The One Who Called Him Back

At the hermitage Adṛśyantī bore Śakti's son, who was like a second Śakti, the one who would carry on his line, and Vasiṣṭha performed the birth rites for his grandson himself. Vasiṣṭha had been parāsu, a man letting his life go, and the child, while still in the womb, had held him back; so he was called Parāśara in the world.

From his birth the boy thought Vasiṣṭha was his father and treated him as his father, and called the great seer Father in front of his mother. When Adṛśyantī heard him say Father in that sweet voice, her eyes filled with tears, and she said to him: Do not say Father, Father, my child. The great sage is not your father. Your father was eaten by a rākṣasa in the forest. The one you call Father is not your father. He is the father of your father, that great soul.

When he heard this, Parāśara, true of speech and the best of seers, was struck with grief, and in his great mind he resolved to destroy all the worlds.