TANDAVA (Distressed)

Before time was time, the gods and the demons churned the cosmic ocean. They wanted treasure. Wealth. Immortality. They wrapped a serpent named Vasuki around a mountain and pulled — gods on one side, demons on the other — turning the ocean over and over for a thousand years. What came out first wasn't treasure. It was halahala — a poison so toxic it could end the universe. Black smoke, blue fire, death made liquid. The gods backed away. The demons ran. Nobody could touch it. Shiva walked up and drank it. The whole ocean of poison. In one go. To save a world that wasn't even thanking him for it. Parvati saw what was happening and grabbed his throat — stopping the poison from going further into his body. It froze there, in his neck, turning it deep blue. That's the name. Neelkanth. The blue-throated one. The god who held the world's poison in his throat so nobody else had to.