Parīkshit Moksha

Parīkshit Moksha is the last event of the Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa. In the 12th Skanda, Chapters 5 and 6, Śuka Maharshi gives King Parīkshit his final teaching. Parīkshit accepts it with full certainty, asks leave to depart, and enters brahma-laya, the merging into Parabrahman, on the bank of the Gaṅgā. Takshaka’s bite then burns only the body that the king had already left.

Śuka’s last teaching (Chapter 5)

The Bhāgavata had already told twelve skandas of the history of creation, of theology, bhakti, yoga and jñāna. At the end, Śuka Maharshi gave Parīkshit his last direct upadeśa (teaching):

“Abandon the thought that you are dying. This belief comes from confusing the body with the ātmā. You were never born. You will not perish. Only the body was born, and only the body will end.”

The teaching used the full method of Vedānta, which is viveka, telling the self apart from what is not the self:

• The ātmā shines by itself and has no cause. The body rises and falls. The ātmā does not.
• A figure in a dream may see his own head cut off, but the dreamer who sees it is untouched. In the same way the ātmā in the waking state (jāgrat) sees what happens to the body and is not bound by it.
• The space in a pot (ghaṭa-ākāśa) is never truly separate from the infinite space (mahā-ākāśa). When the pot breaks, the space in the pot does not cease to be the infinite space. In the same way, when the body dissolves, the jīva merges back into Parabrahman, from whom it was never truly separate.
• The manas (mind) produces the body, the works of the guṇas, and karma as its objects. Avidyā (ignorance) produces the manas. From avidyā alone comes saṃsāra.

Śuka gave this last instruction:

“Meditate: ‘I am Parabrahman, the support of all. I am Parabrahman, the support of all.’ Through dhyāna, draw yourself into Paramātmā, free of every link with upādhi (limiting adjuncts).”

He added: “Takshaka, and any other means of death that may come, cannot come near you and cannot burn you. You are the ātmā. You are mṛtyunāṃ mṛtyuḥ, the death of death itself.”

The Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 12th Skanda, Chapter 5, gives this account.

Parīkshit’s reply

Parīkshit heard Śuka’s last words and was filled with deep certainty and peace. He bowed low before the Maharshi and said:

“You live in Bhagavān Vishṇu with unbroken knowledge of the ātmā. You have shown me endless grace. You have told us this Bhāgavata Purāṇa, in which glorious Śrī Hari is praised without a pause. I have entered the Parabrahman you showed me. In that Parabrahman there is no fear and no sorrow. I am not afraid of Takshaka or of any cause of death. Let me go. I let go of speech. I let go of the mind full of desire. I place this prāṇa (life breath) in Bhagavān Vishṇu, who cannot be known by any ordinary means of knowing.”

He asked Śuka’s leave to withdraw from the body. Śuka was satisfied. He rose and left with the sannyāsins who had gathered there.

The Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 12th Skanda, Chapter 5, gives this account.

The brahma-laya (Chapter 6)

Parīkshit Mahārāja was a great yogī. He became samādhi-stha, established in samādhi. He drew back completely into his own svarūpa (true nature). He became like a tree, with no prāṇa-spandana (tremor of life breath) that anyone outside could see. He sat facing north (uttaramukha) on darbha grass with its tips pointing east, on the bank of the Gaṅgā. In that posture he dissolved his individual consciousness into Parabrahman. This is brahma-laya, the merging into the Supreme.

The king had heard the whole Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, all twelve skandas, from Śuka Maharshi. He had been made ready at every level. His intellect was ready through jñāna, his heart through bhakti, and his will through viveka. His body was ready through prāyopaveśa, the fast until death taken by choice. The teaching had done its whole work. The body stayed on its seat of kuśa grass. What had called itself Parīkshit dissolved into the eternal.

The Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 12th Skanda, Chapter 6, gives this account.

Takshaka’s arrival

Soon afterward Takshaka came. He had first paid the healer Kaśyapa to turn back. He came disguised as a brāhmaṇa and bit the king’s body. The fire of the poison turned the body to ash at once, in front of the whole assembly.

The earth, the sky and all the directions cried out in grief. Devas, asuras, humans and siddhas all stood in wonder. Heavenly drums sounded. Gandharvas and apsarās sang. The devas showered flowers.

The body was already empty, because the king’s consciousness had merged into Parabrahman. The jīva had already left. Takshaka’s fire burned only what had already been given up.

The Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 12th Skanda, Chapter 6, gives this account.

Sūta’s closing words

Sūta Maharshi reflects that whoever hears this account of Parīkshit’s liberation with śraddhā (faith) makes the ātmā fully pure.

The Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 12th Skanda, Chapter 6, gives this account.

Sources

• Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 12th Skanda, Chapters 5–6