Happy Akshaya Tritiya and Parshuram Jayanti.....

     

Hinduism, even today stands as the world’s oldest, exceptionally great and enigmatic religion. Despite of being living in the most scientifically advanced century, we still draw our inspiration from old Hindu scriptures and manuscripts written thousands of years ago. What science said that “Energy can neither be destroyed nor be created”, Gita, the holiest Hindu scripture proclaimed millions of years ago the same things with a slight aberration of using the word “soul” in place of energy. Though, the scientific world discovered that humans can fly in the year 1980, our epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana had already elaborated the concept to the world millions of years ago. Various scientific breakthroughs today, are just a physical interpretation of what our great epics had already described, even before the world could even envisage their existence. Today, technologies are being invented to connect people through their mind, but Sanjay in Mahabharata did it scores of years ago. If we go on to recall other things, we can surpass any limit of description but rather than that I would like to emphasize on the actual beauty and allure of the world’s oldest religion.

It’s impossible to talk about Hinduism and snub out the various festivals it gave to the world, and fortunately, in the coming days, we have the most auspicious festivals of Hinduism which are Akshaya Tritiya and Parshuram Jayanti. Though the two festivals are just two sides of the same coin but still, so many more things are intertwined in the two festivals that they themselves mark out so many remarkable things.

Akshaya Tritiya is one of the most important four days of Hinduism. Along with that in Jainism too, the day is tremendously pious and important.  Akshaya Tritiya signifies a plethora of propitious things that for both Hinduism and Jainism, it stands out as the optimum day to embark on a spiritual journey or to commence new ventures in almost any field. The day marks prosperity, well being as well as blessing from Goddess Laxmi to the world and moreover stands out firmly as one of the most special days of our religion. Hindu and Jain calendars (decided by the movement of planets and stars) sometimes leave out some days in a year but Akshaya Tritiya is a day which always shows its presence in the calendars of both the religions. Such, is its glory that almost whole of the Hinduism revolves around this auspicious day.

The word Akshaya is derived from Sanskrit and defines things which are never ending, and hence Akshaya Tritiya too signifies a never ending auspicious festival of the Hindu as well as Jain religions.  The day is considered auspicious for starting new ventures. The legend is that any venture initiated on the auspicious day of Akshaya Tritiya continues to grow and bring prosperity. Hence, new ventures, like starting a business, construction, etc. is performed on Akshaya Tritiya.

In Hinduism, Akshay Tritiya was the day when Vyasa started writing the history of the great Bharat war in the form of an epic Mahabharata. This day is symbolized by god Vishnu, the preserver-god in the Hindu Trinity. According to Hindu mythology, on this day the Treta Yuga began and the river Ganges, the most sacred river of India, descended to the earth from the heaven.

Kubera received his wealth and position as custodian of wealth and property with Goddess Lakshmi on this day, by praying to Lord Shiva at Shivapuram. It is believed that god Kubera, the treasurer of the gods, is the richest deity. Lakshmi Tantram says that even Kubera will pray to goddess Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and consort of Vishnu, on Akshay Tritiya. A day-long Kubera Lakshmi Puja is                                 

performed in which an image of Lakshmi is worshiped with Sudarsana Kubera Yantra, symbolising Kubera.

The Vedic scriptures say that knowledge gained or charity done on Akshay Tritiya is very fruitful. It is considered to be a very lucky day to start new business or venture. Many people buy gold or property on this day. Fasts are kept on this day and pujas are performed. In charity, fan, rice, salt, fruit, clothes, are given. The god Vishnu is worshiped. Tulsi water is sprinkled in the nearby area of the idol while performing aarti.

Followers of Jainism consider Akshaya Tritiya to be a holy and supremely auspicious day. It is associated with Lord Adinatha, also known as Rishabhadeva, first of the twenty-four Tirthankaras. On this day people who observe the year-long alternative day fasting known as Varshi-tap finish their Tapasya by doing parana by drinking sugarcane juice.

The day of Akshaya Tritiya is worshiped and said to be auspicious in Jainism because it is said to have established the very first "ahara charya": a methodology to prepare and serve food to Jain monks. Lord Rishabhadeva denounced the worldly pleasures after dividing his vast kingdom amongst his 101 sons, prominent of whom are Gommateshvara Bahubali (whose world's tallest monolithic statue stands at Shravanbelgola and Chakravarti Bharata; it is known today as "Bharat").

