King Parikshit
There are two types of stories of Lord Krishna. One is told by Lord Krishna, which is Bhagavad-Gita, and the second is told about Lord Krishna, which is Srimad Bhagavatam. Both these stories are like torches in hand that show a path in the darkest material world.
They show the perfect path for a sincere seeker to reach the final goal of achieving the perfection of the human form of life, they mitigate the hoard of miseries that haunt us every minute, they make us reach the regions of blissful life, and finally, they award the association of the supreme personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna.
One story of Krishna, namely Bhagavad-Gita was spread in the world through Arjuna, one of the Pandavas, whereas another story, namely Srimad Bhagavatam was spread through King Parikshit. In this way, both stories of Lord Krishna are connected intimately with Pandavas.
This is a very important point to be noted by one and all. The reason for this distinction is the pure devotional mood of Pandavas and their next generations towards the Supreme Lord. The entire Pandava’s dynasty is dedicated to the service of the Godhead. In this story, we learn about King Parikshit and how Srimad Bhagavatam got spread in the world because of him. The hero of Srimad Bhagavatam is King Parikshit only.
Bhagavatam continues from his birth till his departure from this world. He was celebrated as “Vishnuraata”, the one protected by Lord Vishnu, and was the son of prince Abhimanyu. It means King Parikshit was the grandson of Pandavas.
The Divine protected…
After the conclusion of the great fratricidal war between Kauravas and Pandavas in Kurukshetra and the establishment of the sovereignty of Yudhistir all over the world, Lord Krishna prepared to leave for Dwaraka. When he was about to ride on a chariot, the wife of Abhimanyu came running in great anxiety and fear.
She was pregnant at that time. Except for the five Pandavas, everyone else in the dynasty was killed in the ghastly war. The only hope for the next generation was in the womb of Uttara, the chaste wife of Abhimanyu. But, the son of Drona, Ashwatthama, wanted to even destroy that last hope of the dynasty using Brahmastra weapon to please his master, Duryodhan.
Looking at that formidable weapon that was rushing towards her, Uttara started praying to Lord Krishna, “O Lord of lords! O Master of Universe! O great Mystic! Please protect me. A very fearful metal arrow is fast approaching me. Let it destroy me, but please protect my child in the womb”.
She was pleading with tearful eyes and folded hands. Lord Krishna understood the situation and also the cause of such danger. Having understood that Ashwatthama, who was burning with the fire of insult, caused the fearful situation, the Lord immediately took his invincible Chakra and entered into the womb of Uttara. Though the Brahmastra was very powerful, it lost its vigour in the presence of the power of the Lord.
When the Brahmastra was released, the child in the womb felt tortured and it became almost impossible for him to bear the pain. At that very moment, the child saw a great personality with four hands come for his protection. That personality moved his club in circles around the child and protected him from the effect of Brahmastra.
The child was astonished to see that wonderful personality and was keen to see him again and again, but in the next moment, the divine personality disappeared. Since the child in the womb was protected by the four-handed form of Vishnu, he was celebrated as “Vishnuraata”.
The interesting point to note here is that when the Lord was carrying out his miraculous feats within the womb of Uttara, he was simultaneously present outside also as if not doing anything. However, he entered the womb in a subtle form and carried out his mission of protecting the devotee. This is called the inconceivable potency of the Lord. In this way, King Parikshit got the audience of the Lord even before his birth, in the womb of the mother itself, thus becoming very dear to devotees.
Named as Parikshit
After this incident, at some auspicious moment, Uttara gave birth to Parikshit. Dhaumya, Kripacharya and other saintly persons conducted all the birth-related rituals. Yudhistir, the grandfather of Parikshit, gave plenty of donations to priests and saints. All the saintly persons were very pleased by the magnanimous nature of Yudhistir and gave blessing to the newly born child.
They foretold that the boy becomes like Lord Rama in speaking truth, like Bali in confidence, like Prahlada in devotion and will be celebrated as pure devotees. They also told him that he would conduct many horse sacrifices.
These blessings by the saintly persons made King Yudhistir extremely happy. After the birth, the boy started looking around for the great person who gave audience in the mother’s womb, thus getting named as Parikshit, the one who examines everyone or everything. He started growing nicely under the protection of his grandfathers like a growing moon.
Established Dharma
After Lord Krishna returned to his abode, having established righteousness on the earth, Pandavas also decided to leave the earth planet. They enthroned Parikshit as the emperor of the whole world and left towards the northern direction. Later, King Parikshit ruled the world under the guidance of saintly priests. He married the daughter of prince Uttara Kumar and got four worthy sons like Janamejaya.
Under the guidance of Kripacharya he performed three horse sacrifices. During those sacrifices, even the common man could see the demigods from heavenly planets. Once, King Parikshit embarked on a world tour to review the law and order situation. He was welcomed by everyone and he heard the glories of Pandavas everywhere.
