Once upon a time–and maybe still today–there were gods and there were demons. Although they were half-siblings, they hated each other and fought terrible battles. But generally the gods had the upper hand.

One day, Indra, king of the gods accidentally insulted a great and powerful sage, who then cursed Indra and all the gods with him, causing them to lose their good fortune. Shortly afterwards, the demons defeated the gods in a great battle, and the demons gained control of the universe.

The gods appealed to Vishnu, who is the creator of everything, gods and demons alike. You can imagine how they moaned and cried, but Vishnu told them they were adults and had to fend for themselves. He advised diplomacy. You can just hear him telling them in his best parenting voice that they could catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

So the gods went to the demons and proposed a project of joint cooperation: Together they would churn the Ocean of Milk (which we call today the Milky Way) for the nectar of immortality, which they would share when they got it. The demons agreed.

It took all of the joint strength of the gods and the demons to churn the Ocean of Milk. They used Mt. Mandaranchal as a fulcrum. Vasuki, the five-headed king of the serpents, agreed to serve as the churning rope.

The demons, with their armies behind them, held Vasuki’s head.

The gods held his tail.

They took turns pulling, rotating the mountain this way and that, churning and churning. Sea creatures were stirred up in the ocean.

The gods and demons churned so hard that Mt. Mandaranchan began to sink into the ocean. To hold it up, Vishnu appeared in his incarnation as a turtle (Here we see both Vishnu and the turtle below him). Indra, king of the gods, flew above Vishnu to steady the mountain.

The gods and demons churned up a lot of good stuff (and a little bad): the moon, a seven-headed horse, a divine cow, Indra’s elephant, the most valuable jewel in the world, a powerful poison (fortunately swallowed by the god Shiva to prevent it from killing off everything, and the source of Shiva’s blue throat), a divine tree, the goddess of alcohol, the goddess of good fortune and wealth, the heavenly dancing nymphs (apsaras, which you can see flying above gods and demons alike), and finally, yes, the elixir of immortality.

A great battle ensued for possession of the elixir, and–tragedy!–the demons won. But Vishnu appeared disguised as an enticing maiden, who distracted the demons and then stole the elixir back for the gods. A second great battle ensued, this time with a decisive victory for the gods.

And so, that’s why we worhip gods and not demons to this very day.