The Gandharva narrates the birth of Parashara and his grief
In the hermitage, the young sage Parashara innocently calls his grandfather Vashishtha "father." His mother Adrishyanti corrects him with a terrible truth: his real father was devoured by a rakshasa. The revelation ignites a grief so absolute that Parashara resolves to destroy all of creation.
The gandharva turned to King Yudhishthira. In a hermitage, he said, Adrishyanti had given birth to a son who would extend the lineage of her husband, Shakti. The child was like a second Shakti himself. The great sage Vashishtha, Shakti's father, performed all the prescribed birth ceremonies for his grandson.
This child had a name born from Vashishtha's own despair: Parashara. The story went that Vashishtha, shattered by the loss of his son Shakti, had resolved to kill himself. He refrained only when he learned that Adrishyanti was pregnant with Shakti's child. Because the sage "refrained" — *parashara* — the boy was named Parashara.
From the moment he was born, the virtuous boy knew Vashishtha as his father and behaved towards the old sage with a son's devotion. One day, in front of his mother, the child addressed Vashishtha with that sweet, meaningful word: "Father."
Adrishyanti heard it. Tears filled her eyes.
She spoke to her son. "O child, do not use that word. The great sage is not your father. Your father was devoured by a rakshasa in the deep forest. The one you think of as your father is the father of your famous father."
The boy was a rishi, and he always spoke the truth. The truth he heard now struck him with a grief that was absolute. The great-souled Parashara resolved, then and there, to destroy all the worlds.
Seeing him thus resolved — a child sage burning with a cosmic rage — the great-souled Vashishtha, immense in his austerities, began to speak. He gave reasons for refraining.