The Liberation of King Parikshit

At the end of the story, Shukdev said to Parikshit: O king, give up the thought that you will die. Only the body dies, not the atma. Just as the space inside a pot merges with the great sky when the pot breaks, you are already in the Lord. Takshak can touch your body, but not you.

Parikshit's mind became completely peaceful. Bowing at Shukdev's feet, he said: by your grace my ignorance and fear are gone. I have found the Lord. Shukdev blessed him and departed.

Meanwhile the serpent Takshak set out to bite the king. On the way he met a Brahmin named Kashyap, who knew how to cure poison and was going to save the king. Takshak gave him great wealth and sent him back. Then, in disguise, he reached the king and bit him.

But by then Parikshit sat on the bank of the Ganga, absorbed in meditation on the Lord. The fire of the poison turned his body to ash, but he had already merged into the Supreme. In the sky the devas sounded drums and showered flowers.

Later his son Janamejaya, in anger, began a great sacrifice to destroy all serpents, but stopped it when the sage Brihaspati counselled him. Suta, who told this whole story to the sages of Naimisharanya, says at the end: the essence of the Bhagwat is the Lord's name. Singing it washes away all sins, and bowing to Him calms all sorrows.