During the battle of Mahabharat, Abhimanyu's wife Uttara was expecting a child. She was nurturing the only heir of the Kuru dynasty. Ever since the deceitful killing of his father Dronacharya, Ashwatthama had been cultivating a deadly hostility for the Pandavas. He launched Brahmastra to destroy the unborn baby of Uttara. Horrified, Uttara prayed Lord Krishna to save her baby. Asking her to be fearless, Lord Krishna entered her body in a small form to save the unborn baby. The unborn baby saw what could be described as an ocean of flares rising to incinerate him. At the same time, the baby also saw the Lord in a small form and glowing with divine light. With his lotus-like eyes, the Lord was looking at the baby with affection. On the beautiful dark body of the Lord was adorned yellow cloth. He had four arms and was holding the conch, the wheel, the mace and the lotus in His hands. With the motion of the mace, the Lord was beating the flares. Thus for the ten long months, the baby continued to see the Lord who guarded him. The baby also kept on thinking: "Who can it be?" At the time of his birth, the Lord disappeared. The baby was thus born almost dead because at the time of its birth, it felt a little impact of the Brahmastra. As soon as the baby was born, Lord Krishna arrived at the place of his birth. The same baby later became the king Parikshit.

When Parikshit grew up, Pandavas handed over their kingdom to him and themselves went to the Himalayas. By his religious and courageous virtues, Parikshit established the rule of law and order in the entire kingdom.

One day, Parikshit started on his conquering expeditions. On the way, he saw a white bull whose three legs were missing. A cow sat near it in a very dismal condition. A black formidable human figure, which had a crown on its head, was beating the cow and the bull ruthlessly. Parikshit learnt that the cow was the earth and the bull was Dharma and Kaliyug was beating them up in human form. Getting angry of his action, Parikshit withdrew his sword to kill the person. Fearing for his death, Kaliyug removed his crown and fell at Parikshit's feet with folded hands. The king said: "Kali, don't live in my kingdom. Wherever you live, evils like falsehood, craftiness and quarrel also appear".

At that, Kali requested the king: "O king, you are an emperor. Kindly tell me where should I live? I will follow your dictate". King Parikshit then told Kali five things to live in. These five things were: gambling, narcotics, women, violence and gold. Since then, Kali resides in these five things, therefore everybody desirous of the self-upliftment must avoid them.

After many years, king Parikshit went on a hunting expedition. Wandering futilely in the forests, he reached a hermitage at last. The occupant of the hermitage, a sage was immersed in meditation. Parikshit begged him for some water but the sage did not respond. Just then, Kaliyug began to create illusions in the mind of the king. He then decided to test the sage in order to make for sure whether the sage was indeed meditating or not. He lifted a dead snake from nearby and put it around the sage's neck like a garland. The king then returned to his palace. While the sage was still in his meditation, his son came to the hermitage. Seeing a dead snake around his father's neck, he cursed the doer that: "Right on the seventh day from now, Takshak will bite the one who has put the dead snake around my father's neck".

On the other hand, in his palace the king Parikshit realized his wrong deed. He then began to feel guilty. He also received the news about the curse also. But he did not feel sorry for that. He at once handed over his kingdom to his son Janmejaya and himself came to the banks of the river Ganges. There, he began to observe Nirjala Vrata (fast without water) for seven days. The news of Parikshit's penance brought many sages and saints on the spot around him. The king said to them: "O sages, I am blessed by the Lord in the form of this curse. I had indulged too much in the physical comforts. Now the curse has come to me like God's grace, separating me from lust. Now I request you all to kindly to recite the pious tale of the Lord to me". Meanwhile sage Shukadev also arrived there. Standing at his place, he greeted the sage and offered him a proper seat. At Parikshit's request, Shukadev preached him the discourse on Shrimad Bhagwat continuously for seven days. As the discourse approached its end, Parikshit's mind was fully concentrated on the Lord. At the end of the seventh day, Takshak arrived there and bit Parikshit. The impact of its poison incinerated Parikshit's body instantaneously. But Parikshit felt no pain as he was already free from the bondage associated with his body.