Lord Rishabhadeva meditated without any food and water for six months and after that set out to accept food (ahara). He was the first monk of this era. Jain monks do not own anything. They do not even cook food for themselves. When hungry or thirsty, (maximum once in a day), they set out to accept ahara. They do not ask for it and accept where it is offered. Tīrthankara Rishabhadeva went to people to accept food. However, the people of that time did not know anything about the lives and disciplines of monks, as he was the first monk of Avsarpinī. The people of Ayodhya offered him gold, jewellery, gemstones, elephants, horses, expensive garments and even their daughters to honour their beloved king.

But Rishabhadeva was not in search of these things. He sought only a morsel of food, but nobody offered it to him. Nobody understood that their king was looking for food to ensure that the monks who would come after him get food and water in the purest form needed to lead an ascetic life. As there was no choice, he had to fast for one year until King Shreyansa understood his need due to his "purva-bhava-smarana" (previous life). Shreyansa Kumar offered him sugarcane juice and thus Rishabhadeva ended his fast. This was on the day of Akshaya Tritiya. Hence, sugarcane juice is considered by Jains to be one of the best offerings. On this day, Jains observe a fast to commemorate their first Tirthankara Rishabhadeva and end their fast with sugarcane juice.

In Hastinapur, there is a fair held on Akshaya Tritiya. Jains arrive from all over India in large numbers to end their fasts. The ritual ending of a fast by Jains is called parana.

Though as aforementioned, there are thousands of more pious events attached with this day, but in the Hindu mythology, the biggest even attached with the day is that of Parshuram Jayanti (birthday of Lord Parshuram).

Parshuram, Ramabhadra, Bhrigupati, Bhriguvanshi, Jamadagnya, Bhargava; these are a few names of the lord Parshuram, the sixth incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Lord Parshuram is considered the very progenitor of Bharadwaj and Kashyap clans and moreover is the father of all the Brahmins. His endless powers are known by everyone, in almost all the epics, he has an indispensable role to play and is among the few “Chinrajeevis” (immortals) of Hindu religion. He was the best teacher, the biggest warrior, an obedient son, a great sage and above all the supreme Lord, Lord Vishnu.

Lord Parshuram was the son of sage Jamadagni and goddess Renuka. He was named Parshuram because he was Ram (incarnation of Lord Vishnu) with an axe (parshu). His birth in itself has an interesting story to be told.

The grandfather of Bhargava Parashurama was a great rishi named Richika who was the great-grandson of a famous sage Bhrigu. Bhrigu's son was Chyavana. Chyavana foresaw that a violent Brahmana would be born in his line in consequence of King Kusika and tried to curse him. However, Chyavana was so pleased with the King's behaviour that he gave him a boon that a Brahmarshi would be born in his lineage. This resulted in the birth of Kaushika who later became known as the sage Vishwamitra. Chyavana's son was the mighty Aurva who developed an intense hatred for Kshatriyas as they had put his mother in danger when she was pregnant with him. Aurva put away his hatred and trained the Ikshwaku King Sagara in warfare. However, this trait would manifest in his descendants. Aurva had a hundred sons. His eldest son, Richika, acquired the Dhanurveda and the arts of warfare spontaneously solely by fiat of his will, without any formal instruction. Richika's son, Jamadagni, also acquired the Dhanurveda in the same way and became a highly skilled warrior. Jamadagni's youngest son was Parashurama.

One day, the rishi Richik was traveling through the countryside seeking a bride. At the time, there were two dominant clans, the Bharat-Suryavansha 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. Richeek visited the King, who entertained him at his court. The rishi was besotted 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 Richeek gives 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. Richeek then married Satyavati after fulfilling wishes of the King.

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, Ruchika asked her what was wrong and she told him of her concerns for the Kingdom.

Then Ruchika helped 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 Ruchika, 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, Ruchika acquiesced. Satyavati gave birth to a son, Jamadagni, who became a great saptarishi, while her grandson Bhargav was the sixth incarnation of Vishnu and one of the greatest warriors of all ages.

Parashurama grew up to be a powerful youth. Though a Brahmin by birth, Parashurama expressed unusual interest in weapons and studied warfare as well as sacred scriptures under the tutelage his father who was himself a powerful archer. Afterwards, Parashurama devoted himself in serving his parents and brothers, helping Jamadagni to run his hermitage.

According to the Brahmanda Purana, when Parashurama was a teenager, he expressed his desire to meet his paternal grandfather Richika.

Jamadagni permitted his son and Parashurama visited Richika in his hermitage. Richika and his wife welcomed him and Parashurama stayed with them for a few months, serving them and acquiring knowledge from Richika. Curious about his ancestors, Parashurama went to the hermitage of Richika's father Aurva and a few months later, he went to Aurva's father, Chyavana. Parashurama was devoted to them and they too gave him knowledge.

