Kurma Avatar – Tortoise Incarnation: Signifies Endurance and Resilience

the Tortoise Incarnation is associated with Lord Vishnu’s second avatar (incarnation), known as Kurma. The story goes that during a cosmic battle between the gods and demons, the sacred nectar of immortality fell into the ocean and became lost. The gods approached Lord Vishnu for help, and he took the form of a tortoise, diving into the ocean to retrieve the nectar. In doing so, he also helped to support the weight of the world on his back, which had been threatened by the churning of the ocean.

Kurma Avatar
Lord Vishnu’s Kurma Avatar

In Which period, Kurma Avatar happened?

Kurma avatar belongs to the Satya Yuga and in this avatara Mahavishnu incarnated as a giant turtle to save the earth from destruction. Kurma Avatar of dashavatar is explained mainly in the Bhagavad Purana, Agni Purana and Ramayana. Kurma Purana, one of the major eighteen Puranas, is said to have been directly stated by Lord Vishnu to the sage Narada, and it contains the details about the Kurma avatar.

Why did Vishnu incarnate as Kurma, the second avatar?

The second avatar of Dashavatara is Kurma avatar. Kurma means tortoise. Vishnu took the form of turtle to help devas and asuras ( gods and demons). They were churning ocean to receive the gifts from the ocean. Lord VIshnu helped the devas in two counts. First, he acted as base to support the Mount Mandar, which was used as an axis for churning of ocean. Second, as Mohini to take hold of nectar (or amrit). Due to this gods got an upper hand in “Dev Asur sangharsh“.

Kurma avatar - Dashavatar
Kurma avatar – Dashavatar

What was Lord vishnu’s weapon in his Kurma avatar?

In this incarnation, Lord Vishnu’s weapon was the back of Tortoise which was used as a base for Sagar Manthan.

Why did Kurma avatar happen? Becaue of Sage Durvasa curse to Indra

Devas grew weaker due to a curse of Sage Durvasa. The demons or asuras, a group of malicious deities in the Hindu mythology, tried to overcome them. A war followed, which continued for long. Despite fighting bravely, devas could not win over the asuras. They asked Lord Vishnu for help.

Advice of Lord Vishnu

Lord Vishnu asked the devas to use Mount Mandara as a churning stick. But, they could not pull up the mountain. On advice of Lord Vishnu, the gods and asuras made a deal to churn the ocean jointly. They pulled the Mount Mandara and used it as a churning stick. Serpent Vasuki was used as a rope. it was pulled first one way and then the other. During churning, Mandara began to sink into the mud at the bottom of the milk ocean. Vishnu took the form of Kurma (second dashavatara), and held the mountain on his broad back.

Vishnu as Mohini
Vishnu as Mohini

As a result of the churning, amrita was obtained which asuras took control of it. Here Vishnu, took the form of a beautiful lady, Mohini. He managed to take the nectar bowl with him and gave it to devas. Thus devas eventually got powerful. Thus, Vishnu helped them once again and as Kurma Avatar.

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b.gupta
b.gupta
9 years ago

why panchali ,drupadi , ganga , bhooma devi , sita , and other devies and other good peoples were always and again and again insulted and why peoples became so bad and wrong to insult ladies ,

annychugh
7 years ago
Reply to  b.gupta

Each of the stories has a great significance and a hidden meaning behind. The first question is in Satyug, where everyone was pure and saatvic, how could demons exist there? Kaliyug is the age of complete ignorance and Satyug is the age of complete purity as their names also tell. One has to understand the meaning behind Ahilya turning into stone. It is we the souls who have turned into stone intellects in this age of ignorance and the touch of God that makes us divine. The battlefield is our own mind. It is a battle between our own good and bad sanskars. The Varaha avatar of God Vishnu who saved earth from pralay. Earth sinking in the ocean itself means mankind going into deep ignorance, the ocean of poison. God has to come at such a time to liberate everyone from sorrow which is also indicated by the Narsimha avatar and slaying the demon (the ego) in the form of Hiranyakashyapu. He has to come at sangam (confluence) of day and night. Raja-yoga mediation, the words of God (brahmakumaris) teach the deep secrets behind each of the mythologies. Given the condition of earth, five elements and human mind, we need to raise our consciousness to make the world a better place to live!

