The story of Kurma Avatar

The fluttering of waves causing undulations at the surface of an ocean is due to external disturbances; a combined action due to sun-moon's gravity and trade winds. These disturbances are not felt at a depth in the sea. Deep inside, much away from external factors that make our emotions flutter, lies eternal peace. Human life endeavors to reach the bottom in a sea of emotions, a level at which the fast-moving world slows down and moves at a snail's pace. But how to reach there?

For reaching the depths, we need a guru or an advisor. But then, how can we identify a guru?

A guru is the one who had been to the depth of the ocean before and had experienced oneness with eternal peace. He/She is the one who knows what eternal peace feels like. The guru knows how to hold their breath and plunge deep into the ocean, moving away from all external disturbances that cause flutters in their mind. Their ability to control their mind and be with eternal peace makes them a tall stature that which can be matched only with a mountain. 

Mountain is a symbol of infinite patience. The external factors such as rain, wind, and heat weathers the surface of a mountain, but the changes due to weathering in its shape and structure are infinitesimally smaller. Mountain does not scold the external factors to stay away from it. It stops turbulent wind and regulates its direction of flow through plains and passes. It cools down the moisture in the air giving birth to rain clouds. It provides space for a river to originate and allow the water to flow over its surface in a quest to find its destiny.

A mountain changes the direction of a fluttered mind and channelize our thoughts and help us to stay focused. They teach how to cool our emotions when they boil over. They allow our ideas to flow and guides us to reach the path of attaining eternal peace through experience. But the mountain does not say, "take this path." Instead, they allow the water to find its own path because a mountain knows that experience is a better teacher.

Now that we have learned to identify a guru, how can we learn to find the path towards an ocean? The experience of a mountain comes in handy. But it needs more than that for water to reach the depth of the sea.

The characteristic of a river is that it never flows straight from its origin to the end. We need to approach a guru with an open mind, a mind which is flexible like a serpent and accommodative of newer perspectives. With the help of a guru and a free spirit, one learns to identify good and evil with an unbiased mind. It's a big struggle initially, for when we question our actions with an impartial thought we will find how sick and venomous our activities in the past had been. But then, mistakes that happened when we were biased and ignorant are forgiven when we dedicate our actions to God. 

Think about it. When we realize the mistakes of being ignorant, learn to control our emotions that flutter at external disturbances and approach good and evil with an unbiased mind, have we not found our way to the depth of the ocean? The bottom where eternal peace resides? The extent where Kurma (turtle) resides? The wisdom where Lord Vishnu, the savior of our life, resides?

Image courtesy: Wikipedia.