Many months later, Chyavana told Parashurama to meet his own father, Sage Bhrigu, the very progenitor of the Bhargava race himself. With Chyavana's instructions, Parashurama was able to enter Bhrigu's hermitage and bowed down before his ancestor.

Parashurama lived with Bhrigu for many months and Bhrigu trained his descendant in performing harsh penances. After his training, Bhrigu called Parashurama and asked him to immediately go to the Himavat and Gandhamadana mountains and perform penances to Lord Shiva, in order to acquire divine weapons from him.

Lord Shiva was pleased with this, and appeared before him and asked him for a boon. Parashurama expressed his desire to obtain celestial weapons and skills in warfare from the God. Shiva told him that he would grant the boon only when Parashurama proved himself to be a worthy soul. Shiva told Parashurama to undertake a Tirtha Yatra or holy pilgrimage. After years of penances, Shiva was pleased with Parashurama's devotion and summoned him. Shiva ordered Parashurama to slay the Daityas and Danavas who were the enemies of the Devas, to which the latter agreed.

After vanquishing the Daityas and Danavas in battle, Parashurama proved himself worthy. He acquired many boons from Lord Shiva. Parashurama's first boon was that he should surpass everyone in divine weapons, in the skill of wielding weapons and in the mastery of sacred scriptures. His second boon was to be invincible in battle. His third boon was to be free of sins and diseases and remain in his prime and health forever. His fourth boon was to be renowned in the world. His fifth boon was to be capable of performing arduous tasks and penances and to remain devoted to Shiva forever. Shiva granted all these boons to him. Shiva gave him mastery over many celestial weapons as well as a chariot and horses which could go anywhere at will, a celestial armour, divine bows, a conch shell and two inexhaustible quivers of arrows.

Once, Lord Shiva challenged Parashurama to a battle to test his skills in warfare. The spiritual master Lord Shiva and the disciple Shri Parashuram became locked in fierce battle, a dreadful duel that lasted for twenty-one days and while evading a blow by the Trident (Trishul) of Lord Shiva, Shri Parashuram countered and vigorously attacked him with his Parashu. It struck Lord Shiva on the forehead creating a wound. Lord Shiva was very pleased to see the amazing warfare skills of his disciple and passionately embraced Shri Parashuram. Lord Shiva preserved this wound as an ornament so that the reputation of his disciple remained imperishable and insurmountable. 'Khanda-parshu' (wounded by Parashu) is one of the thousand names of Lord Shiva.

Having been trained in warfare by Lord Shiva himself, Parashurama became the foremost of all wielders of weapons.

The time of Parashurama was a tumultuous one for the Indian subcontinent, with Puranas indicating frequent battles between several rival Kshatriya clans and kingdoms. Parashurama lived within the Haihaya Kingdom, located in modern-day Maheshwar on the banks of the Narmada River. The generations of enmity between the Kshatriya Haihaya and the Brahmin Bhargavas, from whom Parashurama hailed, were mentioned in the Mahabharata numerous times.

The Haihaya were ruled by a powerful and cruel King named Kartavirya Arjuna. He was the incarnation of Sudarshana, Lord Vishnu's Celestial weapon, Chakra that had taken birth in human form. In addition, Kartavirya worshipped a divine being known as Dattatreya, an embodiment of Trimurti and descendant of the Saptarishi Atri. For his obeisance, Dattatreya had granted the king a flying golden chariot that would travel wherever he wished and one-thousand arms.

With these boons, Kartavirya became immeasurably powerful, conducting many military conquests after which he made Mahishmati in present-day Maheshwar capital of his Kingdom. Kartavirya became so powerful that he was even able to defeat and imprison the demon King Ravana at the Godavari. Ravana, in turn, would later be the nemesis of the Lord Ram in Ramayana.

 

One day, 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 cow, given to Jamadagni by Indra, which was able to grant wishes. Kartavirya's ministers urged the king to steal the cow. Kartavirya's preceptor, Sage Garga admonished the king not to follow the evil counsel, but Kartavirya gave the orders to procure the cow. Jamadagni refused to part with the cow despite being offered tremendous wealth. The evil Haihayas forcibly beat up the sage to unconsciousness uprooted the trees around the hermitage and forcibly stole the cow.

Kartavirya regretted the incident but he decided not to return the cow after what happened, fearing the wrath of the sage.

