Lord of the Lords, Shri Parashuram

The day 1st May is in itself one of the most auspicious occasions in the whole year for all my indian brothers as this day marks the resplendent occasion of the birth of one of the greatest gods that the world has ever had and that great deity is Lord Parashurama.

It would not be a hypocrisy to say that Lord Parashurama is the greatest lord of the universe who was not only a great saint, but also a powerful warrior, an obedient son and adorable teacher and the great Lord Parashurama carried out all his duties with utter assiduousness and meticulousness. So is not his anniversary the most pious day in the whole year?

According to Vedic texts, Lord Parashurama is the sixth incarnation (or avatar) of Lord Vishnu, having Brahma as his ancestors and Lord Shiva as his teacher .Now you can very well judge the power of Lord Parashuram, in fact he was a student of the greatest, the lord of the lords, Shiva.

Lord Parashuram has played major roles in Mahabharata, Ramayana as well as all other vedic formations, or you can say  he is just like the atom of all these things, the producer of all these things and also the producer of life on the earth.

 Lord Parashurama got his name so because of his weapon, an axe which is known as "Parshu". He his most famous for debilitating the lineage of Kshatriyas, twenty one times after a kshatriya king Kartavirya slayed down his father. Lord Parashurama is regarded as the greatest and most powerful warriors of all the time and no one has been able to trounce him. 

As I mentioned earlier that Lord Parashuram is the greatest warrior, best teacher and the most obedient son in the history of the world. So lets now discuss why he is being attributed as the greatest warrior, most obedient son and the best teacher in the history step by step.

According to an old legend The grandfather of Bhargava Parashurama was a great rishi named Rucheeka, and was a direct descendant of Brahma. One day, the rishi was traveling through the countryside seeking a bride. At the time, there were two dominant clans, the Bharat-Suryavamsha, or Solar Dynasty and the Chandra-vamsha, or Lunar Dynasty. The ruling King Gadhi belonged to the Lunar Dynasty and had a beautiful daughter, Satyavati, who was unwed. Rucheeka visited the king, who entertained him at his court. The rishi was besot with the beauty of Satyavati, and at the end of the evening he asked the king to have her as his bride.

The king was taken aback, but could not deny the request of a Brahmin. As such, he agreed to give his daughter away to the rishi, but on condition that Rucheeka give him one-thousand horses, all with one ear black and the body entirely white.

The rishi agreed to the demand of the king. He then did penance to Varuna, and was blessed with the horses that the king had requested. Rucheeka gave them as dowry, and in turn received Satyavati for marriage.

Satyavati adjusted well to an ascetic life as she was blessed with a good countenance, but she did not have any children. Meanwhile, at the kingdom, her father had no heir to the throne as well, and this also worried Satyavati. One day, Rucheeka asked her what was wrong, and she told him of her concerns for the kingdom.

The rishi agreed to help both Satyavati and her mother. He gave Satyavati two potions, one for her mother so that she would have a mighty Kshatriya son, and one for Satyavati so that she would have a son that would become a great sage. Satyavati gave the potions to her mother. However, not trusting the sage, her mother switched the containers.

In time, both mother and daughter found they were expecting children. However, the sage noticed that when he looked at his wife he saw a Kshatriya aura, and he asked what had happened. Satyavati told Rucheeka, to which he responded, 'Now our son will be a great warrior instead of a sage." Satyavati begged the rishi to instead make her grandson become the great warrior and her son a rishi. Seeing her distress, Rucheeka acquiesced. Satyavati gave birth to a son, Jamadagni, who became a great saptarishi, while her grandson Lord Parashuram was sixth incarnation of Vishnu, and one of the greatest warriors of his age and this is how Lord Parashuram proved to be, not one of the greatest but the mightiest as well as the greatest warriors of all times.

Lord Parashuram is also regarded as a paradigm of a great and faithful son. According to an old story, Renuka, the mother of Lord Parashuram, was known for her chastity and devotion to her husband. Such was her faith, that she was able to fetch water from the river in a pot of unbaked clay, with the pot held together only by the strength of her devotion.