At one place, he came across the God of religious principles in the form of a bull and the goddess of earth in the form of a cow. The bull was limping on one leg and his other three legs were broken. Both the bull and the cow were discussing very deep subject matters and the cow was crying piteously. In the meantime, one person dressed like a royal person, but behaving very cruelly came into the picture and started beating the bull. The cow started passing urine out of fear.
King Parikshit immediately jumped into the scene with a sword and overpowered the miscreant. He gave complete assurance to both the bull and the cow. He then prepared to kill the person who attempted to hurt the animals. The cruel person was none other than Kali Purush. The personality of Kali immediately took the shelter of King Parikshit and got saved. It was the duty of any king to forgive anyone who surrendered out of fear.
However, the king ordered the Kali to leave the kingdom with immediate effect, but that was not possible as the entire world was under the rule of King Parikshit. Then, the king gave the miscreant four places, namely the place of gambling, the place of animal killing, the place of illicit works and the place of intoxication for a safe stay.
However, upon further insistence, the king gave gold as the fifth place for the stay of personified Kali. In this way, King Parikshit restricted the spread of Kali’s influence and restored the three lost legs of Dharma. Truthfulness, mercy, austerity and cleanliness are the real four legs of Dharma, which got fully established in the kingdom of King Parikshit.
Once King Parikshit went on hunting into a forest and got tired due to exertion. Fortunately, he found a hermitage nearby to quench his thirst and entered it. He found a saint in deep meditation, who did not notice the king’s arrival. The saint’s name was Samika. The king asked for some water, but Samika did not reply to the request of the king as he was totally in trance.
This behaviour of the saint disturbed the mood of the King. Out of anguish, he took a dead snake from a nearby place and placed it around the neck of the saint, and went back to his kingdom. Samika’s son was a powerful boy with all mystic powers. He came to know about the incident and out of irresistible anger, he cursed the king to death. “Let the king die with Takshaka, the bird snake’s bite within seven days!”- the boy gave this curse and reached the hermitage.
He was totally upset to see the dead snake around the neck of his father and started crying. Because of son’s crying, Samika came out of trance, removed the dead snake from his neck and enquired about the whole incident. He deeply regretted the rude behaviour of his son in cursing a saintly king like Parikshit, but the curse of a Brahmin boy was invincible. He immediately sent a message to the king for his proper preparation to meet the death.
King Parikshit was very happy to receive the message of the curse upon him and felt he deserved it for his misbehaviour with a saintly person. He immediately enthroned his elder son to rule the world and departed to the banks of the Ganges to await his death. He decided to stop eating, drinking and sleeping till death. He wanted to meet the death in full concentration on Lord Krishna’s name, form and pastimes.
Got Liberated
The news of King Parikshit’s imminent death spread all over the world like wildfire and many kings, saintly persons and ascetics started assembling there. Bhrigu, Atri, Chyavna, Vashista, Parasara, Vishwamitra, Narada, and even Vysadeva arrived at the site. They were all anxious to see the last moments of such a great king.
At that very moment, by the Lord’s arrangement, Suka Maharshi arrived at the site. He was naked but completely immersed in the love of Godhead. His body complexion was sky blue like Krishna’s. King Parikshit offered obeisances to Suka Maharshi and requested him to teach him the ultimate beneficial activity at the time of death.
He attentively heard the story of Lord Krishna in the form of Srimad Bhagavatam as narrated by the saint and got liberated. He heard it with rapt attention for seven days and seven nights without any interruption and with all focus. He did not feel the pains of hunger and thirst while relishing the nectar of Srimad Bhagavatam.
Once narration was completed, King Parikshit conveyed his gratitude saying, “O saintly personality, please permit me to concentrate my words, mind, senses and life on the Supreme personality of Godhead. By keeping my mind and all desires on the infallible Lord, I wish to leave my body. Mercifully, you have shown me the most auspicious and safest path to attain the Godhead.
Now, I have no fear of death, my ignorance is gone”. Suka Maharshi was very happy with these words and left the place for the world tour. Immediately, King Parikshit went into trance with meditation on Lord Krishna and became motionless like a tree. At the same time, Takshaka, the snake bird, came in the form of a priest closer to the king, immediately assumed his real form and bit him. King Parikshit got burnt into ashes with a snake’s bite.
Looking at that scene, everybody on the earth and sky said “Alas! Alas!” Later, there was a shower of flowers from the sky and kettle drums were played out of joy. In this way, King Parikshit’s death also became very glorious. When he was in the womb of his mother, Lord Krishna gave him an audience and at the time of death, the same supreme Lord again appeared in the form of name and pastimes.
From the time in the womb of his mother till his death, he was completely in the meditation of Lord Krishna, thus becoming a role model for all devotees. Along with devotion, he demonstrated expertise in great governance to be remembered as a divine icon of all-around performance forever.
