Why did God maintain Himself lifelong in Rama but not in Parashurama?

[Shri J.S.R. Prasad asked:- Why did God maintain Himself lifelong in the incarnation of Rāma and did not maintain Himself permanently in the incarnation of Paraśurāma?]

Swami Replied:- If you see the story of Paraśurāma, He was born with predominantly rajas and tamas qualities. The sage Rucīka was married to Satyavatī (daughter of King Gādhi and sister of Viśvāmitra), who prayed to her husband for a son. Along with her, her mother also prayed to the sage for a son. The sage Rucīka gave two fruits to both and asked them to eat separately their own specific fruits. But the mother and daughter exchanged their fruits and ate them. The sage Rucīka understood this by his superpower and told that the son of Satyavatī will be with bad qualities of rajas and tamas whereas the son of her mother will be with good qualities of sattvam (knowledge and penance). Satyavatī fell at the feet of the sage asking for change in the boon. Then, the sage told that her grandson will get the qualities of rajas and tamas whereas her son will be with the qualities of sattvam. Jamadagni was born to Satyavatī with good qualities of sattvam as per the changed boon. Viśvāmitra was born to the mother of Satyavatī with good qualities of sattvam as per the boon. The son of Jamadagni, Paraśurāma was born with the qualities of rajas and tamas as per the changed boon. Now the result is that Paraśurāma is having the bad qualities of rajas and tamas. Hence, God quits Paraśurāma as soon as the divine program (killing all the kings, who became very bad) was over. The reason is that Paraśurāma, the medium for God, was not inherently having good sattvam. Paraśurāma became egoistic after killing all the kings thinking that he himself had killed all those kings. Due to this reason of rajas and tamas, he was unable to recognize the incarnation called ‘Rāma’ and tried to insult Rāma. Rāma was the incarnation of God for the whole lifetime since God never quit Him (Pūrṇāvatāra).  The reason is that He never became egoistic and was always telling that He was only a mere human being (Ātmānaṃ mānuṣaṃ manye).

Becoming a human incarnation is not a great thing because God Himself chooses the human devotee to become a human incarnation. The great thing is to maintain God in himself throughout his life without succumbing to ego. There is a saying – ‘by cleaning the house, the festival is not over, after preparing special food items only, the festival finshes’!

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