‘Kshira’ or milk represents that which is Sattvika, pure and sacred. The heart should be pure and untainted like milk. It is only in such a pure Sattvika heart that the Lord will choose to dwell. Alas, man’s heart today, instead of being an ocean of milk, (Kshira sagara) is filled with brine (Kshara sagara). In the Ocean of Milk, dreadful aquatic creatures like whales and crocodiles will not flourish. These creatures can only survive and grow in an ocean of brine. In the saltish ocean (of the heart) what are the creatures that flourish? They are bad qualities like lust, hatred, greed, envy and pride. If man is filled today with all these bad qualities, what does it signify? It shows that man’s heart is bereft of the milk (of good qualities). If it had been pure as milk, there would have been no place for any qualities other than the godly virtues. (SS May 92, pp. 95-96)
The Kurukshetra war lasted for eighteen days; but the war between Rama and Ravana lasted for seventy-five days. Though the warfare, in a physical sense, lasted for seventy-five days at Lanka, the inner war between Rama and Ravana, and Pandavas and the Kauravas, Truth and untruth, and Righteousness and unrighteousness, is being fought endlessly in the human heart. No one can tell for certain when the conflict and the clash between the positive and the negative forces will come to an end. (SSB 1996, pp. 69-70)