Parashurama - 2

Obeying the father's words

The family life was going on as usual and there was plenty in everything they had. There was happiness and contentmentall around. One day the children went to the forest for collecting flowers fruits and roots. Renuka who followed allthe religious ritual, very faithfully, went to the river to fetch holy water. She had bath and filled her pot withholy water for the Poojas. As she was filling the pot, her attention was drawn by the scene at a distance from her.The king of Gandharvas, Chitraratha was having a bath along with some apsara women. He had a garland of lotus, flowersround his neck. It was an unfortunate moment in poor Renuka's life. Might be it was the beginning of the tragedyawaiting her. When she looked at the gandarvas and the women, her mind lapsed into an unusual desire for carnal pleasures.In a fraction of a second she realized her mistake, repented for it and huried back home with the water pot. She wasbit late. She was trembling with fear. A punishment worse than she had expected was waiting for her. Jamagagni found out her mental adultery and ordered his children to cut her head off.Parashurama was not in the ashram at that time.The other sons did not carry out the father's order. The sage was angry with them and cursed them saying," May youbecome dull headed like animals and birds." Immediately they lost their human qualities and become for all practicalperposes animals.

At that time Parashurama returned to the ashram. He was shocked to see what was happening there. He asked by his father to kill his mother. Parashurama, who was aware of his father's extraordinary power and fame as a great sage, killedhis mother and brothers. Jamadagnni's anger subsided and he cooled down. He said," Your love and respect for yourfather is unparalled. No one else except you would have agreed to do this act. I am pleased with you. Ask for anythingyou want."

Parashurama said," May my mother and brothers get up as if from sleep. Make them comeback to life. Let them forgetthe fact that I killed them. Let my brothers get back their wisdom. Let mother forget the mental sin she had commited.Let no one be able to conquer me in a battle. Let me live long." Jamagagni said, "So be it". Thus the dead brothersand mother came back to life.

Karthaviryarjuna episode

Karthaviryarjuna was a brave king ruling from the city of Mahishmathi. He was righteous. He belonged to the clan ofHaihaya. He had a son by name Arjuna. He was the incarnation of divine Sudarshana, the weapon of Lord Mahavishnu.When this Sudarshana became very proud at the idea that the Lord made him born as this Kshatriya prince to teachothers all secrets of creation, he lost reason. He had great wisdom and strength and all the other qualities which Sudarshana had. He had one thousand arms. He was also called Sahasarjuna on that account. He was taught all the arts by another of the Lord's incarnations, dattatreya. He became an expert in every art he was taught. One day Dattatreyaspoke to him blessing him and also sounded a word of caution to him saying " My dear disciple, you are going to become unequalled in fame. But as an ordinary mortal you will commit a few sinful acts and another of god's incarnations,a great person would slay you, Be careful."

Sahasarjuna grew up to be a very highly righteous and brilliant king and at the same time a great tapasvi. When hisfather died he ascended the throne and began to rule the land efficiently. He was such a powerful king that he defeatedRavaneshwara, the Lord of Lanka, who had conquered all the devas, and kept him a prisoner for sometime.No one in his land had the courage to behave against dharma. Everyone in his land was mortally frightened of him. Even if someonethought of sinful acts the king would come to know about it and appear before such a person and frighten him out ofsuch thoughts. Kalidasa, the great poet makes references to the king's extraordinary qualities in his great epicRaghuvamsha. Shastra tell us that in Karthavirarjuna;s kingdom, if a person loses anything, if he just remembersthe king he would get back the thing lost immediately. In the Agamas we have a hymn called Karthaviryashtothra, whichpraises him.

Even such great men make silly mistakes in a moment of weakness.

With the help of this king Agnideva burnt the ashram of a sage called Apara.He went to the ashram of sage Jamadagni and after enjoying the hospitality of the sage, arrogant as he was, he tookaway all the cows that belonged to the ashram by force. This incident was the cause of his fall.Parashurama was not in the ashram when the incident took place. On his return a little later he came to know what hadhappened was very angry with Karthavirarjuna straight away he made for Mahishmathi and challenged Karthvirarjuna to a duel. In the ensuing duel Parashurama cut his one thousand arms as one would cut down plantain trees with ease andfinally killed him. That was the end of great Karthavirarjuna. He went back to Vaikunta and decorated Mahavishnu's fingure as Sudharshana chakra once again.

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