astory of deception or devotion?

[Guest guest]

The great Karna, wanted to learn about archery from a well qualified

teacher, . , Karna went to the ashrama of Parashurama, the Guru of

Brahmins. Parashurama had decided to take only Brahmin boys as his

disciples. Therefore, Karna went there in disguise of a Brahmin boy

and learnt old scriptures, Vedas, Upanishads, and became exceedingly

expert in the art of bow and arrow, archery. It was said that nobody,

not even Arjuna, could equal Karna in archery. The Guru was pleased

with Karna's sincerity, hard-work, devotion and similar noble

qualities.

 

One day sage Parashurama was resting with his head in the lap of

Karna. Soon he fell asleep. Meanwhile a big SHARP-STINGING insect

started to bite the thigh of Karna. He felt agonizing pain and blood

started to ooze from the wound. But he endured lest the sound sleep

of his revered Guru should be disturbed. But the stream of hot blood

reached the Guru due to which he was awakened from his sleep. He was

amazed at the degree of tolerance and endurance of Karna who did not

even stir or move his body at such a great pain. But a thought

crossed Parashurama's mind: how could a Brahmin boy tolerate such

great pain! Brahmins are not known to show such grit in enduring

physical suffering, rather warrior caste is known for such a feat.

Thence, Parashurama asked Karna his real name and identity.

 

Karna could not tell a lie now. He told his story to his Guru and

begged his pardon to have come in the disguise of a Brahmin.

Parashurama was angry that he was deceived to accept a low caste

fellow as his disciple. Therefore, he cursed Karna saying: "O Karna,

even though you are great in bravery, art of archery, and in service

to me, still as you have deceived your Guru, I send a curse to you

that at a crucial time on the battle-field the wheels of your chariot

will get stuck in the earth. The consequences would be grave."

 

Sue enough, during the kurukshetra yuddha, when karna was engazed in

a battle with arjuna, parasurama's curse came true and karna died in

the battle field.

COURTESY- BOLOJI.COM

**************************************************

 

folks, now some questions...

 

1) was karna justified in lieing to his guru?

 

2) was the guru heartless in the punishment he meted out to karna ?

 

please respond, dear ones...

 

jai guru deva!

[Guest guest]

Hope you don't mind if I reply to such an old post, but I was

impressed with Karna's devotion in wanting to learn archery from the

Guru, and the pain he endured not to wake him. The punishment seemed

harsh, and the caste system unjust. It seems to be that Karna could

have been punished in a way that he would learn not to lie to his

Guru, without it costing him his life.

 

Is there a moral to this story I am missing?

[Guest guest]

greetings merrlynwiz, not at all!! ask any questions ; we are all

here to learn from ONE ANother....

 

you are indeed asking some legitimate questions and we will do our

best to answer them .

 

in order to understand why rishi parasurama acted in such a way, you

first need to know the origins of parasurama;'s wrath against the

kshatriya clan ( the warrior class.)

 

here is that story....

 

Parasurama was the younger son of sage Jamadagni and Renuka.

Jamadagni lived in an Ashram serviced by Kamadhenu, the celetial cow

of plenty. Once the king Kartavirya Arjuna came for hunting into the

forest and took shelter in Jamadagni's Ashram. The sage played host

to the king and all his retinue with utmost cordiality. There was

plenty of milk, ghee and food for all. The king was surprised. He

inquired about the source of such affluence. The sage told him of his

cow Kamadhenu. The king immediately took it upon himself to own the

cow, claiming that as king he had a right over all that lay in his

domain. Forcibly he took away the wailing cow and its calf to his

kingdom.

 

The young son Parasurama heard about all that had happened and

forthwith went to the kingdom of Kartavirya Arjuna. He challenged the

king in combat, with only a bow and arrow, and an axe in hand. The

king had an enormous army and arsenal, but they were no match for

Parasurama, whose spiritual energy shone like the Sun and vaporised

the king's arsenal like dew drops. Soon the king was exhausted and

fell. Parasurama chopped off his thousand arms and cut off his head.

He then brought back the cow Kamadhenu and its calf, and left it with

his father Jamadagni.

 

Meanwhile the sons of Kartivirya Arjuna came to know of their

father's death at the hands of Parasurama and swore to take revenge.

They went into the forest when Parasurama was away, Jamadagni was

seated before the sacred fire offering oblations.