One day while at the river, a group of Gandharvas in a chariot passed by in the sky above. Filled with desire for only a moment, the unbaked pot she held dissolved in the river. Afraid to return to her husband, she waited at the river bank, uncertain of what to do next.  Meanwhile, Jamadagni noticed his wife had not returned. Through his yogic powers, he divined all that had taken place and was enraged. The rishi called his eldest son, handed him an axe and asked the boy to kill his mother. Horrifed, the boy refused, and so Jamadagni turned him to stone. He then asked each of his sons, and as they refused, one by one, he turned them to stone. Finally only his youngest son, Parashurama, was left. Ever obedient, the boy beheaded his mother. His this decision shook the whole world. The whole world was convulsed into a pandemonium by his this action, but then Lord Parashuram abided by his duties towards his mother and asked his father to bring back his mother and his brothers to life from stone to flesh. Impressed by the affection and devotion of his son, Jamadagni granted his request.

This was about his being the most obedient son in the history of the world. Now lets try to find out why Lord Parashuram is being regarded as the greatest warrior in the history of mankind. 

The violent persecution of Brahmins by Kshatriya had at the time spanned generations. As Rama grew older, he was sincere in his piety, and pleased Lord Shiva with the performation of excruciating tapas. As blessing, he was granted the Parashu of Shiva, after which he was known as Parashurama, or 'Rama with axe'.

Soon after Parashurama received his blessing, King Kartavirya of the Haihaya came upon the hermitage of Jamadagni. The visit happened at a time Parusharama was away in the forest gathering yagna, and although the king had a massive entourage, the saptarishi was able to serve the king a grand feast. When Kartavirya asked how he was able to do so, Jamadagni showed him a blessed Kamadhenu calf, given to Jamadagni by Indra, which was able to grant wishes. Kartavirya was covetous and wanted the calf as his own. The rishi refused, and Kartavirya stole the sacred animal.

Returning home, Parashurama was infuriated and traveled to the royal palace. Brandishing his axe, he decimated its guards and killed the mighty King Kartavirya, retrieving the calf. When he returned home, his father was pleased, but seeing the blood stained axe of Parashurama, also concerned. He cautioned his son he must be aware of wrath and pride. Parashurama accepted the reprimand of his father, in penance, and went on a pilgrimage to holy places for one year in purification.

Meanwhile, the sons of Kartavirya discovered their father at the palace and knew that only Parashurama could have killed him. In revenge, they traveled to the hermitage and murdered Jamadagni, surrounding the rishi and shooting him to death with arrows like a stag. Afterwards, they decapitated his body and took his head with them.

When Parashurama returned home, he found his mother next to the body of his father, crying hysterically as she beat her chest twenty-one times in a row. Furious, he hunted down the sons of Kartavirya at the palace. He killed them all and returned with the head of his father to conduct the cremation. Parashurama then vowed to enact a genocide on the war-mongering Kshatriyas twenty-one times over, once for each time the hand of his mother hit her chest. Parashurama then travelled the whole of Earth, killing all men of the Kshatriya caste, guilty or innocent. The first book of the Mahabharata writes:

In the interval between the Treta and Dwapara Yugas, Parashurama, great among all who have borne arms, urged by impatience of wrongs, repeatedly smote the noble race of Kshatriyas. And when that fiery meteor, by his own valour, annihilated the entire tribe of the Kshatriyas, he formed at Samanta-panchaka five lakes of blood.

According to some old legends, he even broke the teeth of Lord Ganesha, son of Lord Shiva. Parashurama travelled to the Himalayas to pay respect to his teacher, Shiva. While travelling, his path was blocked by Ganesha, son of Shiva and Parvati. Parashurama threw his axe at the elephant-god. Ganesha, knowing the weapon had been given to Parashurama by his father, allowed it to sever his left tusk.
His mother Parvati was infuriated, and declared she would cut off the arms of Parashurama. She took the form of Durgama, becoming omnipotent, but at the last moment, Shiva was able to pacify her by making her see the avatar as her own son. Parashurama also asked her forgiveness, and she finally relented when Ganesha himself spoke on behalf of the warrior-saint. Parashurama then gave his divine axe to Ganesha and blessed him. Another name for Ganesha because of this encounter is Ekadanta, or 'One Tusk'.
 All these incidents prove the might of the lord of the lords Shri Parashuram.

Lets now talk about his being the best teacher in the world. Bhishma, Dronacharya and Karna are regarded as one of the greatest warriors of all the times who were never defeated by anyone but do we know how these great soldiers became so much great? All this was just due to the blessings of Lord Parashuram who taught them all. 

Lord Parashuram is world's greatest teacher ,warrior, son and saint. He is the incarnation of God whose presence is eternal and who still resides on this earth. So on the great day of Parashuram Jayanti, I on behalf of all my hindus brothers ask for the blessings of Lord Parashuram for the whole nation.

JAI HIND, JAI BHARAT

JAI MA BHARTI