Parasara Ashram : |
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Traditionally, an ashram is a religious hermitage. Additionally, today the term ashram often denotes a locus of Indian cultural activity such as yoga, music study or religious instruction, the moral equivalent of a studio or dojo.
Parasara is a Rigveda Maharsi and author of many ancient Indian texts. Parasara was the grandson of Vasishtha, the son of Shakti-muni, and the father of Vyasa. Brahma created Vasishtha who with Arundhati had a son named Shakti-muni who sired Parasara. With Satyavati, Parasara fathered Vyasa. Vyasa sired Dhritarashtra, Pandu and Vidura through his dead brother's wives. He sired suka through his wife, Jabali's daughter Pinjala (Vatika). Thus Parashara was the great-grandfather of both the warring parties of the Mahabharata, the Kauravas and the Pandavas. Maharsi Parasara was raised by his grandfather, Vasishtha, because he lost his father at an early age. His father, Shakti-muni, was on a journey and came across an angry Rakshasa (demon) who had once been a king but was turned into a demon feeding on human flesh as a curse from Vishwamitra. The demon devoured Parasara's father. In the Visnu Purana, Parasara speaks about his anger from this: I had heard that my father had been devoured by a Rakshasa employed by Vishwamitra: violent anger seized me, and I commenced a sacrifice for the destruction of the Rakshasas: hundreds of them were reduced to ashes by the rite, when, as they were about to be entirely exterminated, my grandfather Vasishtha said to me: Enough, my child; let thy wrath be appeased: the Rakshasas are not culpable: thy father's death was the work of destiny. Anger is the passion of fools; it becometh not a wise man. By whom, it may be asked, is any one killed? Every man reaps the consequences of his own acts. Anger, my son, is the destruction of all that man obtains by arduous exertions, of fame, and of devout austerities; and prevents the attainment of heaven or of emancipation. |
