Sage Parashara who is more popular as father of Veda Vyasa hails from the family of Sage Vasishta, being his grandfather, and father of Sage Shakti (father of Sage Parashara). Sage Parashara was raised by his grandfather due to death of Shakti muni in a very young age because of a king-turned-demon who was cursed by Sage Vishwamitra. Sage Vashista begot one hundred sons by his wife Sati Arundathi whose death was caused by Sage Vishwamitra in one or the other way in the wild fire of his desire to be titled as “Brahmarshi” by Sage Vashista. Sage Parashara is also known as Sage of Rig-Veda as he propagated Rig-Veda orally to his disciples. He was a spiritual master of King Janaka in Treta Yuga and is better known as traveling teacher as he never text-formatted any of his works. The written scripts as referenced to be authored as Sage Parashara were actually written by his disciples to whom he transferred/shared his knowledge with. He was a propagator of many ancient Puranas, Vishnu Purana being the foremost one, hence he belongs to the third generation of Guru Parampara, the other two being Sage Vashista and Sage Shakti. In the previous article of Sage Pulastya, we have known about the performance of Yagna to demolish Demoniac race by Sage Parashara. Because of the intervention of Sage Vashista, Sage Parashara pardoned the demoniac race which shows his profound wisdom and high regard towards his elders. Sage Parashara who fathered Veda Vyasa has a very interesting legend to reveal. On the command of the Creation Trio (Trimurthis) Sage Parashara was traveling through the length and breath of ancient Aryavat while propagating his knowledge, once took shelter with a Village Headman of Fishers who is known as Dasharaj. He is also a ferry man who helped the people to cross River Yamuna. He possessed a beautiful daughter by name Satyavati. She also used to row ferry to help his father. Once when Sage Parashara was their guest for one night, the next day Satyavati was helping him to cross the river. At that time, Sage Parashara was talking to her and enquired where the fish is smell coming from. She answered that her body has the odor of a fish. Sage Parashara jovially remarked that she should carry a name of Matsyagandhi (Woman with a fish odor) but soon realized his ill-manners towards a innocent village girl and blessed her henceforth, she will be popular as Yojanagandhi (Lady whose fragrance can be realized up to one Yojana equivalent to 8 miles or 12.5 kms) or Gadhavati (means a “fragrant one”). [Satyavati emitted fish odor since her birth as she was found in a womb of a fish. She is known to be born because of Chedi King known as Upachara Vasu (ancestor of Jarasandha) and a cursed Apsara (celestial nymph) to become a fish.] Sage Parashara while being on the ferry with Satyavati because of his Yogic powers realized the divine will for the birth of a divine child who would later known as Veda Vyasa, encouraged Satyavati to participate in love-making with him. Satyavati politely rejected him that she is not willing to lose her virginity which may cause dishonor on the part of her family. Sage Parashara consoled her that it is a rare case for a sage like him to have a desire like this and it is nothing but a divine will. He further explained that she would have a son with the grace of Lord Vishnu and her virginity would not be affected by this union. Once she obliges his desire he then took her to a small island in the river and looked up to the sky in a mid day but as soon as he looks up he became dark night. Yojanagandhi willfully agreed to the union and she has given very comfort that she could give in that little time to great sage because of this God-willed union she gave birth to a radiant and dark-colored boy on the spot who seem to have grown up to 14 years immediately after the birth. (He is popular as Krishna Dwaipaayana Vyasa as he was dark-skinned (Krishna) and was born in the riverside island (Dwaipaayana). Another version is that after the birth of the kid after 9 months, Sage Parashara has taken him (Veda Vyasa) along and gave Satyavati a boon that her son Vyasa will come to rescue her in any kind of trouble in future. Hence being raised by his saintly father, Krishna Dwaipaayana also become a Sage and was under penance practice. Veda Vyasa is known to have authored all Puranas, Upanishads and many ancient spiritual literatures and made available to the future generations in the written format. Veda Vyasa also divided the Vedic knowledge into four parts known as Sama, Rig, Yaju and Atharvana into written format. If we consider the Vedic timing format, it is divided into four Yugas: Satya, Treta, Dwapara and Kali. All these four yugas together are known as one Mahayuga. It is ordained by the creator that every Mahayuga will be blessed with one Vyasa and he will be the responsible entity to make the coming generations to have accessibility of the Vedic Knowledge in the written format. Sage Parashara was as a Vyasa of the 26th Mahayuga as Krishna Dwaipaayana is a Vyasa for the current Mahayuga which is a 28th one. Ashvattama, son of Dronacharya will be Vyasa for the next Mahayuga. Sage Parashara has one more interesting legend and known to be responsible for the Mushakvaahan (Rat as a Vehicle) for Lord Ganesha. Once there was an assembly of all Demigods and other celestial beings. At that time, a Gandharva by name Krouncha unknowingly touched Lord Yama with his feet which enraged the latter and Krouncha was cursed to become a mouse. The same mouse was going around the hermitage of Sage Parashara and destroying the grains in the ashram. Being fed up with the mouse, Sage Parashara prayed Lord Ganapathy who caught hold of the mouse. Mushak then surrendered himself to Lord Ganesha, and then he blessed the mouse to be his divine agent and perform the task of carrying him wherever he willed to go. Hence it is said that it will be sin to kill a mouse on the day of Ganesh Chaturthi. Sage Parashara is said to have taken birth in a cave which is near Panhala fort in Kolhapur district, Maharashtra. He performed penance in Western Himalayas where his hermitage was known to be located. At that place, there is beautiful lake known as Parashara Lake surrounded by a beautiful valley of great scenic beauty and this lake surrounds a temple of Lord Shiva as Sage Parashara was a great devotee of Lord Shiva. Sage Parashara’s contributions to the humanity are of immense importance. Among them is Parashara Samhita or Parashara Smriti, which is known to be a guide for the righteous path in the age of Kali. Similarly Manu Smriti is known for the age of Satyayuga, Gautama Smriti in the age of Treta and Smriti of Shankh in Dwapara. He also had many contributions for the science of Astrology, the prominent one known as Parashara Hora. Sage Parashara was a limping sage as he was attacked by a flock of Wolves once when he was wandering in the forest along with his disciples. He was not able to bear the pain in his old age and gave away his life to be merged into wolves. It is a common practice of Sages where they merge themselves into the same element because of which they reached the death. Similar accounts we can see with Sage Jamini who was trampled by a band of wild elephants and the other instance being with Sage Gautama who was burnt and eaten up by a group of Cannibals. Sage Parashara was an entity who carried forward the practice of Guru Parampara and blessed the whole humanity by bringing Veda Vyasa into this world as his son who was responsible for the codification of righteous path for today’s generations. He was an oral author and propagator of many Vedic Scriptures and sociological directions. This article is credited to Smt. Rama Chinta Kunta)