Bhupinder Gupta
9 years ago

Why krishna ,rama ,shiva and others mahans were good peoples and indras and others peoples were bad
crores and crores have been destriod and are being buried alive under earths , throughwn into hells and made landless ,
why others peoles could not become good humans and good peoples

who were those peoples , which has been and being killed ,destroyieded , whose generations were , why were bad peoples , were really bad , why could not became good peoples ,

Were rama and ravana were enemy ? , if i am not wrong rama shakti and murgan and veerbhadra are same avatars . there would had been great conspirancies to kill the peoples .which were from the westren and south westron parts of himayalas .

Culprits and cruel peoples , who had done cruelities on brahma and saraswati , and ganga and sita , ahiyilia , draupdi and on many goddesses and gods ,and on good peoples ,

crores and crores of peoples are being killed ,destryoed in such a way no one can find out , and given different shapes and made to bad brains and minds , genetical deshaped and disorded to lusty and bad brains and bad minds . are made from single soul to multy humans souls to suffer and painful creatures to never become humans and buried alive under earth and even killed into stomaches and made to toilets and throughn into hells like toilets

(my views , which i found some what truth )my views may or may not be acceptable truth.

Many ramayanas are there , like valmiki ,vashist ,kamb, ramanujan ,ramayanaa are few of many other versons of ramayana ,
what is the meaning of ramayana found ,– ramayana = ram +ayan ( ayan meaning came ) ,

according to some stories ahyilyia was cursed by gotham rishi , Ahalya was converted to stone ,As for Ahalya, Gautama granted her the boon that she would be brought back to human form by the touch of the feet of Lord Rama .
so rama avatar would had been made (incarnated) ,thus how many ramas would had been created ,

would gotham rishi would be knowing about rama avatar ?

like ramayana so many ahilya versons are there ,( like in a verson , ganga tells to gautam , it is mid night not the bath time go to home and see some thing would have been wrong ) .

how many Ahilyas storeies would had been made and how many gautams would had been made and how many ahilyas lifes would had been spoiled ,how many indras would had been made and how many girls/boys souls would had been made to sit in hen or cock and make sound (cock crow) .thus how many would had been made culprits ,sinners ,bad brains ,bad habituals of bad acts and bad karma .
and those cuilprits , sinners are/would had been made to quarrel and killed in the wars of ramanyana .?

mahabharta , would had took placed for the revenges and the cruelties happened on ladies ( like savarupnakha ,sita ) . to show the cruelities ,gamblings were played and sarees were made to removed

like ramayana vishvamitra story would have many versons

mahabharata would had been happened for revenges of ramayana and ramayana would had been happened for ahiylia and what would be reason behind ahiliyia insult was conspirancies or any ones evil idea .

really how many would had been real culptits and how many would had been created and how many would had been victims of vengences and eneyminities and how many peoples souls would had been killed

killed peoples would had been given births to different parents , differnt mothers ,different fathers , and thus differnt marrages would had taken places in past birth some ones mothers would had been wife of some another person .and some wrong and illigal methods and would had been used like rapes for the birth and for enemities and revenges .
thus quarrels would had been on increasing ,and peoples and souls became culprits and victims .
according to one of the satguru video in the past arround 18 millions years 1.8 crores years ago and one of the papa ji ( h.l. punja ) video , arround 80 millilons years ,8 crores years ago some incarnations had took placed and some wrong things and wrong marrages and wrong interchanged childrens were given births by the other not by their husbands .
like this millions and millions peoples are accused .

( peoples which had to make lifes good and better , used the criminals ,and wrong ideas and methods for spoiling and destroying the lifes )

More than 99 % of peoples, gods ,souls had been inocents ,had not been victims . if polatictics , conspirancies , crimanilites ,some wrong traditions and some wrong rules of few from the ancient times would had not been made.

why the wrong and mishappenings happened and happenings from the very ancient times , why peoples went wrong for wrong marrages wrong acts
Why the gods , devatas , peoples and humans became wrong of bad wisdoms and wrong acts and bad karmas ,crores and crores of peoples ,were all the peoples were bad .why became bad instead of becoming good humans and people.

Bhupinder Gupta
9 years ago

why panchali ,drupadi , ganga , bhooma devi , sita , and other devies and other good peoples were always and again and again insulted ,why crueilities and insult happened and why peoples became so bad and wrong to insult ladies