The Glance of Lord Parasurama

Date: 2015-04-21 Author: Narahari das

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.

Today is the auspicious day of Akshaya Trithiya. This day carries the following specialities.

1. Lord Parasurama appeared on this day. 2. Ganges descended to the earth on this day. 3. Sudama visited Lord Krishna at Dwaraka. 4. Pandavas received Akshaya patra from the sun God. 5. The composition of was begun by Vyasadeva and Ganeshji on this day.

Today we will meditate on some of the glories of Lord Parasurama, the Lord's warrior incarnation. Lord Parasurama exhibited unlimited power by destroying all the irreligious Kshatriyas, 21 generations and killed Kartavirya the most invincible king of his times. But the Lord also exhibited great mercy towards the and saintly persons. He also liberated many living entities from their curses. One such incident is narrated in Mahabharata. Lord Parasurama was the teacher of . One day after the classes were over, Lord Parasurama was relaxing on the lap of Karna who was his student and Karna was massaging his body. At that time, a very fearful bug sat on the lap of karna and started piercing his leg. It was having hairs like needle, ugly looking body and ferocious in its look. As the bug pierced, blood started flowing out of Karna's thigh and it touched Lord Parasurama who woke up by this . And he was shocked to see the blood and he looked at the bug which caused this bleeding. The moment it was glanced by Lord Parasurama, the bug passed away soaked in blood. Immediately, a big giant appeared and offered obeisance to the Lord.

The giant spoke, "O Lord, thank you so much for releasing me from the ugly body of blood sucking bug. In the Satya yuga, I was a close friend of the Bhrigu and I was very powerful giant with the name Kamsa (not the kamsa in Krishna lila). One day I enjoyed the wife of Bhrigu rishi by force due to by lustful exploiting mentality. The sage became angry and cursed me to become a blood sucking bug. Then I begged for forgiveness from him and asked for way to redeem from the curse. He said that, "When you’re glanced by Lord Parasurama who will appear in our lineage, you will be free from this curse." Now by your merciful glance I'm relieved from this body and regained my original form." Stating this the giant offered pranams to the Lord and left the place.

We can see that in spite of being a close friend and associated of a great rishi, the giant fell into an abominable birth because of his exploiting mentality. Because of this mentality, the giant became a bug which lives only by sucking blood from others. In devotional service also, when other devotees try to serve us (thinking us to be devotees) or we take help from them, we should be careful not exploit their service attitude and we should try to remain grateful to their help. We should not take their service for granted thinking that they are obligated to serve us because we are devotees. In such situations if our grabbing tendency makes us exploit their service attitude more and more, then the Lord is not pleased by this.

Our beloved spiritual master HH Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj, perfectly showed this by his own example. Due to advanced age, when Maharaj holds the hand of other persons to walk and do his activities, Maharaj never felt that others are obligated to serve him. When we stand by him as his support during walking, after reaching the destination, Maharaj would always say, "Sorry for the trouble. Thank you so much." This shows that Maharaj is grateful even for the small service we do and does not try to exploit others. Same is the mood, exhibited by Maharaj when devotees gave donation. He would always say, "Do not trouble yourself. We want you to be at ease."

So on this auspicious day of Parasuram Jayanthi, let us pray at the lotus feet of Lord Parasurama (who liberated the bug who lives by exploiting others blood) so that he showers His merciful glance upon us and free us from this exploiting mentality and grabbing tendency. Let us also pray to our beloved spiritual master for his blessings so that we will try to follow in his footsteps and imbibe his quality as above.

Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Narahari Krishna das Chennai.