Ramayana Simplified: Part 22: Rama meets Parashurama
As seen in the previous chapter, grand celebrations took place as a part of the marriage of the princes of Ayodhya. Maharishi Vishwamitra was about to leave for the Himalayas. The maharishi told King Dasharatha that he was confident in Rama’s skills and said that he was really happy with the way he handled the different situations all throughout the journey. King Dasharatha became very happy on hearing this.
King Dasharatha, his wives, the princes, and their princesses started their journey towards Ayodhya from Mithila. Sita really enjoyed the journey and really felt excited at the new beginning. She was also happy at the fact that her sisters would also be there along with her.
Suddenly all the carts stopped moving and the horses which were guiding the carts also came to a sudden stop. A horse driver said that someone was blocking their way. He said that the person also had a bow in his hand. King Dasharatha and Maharishi Vasishta stepped out to see who was blocking their way. The king said that it was Parashurama, the killer of the Kshatriyas. The king observed that Parashurama was holding the powerful Vaishnava Chapa (bow). The maharishi also identified him as the son of Maharishi Jamadagni. The maharishi said that he was one among the avatars (incarnation) of Lord Vishnu.
The Feud between Heihayas and Bhargavas (Those who belonged to the Bhrighu dynasty)
Rama suddenly remembered a story which was narrated to him by Maharishi Vasishta. Heihayas were Kshatriyas who were mostly involved in the ruling. Bhargavas were a generation of Maharishis or Brahmins. Heihayas had Bhargava muni as their raja guru. The Heihayas were very keen on giving donations which were misused by the entire Bhargava clan, Heihayas entire treasury thus became empty. The kingdom of Heihaya thus moved to poverty and starvation.
At that point, King Krithaveerya came to power in the Heihaya kingdom. To save the kingdom from trouble, he asked for some money as a loan from the Bhargavas. The Bhargavas were not ready to give money. Thus King Krithaveerya took up the lands owned by the Bhargavas through force. This started the conflict between the Heihayas and Bhargavas.
King Krithaveerya’s son, Karthaveeryarjuna came to power. He was also a very powerful ruler. King Karthaveeryarjuna conquered the nearby lands and made Maheeshmathi his capital. Meanwhile, Maharishi Jamadagni and his wife Renuka had settled near the river Narmada. Bhargavarama/Parashurama was their son. Once the maharishi went to the nearby forest to gather some wood. His wife went to fetch some water from the river. She saw that the king was having a great time with his wives in the river. She waited for a long time for them to leave. Thus she was late to come home. The maharishi became really angry at this. He said that she made a grave mistake as she was enjoying the scene of the king bathing in the river. He called his sons and told them to kill her (their mother). His three elder sons were not ready to do this. His youngest son, Bhargavarama killed his mother as his father instructed. Bhargavarama immediately fainted having realized that he killed his dearest mother. Maharishi Jamadagni cursed the other three sons to become vagabonds. But when Bhargavarama woke up, his father asked for a wish and he said that he wanted his mother back. His father thus gave his mother back.
Few Insights…
Is Parashurama, being the incarnation of Lord Vishnu, giving the right message by killing his own mother?
As mentioned before, we may find different instances which are not acceptable to us logically, but we must be keen on picking up the real message conveyed rather than focussing on the facts in the story. Killing one’s own mother is definitely not supported. Here, we must take a few things into consideration:
- This story gives a better understanding of papa and its consequences. Parashurama killed his own mother, so he has to bear the consequences of the papa that he did.
- We all make mistakes, but doing Prayaschitta (penance) can help us from further repeating the problems. Here we see Parashurama, who asked for his mother’s life back as a Prayaschitta to the mistake he made. So, even though he may have to bear the consequences of the papa (sin) of killing his mother, its intensity would have gone down as he was able to make his father bring her back. So when we jump into mistakes the realization that we did something wrong is very important.
- We see how much Parashurama respected his father and the extent to which he obeyed his father. We must also note that even though Parashurama killed his mother, he was able to bring her back. So the key takeaway here is the amount of respect and how much we must obey our father. This important point is obliterated if we see only the fact that Parashurama killed his mother.
