śrīmad

Parikshit however, was a king.
And like all kings, he always wore a crown. A crown of... gold.
Now Kali smugly entered into Parikshit's crown and waited !

Some time later, Parikshit was traveling through the jungle. He was tired and separated from his army. As he was thirsty, he went to the ashram of Sage Shamika. The sage was so deep in meditation that he did not even notice the king. Parikshit bowed again and again at the Sage, but he never realized it...

A new voice spoke inside the king's head, the voice of Kali: "You are a king! And this worthless man dares to defy you!" Parikshit shook his head... That was a sage... he could not think like this about the man... But the voice persisted: "That man is defying you! He must be punished! He must be made to look silly for what he has done!"

Though Parikshit tried fighting with the voice in his head, he lost. He looked around, and saw a dead snake lying near the sage. With an cruel grin, he picked up the snake, and hung it around the neck of the sage and left. Serves the man right! Who does he think he is!

The sage Shamika was so deep in his meditation, that he did not even realize what had happened...

In the evening, Shamika's son Shringi had come to ashram, and was horrified to find a dead snake on his father's neck. He removed the snake and looked furiously around. With a deep breath he closed his eyes and meditated. He realized that it was King Parikshit who had done this. A king, acting like this!...Such a king needed not exist!... Shringi opened his eyes and in anger cursed Parikshit: "Parikshit, you will die seven days from now, by a snake bite!"

When King Parikshit had heard about the curse, he immediately gave up the throne to his son Janamejaya. He called for Sage Sukadeva, the son of Vyasa, and listened to what is now know as the Srimad Bhagavatam (Canto2-12) the whole of the next seven days. As Parikshit listened to the stories, his fear of death went away. He realized the ultimate truth of life and death, and gave up his body to attain Moksha.

True to Sringan's curse, Takshak, the king of the snakes bit King Parikshit's body áfter the soul had left it, thereby making the sage's words true.

Janamejaya who became the king of Hastinapur after his father, was very angry with Takshak for killing his father. He conducted the great Snake Sacrifice to avenge the death of his father. It was during the Snake Sacrifice that the story of Mahabharatha was narrated for the first time by Sage Vaisampayana to Janamejaya.


~bron~