Returning home, Parashurama was infuriated upon learning what happened and rashly swore that he would exterminate the race of Kshatriyas 21 times after seeing his aggrieved mother beat her chest 21 times.

Parashurama prayed to Lord Brahma for guidance. Brahma warned Parashurama that slaying Kartavirya was an extremely daunting task since he had thousands of powerful allies. Brahma told him to procure the Trailokya Kavacha from Lord Shiva. Parashurama went to Shiva and told him of his task. Shiva warned Parashurama that Kartavirya also acquired the Kavacha from Dattatreya. The God then gave the armour as well as many divine weapons to Parashurama. However, Parashurama was unable to use the Kavacha despite knowing the incantations to use it. So he went to Agastya who imparted to him a Vishnu Stotra or hymn which he heard from Sheshanaga and asked him to go to the Gangotri and practice the hymn for one month.

Parashurama did as he was told and beheld Lord Vishnu himself. Vishnu blessed Parashurama for victory and told him what the future held. After completing his quest and attaining mastery of the Kavacha, Parashurama headed towards Mahishmati to slay Kartavirya.

Soon, Parshuram reached Mahishmati and challenged Kartavirya. Kartavirya, blinded by his arrogance and pride, thought that Parshuram was a trivial threat (as he was alone without any army) and sent his army to kill him. In just a few blow, Parshuram threw away 21870 war elephants each carrying seven soldiers, 21870 battle chariots each carrying four men, 65610 cavalry and 109350 foot soldiers.

Seeing the great damage inflicted on him, Kartavirya came himself and fought with Parshuram, with a thousand hands and five hundred bows, mounted on a colossal golden chariot drawn by a hundred horses proceeded against Parashurama and both fought one another. The two rivals hurled Brahmastras at each other. Worried that this would destroy the world, Parashurama mentally recalled both the Brahmastras. Parashurama then shot arrows, cutting off Kartavirya's ears and smashing his crown. Kartavirya, blinded in pain, shot many divine weapons at Parashurama and the latter easily countered Kartavirya's attacks. Kartavirya hurled a trident he acquired from Dattatreya at Parashurama and knocked him unconscious. Parashurama recovered and hacked of Kartavirya's thousand arms. He invoked the Pashupatastra and decapitated the king, incinerating him to ashes. Thus Parashurama slew Kartavirya Arjuna.

Parashurama then turned towards the 11,000 sons of Kartavirya. He slaughtered a hundred akshauhinis and killed many of Kartavirya's sons, while the surviving sons fled from the battlefield in fear. Parashurama slaughtered the remaining kings and allies of Kartavirya and routed the Haihayas, emerging victorious and returned with the Kamadhenu cow.

But Parashurama’s quest didn’t end here. Some series of even again made him take up his Parshu. After some time, 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, discharging arrows into him like killing 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 breast 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 genocide on the war-mongering Kshatriyas twenty one times over, once for each time his mother's hand hit her chest.

He freed the world 21 times from the Kshatriyas. The wars were so ferocious that when Parshuram returned to a village after completing the battle (the village currently is known as Badami Taluka, presently situated in Bagalkot District of Karnataka). While the warrior-sage washed his axe in the river Malaprabha, unknown to him, downstream beyond a bend in the river, village women were cleaning their clothes. His mighty axe stained the entire river red and the women exclaimed "Ai hole!" translating to 'Oh, what a river!'. This is said to be the etymology of the present-day village Aihole.

There is another legend that some of the fisherman community of Kerala who were settled in the coastal areas, receiving word as Parashurama approached, took the fisherman thread split it into two sacred threads that marked them twice-born, hid them in the forest and traveled south. Parashurama then gave their land to them.

After he had finally rid the world of Kshatriyas, Parashurama conducted the Ashvamedha sacrifice, done only by sovereign kings and gave the land he had conquered to the Brahmin head-priests, who performed the yagya Kashyapa. After seeing the impoverished condition of some Brahmins in northern India involved in priestly services Parshuram gave him the land that he had conquered. The Ashvamedha demanded that the remaining Kshatriya kings either submit to Parashurama or stop the sacrifice by defeating him in battle. They were unable to do either and so perished.

There are so many other episodes of the greatness of Lord Parshuram as well as those of Akshaya Tritiya but unfortunately so many great things can’t be made to fit in such a small places; but I am sure that the greatness as well as charisma of Hinduism beggars description. Its beauty is unbound and its scope is uncountable. Hence continue enjoying the festivals and their greatness. With best wishes, may Lord Parshuram bless you with greatness and prosperity.

JAI HIND, JAI BHARAT

JAI MA BHARTI