Parashurama is the sixth avatar of Lord Vishnu. He is the son of Renuka and sage Jamadagni, one of the seven rishis, or saptarishi. He was born towards the end of Tretayuga, lived to see the complete Dwaparayuga, and is also said to be witnessing the initial phase of Kaliyuga, thereby becoming one of the seven immortals or Chiranjivis of Hinduism.
His name is the sum total of Parashu+ Rama, meaning Rama with an axe (parashu). Indeed, he received an axe after undertaking terrible penance to please Lord Shiva, who in turn taught him the martial arts.
Parashurama is most known for ridding the world of kshatriyas 21 times over after the mighty king Kartavirya Arjuna killed his father. He also played an important role in the Mahabharata and Ramayana, serving as mentor to Bhishma, Drona and Karna. Lord Parashurama and Ravana’s son Indrajit are believed to be the only humans who have ever possessed the three ultimate weapons of the Trinity i.e. Brahmanda astra, Vaishnava astra and Pashupat astra.
As mentioned before, Parashurama was a disciple of Lord Shiva and learned the scriptures and the arts of warfare from Lord Shiva. He then acquired celestial weapons from Lord Shiva and the other gods on Lord Shiva’s instructions. Lord Shiva personally trained Parashurama in the art of warfare. Bhargavastra was his personal celestial weapon and Vijaya was his personal bow, which was gifted by none less than Lord Shiva himself. Parashurama also fought back the advancing seas to save the lands of Konkan and Kerala.
Vishnu Bhagawan took the avatar as Parashurama in order to destroy the adharmic kshatriya princes of the Satya Yuga.The peculiarity of an amsha avatar (as Vanajamma said) is that ParaBrahma retains a part of the powers and sends a part to earth to manifest.
Lord Krishna was a poorna avatara, whereas Lord Parashuram was an amshika avatara. A poorna avatara is the one where the avatar is in full consciousness, simultaneously, about his jiva form, his Ishwar form and his turiya (Brahm) form..
Krishnavatara is distinguished from all others because Krishna possessed 64 qualities in full. Other manifestations of Krishna possess varying degrees of these qualities.
Parashurama was there even during Treta Yuga (Lord Rama’s time) and Dwapara Yuga (during Lord Krishna’s time). Also, the fact that he was a Chiranjeevi should give you a hint that he might be still alive doing penance on Mahendragiri.
He is supposed to co-exist with other avatars. Kalki Purana states that Parashurama will reemerge at the end of Kali Yuga to be the ,martial and spiritual guru of Kalki, the tenth and final avatar of Vishnu.
So what do you think? Is he still alive?…………?
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