Appearance of Lord Parasurama - Part 2 Date: 2016-05-11 Author: Narahari Krishna das Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva. This is in conclusion of the previous offering titled, "Appearance of Lord Parasurama", wherein we were meditating on the glories of Lord Parasurama. We were discussing about the pastime of Lord Parasuram killing Kartavirya. We shall see further. After Kartavirya attained greatpowers, Agni the fire god became one of his close friends. Once Agni was suffering from severe thirst. So he asked Kartavirya a way to quench his thirst. Kartavirya arjuna pointed to him many fields, forests and some villages under his control and asked Agni to consume them by fire. Agni started burning everything given by Kartavirya and no one could stop him as he was having the friendship of Kartavirya arjuna. There was a certain beautiful forest in which a sage Apava (the son of Varuna, rain god) was meditating. So Agni was scared to enter the forest and again approached Kartavirya arjuna for help. Kartavirya arjuna wanted to stick to the promise he made to Agni and hence accompanied him to the forest and Agni consumed the forest because he gained courage in the company of Kartavirya. But in the process, he also burned hermitage of Sage Apava. The sage was very much offended by this and said to Kartavirya, "You have been neglectful and burnt my ashram and for this offense you will meet your end in the hands of someone other than me. One Rama, the unlimitedly powerful son of Jamadagni, an ascetic Brahmana in the Bhargava lineage will defeat you and your army in the fight. He will cut all your thousand arms and exterminate you." The Supreme Lord never tolerates injustice done to sages and Kartavirya out of pride of his powers, did not care to protect the sage's ashram. So to prove the words of Apava true, Lord Parasurama killed Kartavirya. And when He looked around, the world was burdened with irreligious kshatriyas and he killed their dynasty 21 times and made the land of Bharatavarsha free from fallen kings. Righteous kings Janaka, Dasaratha who were religious were spared. Now from this pastime of Parasurama, we can understand the Lord's great power which is glorified in the Harimvamsa (Vishnu parva 33.36,37) as follows: yasya bāhusahasrasya babhūva jyātalasvanaḥ yugānte tv ambudasyeva sphuṭato hy aśaner iva aho bata mṛdhe vīryaṃ bhārgavasya yad acchinat rājño bāhusahasraṃ tu haimaṃ tālavanaṃ yathā Harimvamsa The twangs of his (Kartavirya Arjuna) bow when drawn by his thousand arms are like the clapping of thunderbolts erupting from dark-clouds that emerge at the time of universal destruction...But, what an astounding valour of the descendant of Bhrigu, Parashu-Rama, in combat!!!! He felled the thousand arms of Kartavirya-arjuna which looked like golden palmgrove, and ended him in a combat. The pastime also highlights an important lesson which is the danger of pitfall of pride. When we become successful in material pursuits, the tendency is to become arrogant and disrespect others. This danger is there even in spiritual life. When our preaching, service and efforts in spiritual life becomes successful and we start getting good recognition and glorification, sometimes pride crops up and we bash whoever does not align with us and call them as "not bonafide" or "insincere". Sometimes we become proud of the austerities we do in spiritual life and mock at those who are not able to do the same. Though Kartavirya was powerful and very religious in performing sacrifices, he was overcome by pride and earned the curse of the sage. But since he was a pious king, he understood the danger of pride well in advance and prayed the Lord to destroy him when needed. In the same way, every devotee can pray to Lord Parasurama to curb the pride when it crops in our spiritual life. The Lord is called Darpa-haari (one who takes way the pride) . It will be extremely painful when the Lord smashes our pride (since it’s a direct hit on our ego). But in the long run it will benefit us. I pray at the lotus feet of our dear spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada and Lord Parasurama so that by their mercy I will accept the Lord's actions in levelling my pride, without grudging. Hare Krishna. Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Narahari Krishna das Chennai..