 

The wicked prince cut off the sage's head and took it away on a

spear, leaving the torso behind. Parasurama heard the distress cries

of his mother Renuka and rushed home to find his mother beating her

chest and wailing over her husband's torso. The arrogance of the

kshatriyas had reached its nadir. Parasurama swore to wipe out the

entire Kshatriya race from the face of the earth. Taking his axe, he

set out. From kingdom to kingdom he went destroying every Kshatriya

he saw. Twenty-one kings fell to the axe of Parasurama. The Rishis in

the forest and the commonfolk heaved a sigh of relief.

 

Parasurama's aim was not to create an empire for himself but rid the

earth of the arrogant warriors. His mission accomplished, he gave

away various portions of the land to various Brahmanas as gift. When

Rama, prince of Ayodhya was returning from Mithila, after breaking

the Siva Dhanush and marrying Sita, he confronted him and challenged

him to break his own bow if he could. Rama the prince of Ayodhya

easily bent the bow and victoriously asked, "what would you

surrender: your life or your spiritual power? "Parasurama gave away

his spiritual powers to Rama, prince of Ayodhya. He then threw his

axe southwards over Mahendragiri(the western ghats) and made the sea

recede. He created stretch of land(which is Kerala today) and retired

into it. Parasurama is the sixth Avatara of Vishnu, born to rid the

world of Kshatriyas of Asuric minds.

 

weaned from a web source...

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this might explain to you why parasurama had such hatred towards the

kshatriyas ....

 

so, it is not so much about the 'caste ' syatem because lshatriya (

the warrior class ) is not considered 'inferior' - it was more of

parsurama's own personal vendetta against the kshatriyas who unjustly

killed his father jamadagni...

 

in the next post, we will elborate more on this...

 

hope this helps...

 

love

[Guest guest]

lynn, continuong the story on parasurama...

 

was parasurama jusitifed in killing the kshatriyas? but

unfortunately, his father, a ral brahmana (not just by birth but one

with sattwic qualities)was not at all pleased with his son's conduct.

on the contrary, parasuram's father was very offended.

 

the father reprimands him: "You have forgotten your own Dharma. You

are a Brahmin, and the foremost duties of a Brahmin are forbearance

and forgiveness. We should never retaliate. Bear patiently with

everything. Since you have swerved from your duty, as an expiation,

you should undertake a countrywide pilgrimage."

 

Parasurama has to go round Bharatavarsha (india) on such a

pilgrimage.

 

so, what does we learn from the parasurama story - that although he

was a brahmin, the rajasic quality ( the revengeful nature) was pre-

dominant. His father being of a sattwic (full of goodness) did not

approve of his son's conduct...

 

but, there is another dimension to this story...

 

once parasurama's father suspected his wife's fidelity and asked

his sons to behead their mother. none volunteered. except

parasurama. since, his father was also parasurama's guru,, parasurama

obeyed his father by cutting off his mother's head... in a instant,

without questioning. so, the father was real pleased and asked

parasurama what kind of 'boon' he would like in appreciation of this

act. Parasurama replied, " yes, father- please bring back my mother

to life again. ' ... so it goes...

 

**********************************************************************

 

so, lynn there are two things to derive from this story...

 

) one, it was not so much a 'caste' thing - because, in the olden

days the kshatriyas were all powerful because of their might and

superior power, they (the ones with asuric tendencies) persecuted

all classes of society including the brahmins...

 

but, do not think i am supporting what parasurama did ! it is not

upto me to either 'rewrite' the puranas... " revenge or retalliation'

is bad but unfortunately that is the way of the world!!! you know

very well, why the american military is on afghanistan desret land?

SWEET REVENGE!!! right?

 

secondly, WHY WAS KARNA PUNISHED IN THIS CRUEL FASHION ? parasurama

cursed him saying 'he will forgeyt all that he had learned during the

most crucial time' ? why? this was karna's bad 'karma' or destiny! if

it were not for this curse, karna would have easily 'triumphed' in

the mahabharata war and killed 'arjuna' his opponent... so, krishna

paramatama himself brought on this curse on karna 0- FOR KRISHNA

PARAMATMA wanted to uphold dharma and wanted the kaurvas to be

defeated in the kurukshetra war....

 

so, lynn i can understand fully well all your questions- many of

these puranic stories do not make sense to most people but then they

are stories ...myths. legends...

 

but, many of these stories are more about 'guru' bhakti ? in the

olden days, guru was considered as as god; parents were regarded as

god !

 

we are living in a differnt age' different times!

 

love, hope this helps!!

[Guest guest]

Whew! Thanks Adi_Shakthi. There is certainly a lot of water over

the dam in that story. It helps to understand the history of a

situation before judging. Still, though, it seems Karna was a victim

of prejudice and quilt by association.

 

As you say, we are living in a different age.