How Kaliyuga Started? Story of King Parikshit and Kaliyuga

Overview

 In the current era, we have seen many such incidents in which many riots, terrorism, corruption and many other problems have been seen in this world. This is happening because we living in the most cursed era of Kaliyuga,the era of decline of truth and righteousness.There are still four 4,26,550 years left for the end of Kaliyuga. By the way, you know that in the epic of Mahabharata, after the destruction of Kauravas in the battlefield of Kurukshetra, due to the curse of Queen Gandhari, many years later, the Yadava dynasty of Lord Shri Krishna was destroyed on earth and Lord Krishna finished his leela and went to Baikunth and after many years, the Pandavas handed over the kingdom to their grandson Parikshit and went to heaven. But do you know how Kaliyuga started after Parikshit became the king, how did he come to the earth, we will tell you about this.

1.King Parikshit’s encounter with Kaliyuga

One day a cow and a bull,where the bull represents righteousness(Dharma),who was standing on one feet,which means there is only one fourth of righteousness present on the earth. And the cow represents the Earth which is in trouble. So in the forest, a person who looked like a very dangerous demon was beating the cow and the bull with great force. At that time, the king Parikshit, who was the strong follower of righteousness and justice, was roaming in the forest. So when he saw that man, then he got down to punish him and asked him who is he. The person said that he is Kali Yuga and he has arrived to take control of the Earth as per the rule of Yugas cycle. King Parikshit said that Kaliyuga cannot succeed in taking control of the earth and spread the unrighteousness when he is present in this Earth. He decided to give a kill the Kaliyuga. Kaliyuga saw that King Parikshit is very powerful, and as long as he is there he cannot enter and take control of the Earth. So he begged for mercy from the King and said that this is the destiny's decree and Yugas cycle is the rule of god,so he(the king) should provide him some places where he could live so that there is no hindrance in the work of the Creator.King Parikshit told him that he should stay in a place where there is gambling, prostitution, violence and gold are sold. But he was unaware that his crown was also made of gold and Kaliyug sat in his crown and took control of king's mind. So,as long as King Parikshit had the crown on his head Kaliyuga could manipulate and control his mind.

2.The incident with Sage Shamika and the curse of Shringi

One day King Parikshit went to the forest for hunting and reached the hermitage of Sage Shamika sage Shamika. The sage was in deep meditation. Even when the king asked for water, he didn't opened his eyes despite King Parikshit's constant request.King got angry and found a dead snake lying nearby and put it around the sage's neck and went away.Some children were watching that.They immediately went informed the thing to Sage Shamika's son Shringi.Shringi got angry and cursed him that the king who did this he would be killed by the serpent king Takshak after 7 days.

3.King Parikshit’s realisation and suggestion of Sage Narada.

When Sage Shamika opened his eyes he realised what happened and scolded his son that he cursed the king blindly without knowing the full story and without consulting from him.He paved the way for the Kaliyuga.When King Parikshit removed his crown he realised his mistake and felt guilty.He accepted the curse.Sage Narada appeared before him and suggested him to spend his remaining days listening to Bhagavad Gita from Sage Shuka,Sage Veda Vyasa's son and King Parikshit agreed to do that.

4.Preparation of protection and the reason of Takshak’s grudge towards the Pandavas clan.

So,a very tall tower was constructed,which was tall enough to keep someone safe from snakes and king Parikshit would love on the top of it for the rest of the day. So Serpent King Takshak,who wanted to  take revenge from Pandavas because the day when Pandavas migrated to Khandava forest with the citizens to build a new kingdom.The forest was infested by large number of venomous snakes and the king was Takshak. So,the snakes didn't liked Pandavas entering into their territory and trying build the empire. So,they attacked. In order to defend the civilians and prevent the further attacks from snakes.Third Pandava Prince Arjuna killed all the snakes and burnt down the forest.From that day Takshak vowed for revenge from Pandavas and this was his right time as King Parikshit was the grandson of Pandavas.But Takshak saw that the tower was very tall and it was well guarded by powerful soldiers and King Parikshit was very powerful,so trying to kill him directly would be impossible.That King Parikshit invited Sage Kashyap who is expert in preventing and curing the snake bite and the power to avert the effect of the curse.

5.Death of King Parikshit

So Takshak went to Sage Kashyap and requested him not to help King Parikshit and let the curse of Shringi succeed.Sage said that he would get golds and rewards.Takshak offered extra gold reward to the sage that King offered and the sage returned. Now Takshak asked one of his serpent to go to King Parikshit disguised as Sage Kashyap with some apples and Takshak took the form of insect and entered the fruit. So,When he offered the fruit to the king,he took a bite and then Takshak emerged in his original form and bit him and King Parikshit died instantly.And after that Kaliyuga was able to take control of the Earth.

Some other versions of the Mahabharata says that When King Parikshit was meditating on the 7th day.Takshak just came and bit him.

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