Time goes by like a flowing river, and we cease to remember the path we have taken to arrive at our destinations, though each of us has different destinations, our source can be accounted for the same just like our todays character Karna.
Literature tends to keep track of our source, path, and destination all together with great detail and reveal it to us at a time when we need it the most.
Welcome everyone to yet another post on Mahabharat: The forgotten Stories, and today we will dive into the life of a character that can bring even the hardest of hearts to melt. Today, we’ll not only talk about a warrior on the battlefield but a warrior of life itself.
Mahabharat, a tragic history, is scarred with so many wounds that it becomes impossible for someone to be classified as good or bad, and so was his life.
Birth of Karna? Fait or Fault?
Mahabharat was the ultimate scene that everyone saw, but pain has been a constant companion in this story. The young unmarried princess, Kunti, the mother of Pandavas, was a lovely girl who respected sages and followed the path of righteousness at every turn of his life.
One Day, a fierce Sage named Rishi Durvasa came to the Kingdom of Kunti ( A branch of the Yadava empire ). The Sage, extremely tired of the journey, was kept under the watchfull and tender care of kunti, who was only too happy to get the chance to serve the revered the sage, impressed by her devotion and care, the sage blessed kunti with spell that would conjole any god to have a child with kunti and the child would naturally posses the power of the god himself.
Kunti, who was also mischievous, thought of trying out the spell and testing its power by summoning the sun god. Due to the sage’s command and power that the spell held, the sun god appeared with a child and bestowed the blessing onto Kunti, an unmarried girl, who became a mother, which she wasn’t ready for.
Kunti was aghast at the situation and decided to abandon her son by surrendering him to the mother river Ganga. The child was astonishingly beautiful and was born with exceptional radiance and aura. As a blessing from his father, Surya(sun), Karna was born with an unbreakable armour and two earrings with the power to block any spiritual attacks and all diseases (his armour and earrings were asked to be donated to lord Indra before the Battle of Mahabharat). He was rescued and then adopted by a royal charioteer of Hastinapur and was raised as the same.
Karna’s life till the war of Mahabharat?
Although a royal by birth, he was considered the son of a charioteer and hence was denied education, reserved for royal kshtriyas( warrior class ). Suffering this injustice, he went to Lord Parshurama ( One of the 10 Avatars of Lord Vishnu) and lied about being a Brahmin to get educated. When Lord Parshurama knew about his deception, he was cursed to forget all his education at the time when he needed it the most.
Devastated after being cursed by his master, the warrior still didn’t give up on his dream to create his name. He arrived thereafter to the batteling arena where both Kauravas and Pandavas were engaged in a severe battle showing off their skills, arjuna came out on the top during that showmenship and Guru Dronacharya( teacher to both Kauravas and pandavas ) announced in the stadium that no one in the whole world could defeat Arjuna and that was it.
Karna always jealous of arjuna who had been given everything just because he was a royal born took offense. He, in turn, challenged Arjuna but was still denied the opportunity because of being low-born.
Duryodhana, who saw the same hatred that he felt towards Pandavas, grabbed this chance of adding a strong partner to his ranks and crowned him the king of a small kingdom on the spot. This coronation also allowed him to fight the Mahabharat on equal grounds with others. Karna, not used to being recognised, was moved and devoted himself to Duryodhana. He would help Duryodhana in his nefarious plans and would boost his ego by showing him his support of power and prowess.
How did Karna die, and what happened in his last moments?
Karna didn’t die like he wanted to; he wanted a warrior’s death, but all he got was deception and criticism. Lord Krishna was the charioteer of arjuna and commanded him to shoot his arrow towards his neck when he was on the ground, his wheel stuck and when he had forgotten all his education due to the curse of lord parshurama, in the end when he was about to die, the god of death was not able to take away his soul as he had done too much good in his life and that was preventing him from dieing at that moment lord krishna took the form of a beggar and came to him begging.
The lord of three realms knew The Suryaputra (son of the sun god) never refused when someone came to him asking for donations and the beggar that was lord krishna himself asked for a the punyas ( spiritual wealth accumalated by good deeds ) to which he agreed and his soul slipped away from the mortal realm to the heavens. The death of Karna was indeed a dark day in the battle of the Mahabharata. (Read about another hurt soul here at mahabharat)
We must understand in this situation and what these characters teach us, however good and strong we be standing with the side of righteousness is most important, karna was almost perfect and many of us would think after this post that he might have been wrongly assasinated but no, lying to get educated, taking offense on someone’s elses credibility, jealousy, being blind for a favour, not correcting a friends mistakes and boosting his ego are traits of a man who would leave path of righteousness whenever he deems fit.
As always, it was a pleasure writing for you guys, and I would like to write more and more and bring out these buried gems and present them to you. Till then, stay strong, stay healthy, and keep reading Mahabharat: The Forgotten Stories.
