Parikshit was a great king of the Pandu dynasty. He was the sons of Arjuna’s son Abhimanyu. Thirty-six years after the battle of Kurukshetra, Pandu’s son Yudhishthira himself installed Parikshit on the throne and went to the Himalayas. King Parikshit was thirty-six years old at that time. After being king, Parikshit ruled with great reverence and righteousness for sixty years. One day the king went to the forest on the pretext of hunting, he got thirsty because of being tired and went to a monk’s ashram.
When King Parikshit visited sages ashram, the monks was engrossed in meditation because of that he could not give proper respect to the king. At that time period of Kaliyuga had started , due to its influence, the king considered this behavior of the sage as an insult to him and put a dead snake lying there in the neck of the sage and left to his palace. When sages son came to know about this, he got angry and cursed the king, that this arrogant king will die from the bite of Takshak Nag on the seventh night from today.
When the king heard this, the king called his ministers and asked what to do. The ministers suggested that they should be in tight a security so that Takshak Nag could not come there and summoned many such Brahmins who knew many mantras to protect a dying man, all these Brahmins were working hard to protect the king. There was a Brahmin named Kashyapa who knew many disciplines and such mantras which could save anyone from the effects of poison of Takshak. Apart from being a scholar, this Brahmin was also greedy for wealth, so with the idea of saving the king from position of Takshak and get money for saving king , went to Hastinapur capital of king parikshit
Sages son cursed Parikshit, this news reached Takshak also , he went to Hastinapur to take the life of the king , fearing the sages son might curse him if he did not kill the king of curse. On the way Takshak found Kashyapa Brahmin. Takshak asked the Brahmin where he was going in such a hurry. After listening to him, Kashyap Brahmin said that, he is going to Parikshit’s palace. King Parikshit is going to escape from the poison of Takshak by my mantras and I will get money from him. I am aware of such spells that can revive the king from his death by snake bite, if he has age. Hearing Kashyap’s talk, Takshak said that if he has such a knowledge, then show him proof. Takshak bit a neaeby tree because of which the was burned to ash, later Kashyapa brahmin took that ash and sprinkled it with water having his spells, which made the tree as green as before.
Seeing the knowledge of Kashyapa, Takshak told the Brahmin that ,he will give him all the things that he wishes. Kashyap thought that if I indulge in taking money by being greedy, then I will have I’ll fame in the world. If i save the king, i will get both wealth and fame, and I will even not have to bear the sin of orphaning the subjects, because the people become orphans and corrupt if they don’t have a king to govern them. When that kashyap Brahmin saw through mediation that the king’s life span is over, he agreed to take money from takshak , went to his house with money.
Takshak Nag then called some of his Naga friends and sent them in the disguise of Brahmins to Parikshit’s palace where he was under extreme security. Takshak himself took the form of a worm and sat in a fruit. The security soldiers did not allow those Brahmins to go to the king, but the Nagas in the disguise of Brahmins said to the soldiers that they taken lot of hardship to bring those fruits for the king. After taking permission of the king only fruits were allowed ,the nagas in the disguise of brahmins were not allowed to visit the king. The sunset of the seventh day was about to happen, so the king was relaxed and started eating the fruit, then the Takshak got out of the fruit and turned into a huge snake from the worm and bit the king.
The king died on the spot after being bitten by Takshak and he went to the other world. Thus after the death of Abhimanyu’s son Parikshit, his son Janamejaya became king. Parikshit also achieved liberation by listening to the Bhagavata Purana by Shukdev Ji in these seven days.
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Categories: Devi Bhagwat Puran, Mahabharat
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