times there are different souls who acquire that position of becoming the carrier of the king of heaven. And at a particular time in the cosmic history an especially special or powerful soul got that post. And that soul is that particular individual appearing at that time.
Airavat. That’s described over there. So Airavat as a post existed always but a particularly powerful individual taking that post is what is described in Amrit Mantra.
Like that if we see in Amrit Mantra described when Lakshmi Devi came over there. And Lakshmi Devi came and then she garlanded Vishnu. Does that mean Lakshmi Devi didn’t exist before that? Obviously she is the eternal consort of the lord.
She existed. So the point over here is there is a difference between appearance and creation. Lakshmi Devi always existed but she appears at a particular time.
In this particular year. So like that Airavat as a post always existed. There is some soul who has the body of Airavat and who does that function.
But at a particular time another soul is in the position of Airavat. So that’s how if we go deeper into scripture to understand exactly what is going on then often things which seem to be difficult to understand at one level of perception they become more intelligible at another level of perception. Any other questions?