Chapter 2 – Curse of King Parikshit

Although King Parikshit avoided everything to protect himself from Kali Yuga, he couldn’t part himself from his crown which was made from gold. Due to this, his mind started getting affected by Kali Yuga. As he had status as a king, he became a little prideful and arrogant. He even started getting angry.

One day, King Parikshit took his bow and went to the forest for hunting. While following the injured deer, he ran too deep into the forest but couldn’t catch it and exhausted himself. Due to tiredness, he felt hungry and thirsty. He started wandering around in the forest to find some source of water but results were unfruitful.

While moving around, he stumbled on one monastery. When he entered the monastery, he found an old saint scholar sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed. He was covering his body with deer lather and his long and dishevelled hairs were all around him. He was in deep meditation as one couldn’t differentiate his state whether he was awake, sleeping or dreaming. He was known as Saint Shamik.

As his throat was getting dry, King Parikshit asked for some water but he got disappointed as he didn’t receive any response. King was a devotee of all scholars and he had no anger or enmity on them but at this moment, due to hunger and thirst, he couldn’t control himself.

He was King and he also had pride and status but at this place, nobody welcomed him or offered a place to sit. On other hand, when he asked for water, he received no response. As he felt insulted, he immediately got angry and wanted to check if this saint was really meditating or he was awake and ignoring him.

To verify his doubts, King collected a dead snake on the bow end and put it on the shoulder of saint Shamik who was meditating. As the saint didn’t move, the King returned back to his kingdom with disappointment.

Saint Shamik had a bright, sharp minded but little short-tempered son named Shringi. On his way back to the monastery with other disciples, he noticed King Parikshit coming out from the monastery. When he showed a dead snake to his meditating father, he immediately got angry and understood that this was the work of King Parikshit.

‘As dogs watch the door to defend home, scholars hire warriors to watch over and defend their home. A warrior class King, who is a step below the scholar class and his status is like a dog insulting a scholar, this is outrageous! Since the departure of Lord Shree Krishna for eternal journey, nobody is there to teach lessons to such outrageous people. He should step up and make an example of him.’ Thinking this, Shringi immediately released the extremely poisonous and uncontrollable snake ‘Takshak’ and imparted the smell of King Parikshit on it.

After releasing the Takshak snake, Shringi sipped some water and cursed watching the sky, “King Parikshit, this snake can hold your smell for seven days. He will find you and bite you in seven days. Save yourself if you can.”

After cursing King Parikshit, Shringi’s anger subsided and he got sad watching his father, tears started dropping from his eyes. Meanwhile, after this disturbance, when Sanit Shamik finished his meditation, he noticed the sadness of Shringi and asked him what happened. Saint Shamik was a calm and kind natured person. While listening to the whole story, his face showed an expression of worry for King Parikshit.

Learning the whole story, He replies to his son, “Son, the decision you took with anger is wrong. You are bright and sharp minded but your anger covered your thinking and you made the wrong decision without inquiring much. If you had remembered at that time that King Parikshit was a good ruler and devoted his life for the wellbeing of people, you might not have taken this decision. What King did to me, there might be a reason for that and could be confirmed by asking him. When you make a decision, think properly of the consequences as the loss of this King will impact on many people.”

Hearing father’s words, Shringi’s eyes diminished. He replied, “With my stubbornness and anger, I had already taken action and it couldn’t be reversed. Now, whatever lesson or punishment you give me, what I cursed back then will become true. I don’t know how to correct my actions.”

Saint Shamik replied, “I know that you have a hot-tempered personality and your actions couldn’t be reversed but, as a father, it’s my duty to guide you for your future behaviour. I will take some countermeasures against this issue and inform the king. Meanwhile, I want you to work hard, live a simple life in the forest, eat only fruits and roots and learn to control your anger.”

After sending off his son, Saint Shamik asked his disciple to inform King Parikshit about the curse and actions of his son. King was already feeling guilty of his deeds in the forest and when he got a message from a scholar disciple, his face became gloomy. With guilt of his own actions and approaching death, he decided to enthrone his son ‘Janamejaya’ and decided to stay on the bank of river Yamuna and devote himself to God till death arrives.