Janamejaya Sees Parīkshit

King Janamejaya was the son of Parīkshit. He performed a sarpa-yajña (a fire ritual against the serpents) to avenge his father’s death. This episode comes at the very end of that yajña, during the avabhṛtha bath (the closing bath of a yajña). Vyāsa lets Janamejaya see his dead father once more.

The request

Vaiśampāyana had already told Janamejaya of the joyful meeting of the warriors at the Gaṅgā. He had also told him of the teaching on karma, the pitṛloka (the world of the ancestors), the devayāna (the path of the devas) and moksha (liberation). That teaching explained how it is possible to see the departed.

Janamejaya was delighted. He then said to Vaiśampāyana:

“If Bhagavān Vyāsa shows me my own father in the very form, the very dress and the very age he had at that time, then I shall believe entirely everything you have told me. That would be dear to me. I have resolved that I shall become *kṛtārtha (one whose purpose is fulfilled) by this. Let my wish be fulfilled by the grace of that foremost ṛshi.”*

Janamejaya sees his father

Hearing this, Vyāsa, who was full of great power, was pleased with the wise king. He called Parīkshit. At once Janamejaya saw his father, radiant, as though he had come straight from svarga (heaven). Parīkshit had the same form, the same dress and the same age that he had at the moment of his death.

With Parīkshit, Janamejaya also saw the great-souled Śamīka Maharshi and Śamīka’s son Śṛṅgī. He saw all those who were close to that gathering.

Janamejaya was filled with joy. At that very time of the avabhṛtha bath he remembered the whole earlier history of his father. Then he himself took the avabhṛtha bath, which formally ended the sarpa-yajña.

Āstīka’s praise

After the bath, King Janamejaya, born in the line of Yayāti, spoke to the brāhmaṇa Āstīka, the son of Jaratkāru:

“O Āstīka! I think this yajña is full of many wonders, because my father, who took away all my grief, has come here to me this very day.”

Āstīka answered:

“O best of the Kuru line! Dvaipāyana Maharshi, the ancient one, rich in tapas, was himself present at his yajña. Such a king has won both worlds. You have heard a wonderful itihāsa. The serpents were burned to ash. At the end you have seen even your own father’s place. Takshaka was set free, and that came about through your own truthfulness. You have honoured all the ṛshis, and now you have found out even the destination of your great father.”

Āstīka went on to say that Janamejaya had gained very great and wide dharma. Hearing this itihāsa, which destroys pāpa (sin), had loosened the knot in his own heart. This had come to him through the darśana of these great persons. They stand on the side of dharma and delight in good conduct, and by their very darśana they remove the pāpa of men.

What Janamejaya had heard

Janamejaya had heard the whole Mahābhārata from Vaiśampāyana. This included the account of his father’s death from the bite of Takshaka, and the account of the sarpa-yajña that he himself began in answer to it. Āstīka’s intervention later stopped that yajña.

Now Vyāsa gave him a direct sight of his father. In the same way, Dhṛtarāshṭra and Gāndhārī had seen their own sons at the Gaṅgā.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Āśramavāsika Parva, Chapter 35
• Mahābhārata, Āśramavāsika Parva, Chapter 34 (the teaching on karma, pitṛloka, devayāna and moksha)