Churning the Ocean: Yoga and the Gulf Oil Spill

Recently, I’ve felt unexpectedly called by the water, and in particular the ocean. This is a big surprise as I’ve always felt the call of mountains and deserts, but not so much by the sea. However, when beckoned by nature, I heed her call. Two weeks ago, I traveled to be with and in the ocean, to receive what she was trying to offer and whisper into the ear of this land lover. To quote Jimmy Buffett, “Mother mother ocean, I have heard your call.”
For a few days, I sat on the sand watching the waves; I snorkeled for the first time, and on the ferry ride back to Long Beach, I experienced something I’d always dreamed of—a whale making itself known to us. During these days, my thoughts and heart turned to the Gulf of Mexico and the epic tragedy that is unfolding there. In particular, my thoughts turned to sea turtles and the many ancient stories from far flung cultures—stories from the Americas, Northern Europe, even India– tell us that the world is carried on the shell of a tortoise. Yoga mythology’s offering of this idea comes in the character of Kurma, the tortoise avatar of world sustainer Lord Vishnu. Kurma makes his appearance in the story of the Churning of the Ocean of Milk.
I began to ponder the story I’ve heard so many times, and how it can help us in our response to the disaster that is the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. No, it doesn’t suggest sending golf balls or airbags or anything else into the spewing mess. Yoga never hand feeds us, but invites us to make the leap and to engage the ancient tales into our world and our lives as they are today. Perhaps there was no BP, but, conveniently there are demons!
The tale of the Churning of the Ocean of Milk finds the gods distraught at the loss of Amrit, the nectar of immortality. The gods, at one of the grand council meetings they so love, decide to ask the help of the demons in churning the great Ocean of Milk from which the treasured elixir would spring. Having been promised half of the nectar, the demons agreed to help. They helped to dig up the great Mount Madura to use as the churning stick, and placed it upon the back of the tortoise god Kurma (the fate of the world on the back of the turtle). Then, Vasuki, a sea serpent, was enlisted as the churning rope, and wrapped around the mountain. Vasuki’s tail was held by the gods and his head by the demons (this positioning, of course, was no coincidence, but an advantage Vishnu concocted through trickery). Through the violent churning, Vasuki’s breath began to steam and the demons were nearly suffocated by the noxious heat.
As the constant churning continued, poor Vasuki began to feel quite queasy, and soon began to vomit a poison that threatened not only the Ocean of Milk, but all life, and all the Amrit. At this moment Lord Shiva, drinks in the spewing poison, holding it in his throat, causing it to turn blue. As Shiva held the poison, it began to be transformed by the powers of yoga. As it transformed in the blue throat of the yogin, amazing treasures, including the Amrit began to arise from the ocean. The sea bounty continued spewing forth, just as before the poison had seeped and stained the waters, but now, the offering arose on a lotus as the Goddess of Beauty and Abundance, Laksmi.
Shiva, the yogin, drinks the poison that is spewing into the ocean. The Ocean of Milk is restored, and beauty and abundance in the form of the Divine Feminine arise. Now this is a story, that’s starting to look like it might have a good ending . . .
I’ve been going over and over the story and our current situation. I’m not here to offer some sappy Pollyanna story of how this will all work out … my heart is breaking for the Gulf. But, how can I, as the yogin, do as Shiva did, and drink the poison, hold it in the realm of my expression, so that nothing less than a massive shift of Consciousness can happen and the Goddess can arise from it? Will we finally enter the age when we return to the Mother? Can we transform the poison into the very nectar of life?
I was born and raised in the South, and have felt sad and puzzled for a long while that so little interest is paid to environmental concerns there, despite a deep sense of home and the land from which we sprung. For many in my home region, environmental issues are for Liberals. If the spill had happened off the coast of California, would it have gotten the attention of those not inclined to notice? Being green really has nothing to do with being from a blue or red state. Some may not care about sea turtles, but not only are the magnificent creatures of the ocean threatened, whole ways of life are threatened. People who have worked the sea for generations are seeing their livelihoods poisoned by the spewing vomit of Vasuki. Has Consciousness given a wakeup call that cuts across divisive lines of politics?
You see, as a tantrika, I can’t just align to Consciousness when she offers herself as the Amrit. To Open to Grace, as we say in Anusara Yoga, is to open to Consciousness as it offers itself in all forms—even in the form of the spew of millions of gallons of oil into the sea. I do not have to like it. I do not have to pretend that all is well, or that one way that the Universal offers itself is as good or as pretty or as life affirming as the next. It’s not, and it would be ludicrous to imply that it is. But, the unlikeable and ugly IS an offering nonetheless, and my opportunity and invitation as another form of that offering is to open to the possibility held within it, and then to engage with it.
Like Shiva, I can take the poison and hold it. I can hold it, and churn it, and engage with it. I can hold the poison in the throat of my expression, so that I offer my energy towards healing. I can hold the poison in my throat to make way for the beauty and abundance of the shift that will happen as the Divine Feminine arises again, on her lotus, out of the Ocean that was poisoned by the convenience of cheap oil and a forgetfulness of the natural world.
May we as a community of hearts, as a community of engaged yogins, as creatures of this Universe, remain open to the world as it offers itself. May we turn towards that which is life affirming, aligned to the Highest, and an expression of the Divine Love which embodied us. May we offer our love to the creatures of the deep, the fluency of water, and to all who are hurting.
“Mother Mother Ocean. I have heard your call…”