Lessons from the story of Parikshit and Takshak | Fusion - WeRIndia

Mahabharata teaches many life lessons to people. The story of Parikshit and Takshak is one such story that can warn you about taking preventive measures when you know the probable danger.

Parikshit was the grandson of the Pandavas, the son of Abhimanyu. He was about to die as a fetus in his mother’s womb due to the powerful weapon of Ashwathama in the battle of Kurukshetra. But, Lord Krishna defended him with his Sudarshan Chakra. Hence he was named Vishnurata. But he was popular as Parikshit.

One day king Parikshit was travelling through a forest. Then he became thirsty and saw a sage, Samika. He called the sage several times, but the sage did not respond to him due to his deep involvement with mediation.

Then Parikshit got angry. He threw a dead snake around the neck of the sage. When the incident was known to the son of Samika, Sringin, he cursed Parikshit for insulting his father. As per the curse, the king would die due to a snake bite within seven days.

When Parikshit heard about the curse, he handed over the throne to his son and decided to spend the remaining time listening to Puranas. He isolated himself in a tightly closed palace and took all precautionary measures to avoid a snake bite. He was so confident that he could escape from the snake bite. One of the physicians assured the king to save him from the poison of the snake. But, Takshak, the snake that wanted to bite the king lured the physician by offering many precious gifts for not saving the king from the snake bite.

On the seventh day, Takshak disguised in the form of a worm and entered the palace in the fruit basket. When the king took a fruit, Takshak came to his original form and bit the king. Parikshit died of a snake bite and the sage’s curse became true.

Though king Parikshit escaped death as a fetus, he could not avoid untimely death. There are many lessons to be learned from this story. The moral of the story is one could not escape from destiny. Despite being isolated in a tightly closed palace, his death came in the form of a worm.

If you apply the story to the present situation, it tells us that the king, even though was great, had isolated himself at his palace to protect himself from a snake.

Image Credit: Mahavir Prasad Mishra / CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Source: https://archive.org/details/MahabharataTejKumarBookDepotMahavirPrasadMishra

Image Reference: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Srikrishna_use_weapon_in_Kurukshetra.jpg