{| Doubts and Discussions about Mahabharata - 2 |} - Page 37

Parashurama hated all kshatriyas: he almost went to war against Rama while the latter was returning to Ayodhya from Mithila. Due to his father's killing by Kartavirya Arjun's sons, he did a guilt by association judgement on all kshatriyas and wiped out 21 generations of them - bad and good. Rishi Kashyap had to intervene and ban him from resting on earth.

I've always been surprised as to how he accepted Bheeshma as a pupil. Yeah, Karna lied, but what about Bheeshma? Did Ganga just go to him telling him, "Here's my son, teach him" and Parashurama thought nothing more of it? Or did he fear that if he discriminated against Devarath on basis of caste, that Ganga would ban him from bathing in her and he'd get a bad case of BO? I wonder which 😈

The timing of events are to be noted here as well. He taught Bhishma long back probably after his revenge of Karthaveeryarjuna and other Kshatriyas but making it an exceptional case. Karna came much later, when Parshurama had kind of retired from teaching.

Originally posted by: Vibhishna

I thought Parasurama had annihilated 21 generations of Kshathriyas (how did anyone survive if 21 generations were killed...?) long before he met Rama of Ayodhya and secluded himself to do penance and let go of his anger. How could he have taught Devavrata before that? Devavrata should have been born much later. I read that he agreed to teach Ganga's son since Ganga herself requested it. I too have wondered why Parashurama agreed to teach him. And Dasharatha may not have been on the Earth at that time - he could have been fighting alongside Indra when Parashurama went on a killing spree. It was said that at that time, the rulers were all corrupt and selfish...

If you read my post closely you could see that I have mentioned Bheeshm's tutelage to begin after anhilation of kshatriyas.

Ramayan was in Tretha yug, I am not sure if He was on a killing spree while Dasharath was assisting Indr. Parashurama is a chiranjeevi just like Vibhishana 😊 .

ashwatthamo bali vyasah hanumanscha vibhishanah |
kripah parashuramascha saptaite chirajeevinah

As I said earlier, He is Srihari, it is his prerana that he would teach Bhishma and curse Karna. He comes from the great Bhrigu lineage (Bhargav, Chyavan ,Apnavan, Aurv, Ruchik, Jamadagni). BTW, Chyavanprash comes from Chyavan Rishi. Mahalakshmi is Bhrigu's daughter - Bhargavi.

I am not going to buy into Ganga Maa made a plea and He acceded. I am sure he had his reasons to make an exception for Bhishma.

Vibs, you're back. Have you been watching this serial - either in Hindi or Tamil?

Raghuji, regardless of whether Karna knew about his Kaunteya identity, he did know that he was not a Brahmin, and knowingly lied to Parashurama in order to get divyastra training. That's the reason he was cursed. His curse may have been a lot milder had he introduced himself as a suta, been found out to be a kshatriya and then confronted about it.

Vrish,

Raghuji

Had Karna told Parashurama that he was either a kshatriya/suta, he'd have been giving partially correct info. But by saying that he was a Brahmin, he lied thru his teeth.

Vrish,
Whatever he says would be deemed a lie. May be he could have said "I do NOT know my caste" - isn't that a lie too ! The problem his he doesn't know his birth for a fact.

There is never half truth - no fuzzy logic :(

It is quite unfortunate he was put in that situation none other than fate (in other words Kunti/Suryadev). Role of mother/father is clearly delineated in smrithi.

Anyways , back to Parashurama - if you consider him as GOD, He would have known his identity NOT through a bee piercing Karn, but by divya dhristi. It is divine destiny to have him cursed. So there needs to be some reason for curse/his death, that's pretty much it.

The greatness of Karn is he not only stood against all odds, but the charity he has done without even caring for his life is something far far superior. All he wanted was his talent to be recognized. As I said a tiger can be a tiger, you cannot tell him to be a cat

He never got his birth right the way he ought to have got, but he got more than all that after death - everlasting glory.

@Vrish and Raghuji Hm.. kind of lost track thru the discussions by you folks in the last two pages.

Surya_Krsnbhakt,