SRI RAGHAVENDERA SWAMY'S SRI RAMACHARITRYA MANJARI

Parashurama displays divinity

(Story of Parashurama has been continued here. Please read, comment and shared. SDN)

Once, Renuka Devi, wife of Jamadagni Rishi and mother of Parashurama, went Ganga River to fetch water. At that moment, Gandharva King Chitraratha was having fun with some women in the Ganga waters. Due to divine will, she looked at Chitraratha with a desire. It was purely momentary and she immediately took control of the mind. She collected the water and returned to the hermitage. Sage Jamadagni noticed that she had been slightly delayed and after looking at her face, he could also thoroughly perceive what had transpired in her mind on the banks of Ganga. He summoned his children one after the other and ordered each of them to immediately kill their mother Renuka Devi. Finally, he summoned Parashurama and told him: “Kill your mother who has committed mental debauchery and your elder brothers for disobeying me.”

Parashurama decided to relieve his mother and brothers from the sin they had committed. Later, he would also expose to the universe the power of penance of his father Jamadagni. By killing his mother and brothers, he removed the stigma of sin they had inadvertently attracted. Jamadagni was very much pleased with the act of Parashurama and offered to bestow a boon on Lord Parashurama. In response, Parashurama said “Let all those dead come alive instantly. Further, they should not remember that I had killed them.” Jamadagni granted the boons. Parashurama showed to the world the mystic power that his father Jamadagni had secured through penance.  

Another exposition

All the children of Kartaveeryarjuna were keen on taking revenge on Parashurama for killing their father. But they had no courage to confront him. They went to the hermitage after ensuring that Lord Parashurama was not there. They assassinated sage Jamadagni, who was doing penance, and fled the scene silently. Hearing his mother Renuka Devi crying aloud, Parashurama rushed into the Ashram. He gathered the details of what had just happened from his mother.  Treating that as a reason, he made up his mind to kill all those demons who had taken birth in different Kshatriya dynasties. He launched this schem

e by killing the sons of Kartaveeryarjuna, who had lost their sanity and Tejas after committing Brahma Hatya by killing Jamadagni.  He circumambulated the entire Earth 21 times. He massacred the bad elements or cruel or wicked Kshatriyas again and again. He created nine large ponds with the blood of those killed by him at a place called Syamantapanchaka. He placed their severed head on the body of his father. Because of his divine and mystic power and kindness, all those deceased were instantly reborn.
As Lord Parashurama is an incarnation of Lord Hari, there is no question of him committing a sin or attracting negative energy. Lord Parashurama is beyond the attributes. Still, with the sole intention of making human beings understand the tenets of life, he decided to perform many Yajnas as a symbol of repentance.  Through these Yajnas, he worshipped himself as he is the recipient of everything that is offered during the Yajna. In the end, in the holy waters of Saraswati River, he took Avabhruta bath. This Lord Parashurama and Jamadagni will become two separate incarnations to be among the Sapta Rishisin the next Manvantara. The duo will propagate the knowledge of Vedas and other Shastras. This Parashurama will then go to Mahendrachala and pretend to be doing penance till the end of the present Manvantara.