Thought of the week: The mystique of Karna

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In the array of dazzling personalities that adorn the epic Mahabharata, Karna

shines out as one of the foremost. He is brave, courageous, righteous,

charitable and noble. Yet despite all these stellar qualities he is firmly

anchored to the deceitful Duryodhana. He remains virulently envious of Arjuna

even after he becomes aware that Arjuna was in fact his younger brother. Even

though he badly wanted to get recognition and respect, he is openly reviled by

venerable elders like Bhisma, Drona and Kripa. The personality of Karna is

indeed one of the biggest mystiques of Mahabharata which one can only attempt

to understand by going beyond the material conception of life and its

qualities.

 

Birth of Karna

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

The birth of Karna is itself surrounded by a great deal of intrigue. His mother

Kunti, as a young maiden had once greatly pleased the sage Durvasa by serving

him very nicely for a period of one year. As a benediction, Durvasa Muni gave

her a mantra by which she could summon any demigod (deva). Curious about the

potency of the mantra Kunti summons the Sun god Iskvaku and by their union

Karna is conceived. With the help of her intimate maidservant, Kunti is able to

conceal her pregnancy and when Karna is born she casts him off in the river. As

a benediction, Karna was born with a suit of natural amour and celestial

ear-rings crafted out of the nectar of immortality that made him invincible in

battle.

 

Karna becomes a warrior

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

Karna was found was adopted by Adiratha and Radha, a childless couple belonging

to the suta class (mixed brahmin and ksatriya) in the country of Anga, a vassal

country aligned with the Kurus. As a youth, he approached Drona for training in

the science of war, but Drona refused to accept him since he did not belong to

the royal family. He then approached Parsurama, the great warrior incarnation

of the Lord. Since Parsurama only accepted Brahmans as his students, Karna

presented himself as a young brahman and soon became his favorite disciple.

However, later once when Parsurama was sleeping with his head on the lap of

Karna, a carnivorous insect bit Karna on the thigh and began to draw blood. Not

wanting to disturb the sleep of his guru, Karna patiently endured it.

 

When Parsurama witnessed this, he correctly concluded that such powers of

endurance can only belong to one who is a ksatriya, and in anger cursed Karna

that he would forget the art of deploying these weapons in time of need. Later

Karna was also cursed by a Brahman for accidentally killing his calf, that he

would be unable to free his chariot from the earth when faced with a more

powerful adversary. Despite these curses, Karna became a valiant and fearless

warrior.

 

In a competitive spirit that is natural to the ksatriya warriors, he once

challenged Arjuna to combat when the Pandavas were demonstrating their skills

to the citizens of Hastinapura. He was however restrained on the grounds that

he did not belong to the royal family. At this time Duryodhana sensing the

power of Karna, befriended him and also made him the king of his country, Anga

desh.

 

Greatness of Karna

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

Karna's skills as a warrior were unquestionable. He was once challenged by

Jarasandha, the powerful king of Magdha and father-in-law of Kamsa. In a fierce

combat, Jarasandha was defeated by Karna and he later surrendered to him and

became his friend. On behalf of Duryodhana, Karna fought many wars and bested

many great warriors. He skills as an archer, and his strength as a warrior were

considered by many to be beyond compare.

 

Karna had also taken a vow never to refuse any one charity, and he always

remained fixed in this vow. When the battle of Mahabharata was imminent, Indra

with the view of protecting Arjuna, approached Karna in the guise of a brahmana

and requested for his suit of armor and ear-rings in charity. Even though Karna

had been previously warned of this by his father, the Sun-god, he cheerfully

gave these to Indra. When his mother Kunti approached him to join the Pandavas

in the battle, he refused, but promised that he would not kill any one but

Arjuna in battle. True to his world, many times during the battle even though

Karna had the opportunity, he spared the lives of the other four Pandavas.

 

Life of contradictions

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

Karna led a life full of apparent contradictions.. He was publicly humiliated

by Draupadi when she refused to accept him as a potential suitor. On several

occassions his apparent low-birth and lack of royal-lineage became the object

of much derision. Perhaps driven by these insults, Karna some times acted out

of character. During the dice match, he openly insulted Draupadi, calling her a

'prostitute'. Even though he was aware of the divinity of Lord Krishna, he

refused to accept His counsel of abandoning the side of the irreligious

Duryodhana. He would often accuse Drona and Bhisma of being soft on the

Pandavas and thus earned their dis-pleasure. Even though he was aware of the

many insidious schemes of Duryodhana and Shakuni to kill the Pandavas, and

often disapproved of them, he still remained steadfast on the side of

Duryodhana. Despite being a powerful warrior, he was one of the five warriors

who surrounded and treacherously killed a wounded and weaponless Abhimanyu.

 

He constantly burnt with the desire to prove himself to be the greatest warrior

by defeating his nemesis Arjuna. However on more than one occasion he was

bested by Arjuna. In the battle of Virata, where Arjuna fought alone with the

Kuru army, Karna engaged Arjuna in a fierce battle but was so severely hurt by

Arjuna, that he was forced to withdraw from the battle field. In the battle of

Mahabharata, Bhisma refused to allow Karna to fight under his banner. Only when

Bhishma fell after ten days of battle, that Karna entered the battle and fought

heroically for seven days. He fell on the seventeenth day of the battle, killed

by Arjuna while he was trying to extricate the wheel of his chariot caught in

the mud.

 

The mystery that is Karna

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

Bhismadeva, who is one of the twelve mahajans, gives a glimpse into this

mystery. When Karna goes to take the blessings of Bhishma prior to entering the

battle field of Kurukshetra, he is surprised to see Bhishma affably greet him.

At this time Bhishma says, "your brashness and arrogance is natural for

warriors of your class. However, the conditions surrounding your birth, the bad

association of Duryodhana and your envy for Arjuna has clouded your judgment."

Bhsimadeva thus reveals to us the three key components of the contradictory

behavior of Karna.

 

Birth

*****

Karna was conceived and delivered in modes of passion and ignorance. At the

time of conception, Kunti was a young unmarried maiden, but was swayed by the

personality of the Sun god and fearful of incurring his displeasure. In the

Vedic system, the expectant parents perform rituals called the garbhodana

samskaras, that would purify their consciousness at the time of conception and

thus attract an elevated soul to the womb. There are also many other samsakaras

that are performed to help elevate the consciousness of the child in the womb.

However in the case of Karna, from conception to delivery, there was the

constant refrain of intrigue, passion, falsehood, fear and agony, which subtly

contaminated his consciousness.

 

It is interesting to note that some years later, Kunti utilized the same

mantras to summon other demigods for the purpose of conception, but this time

with the permission of her husband, King Pandu and after performing all the

necessary rituals. In fact both Pandu and Kunti performed severe austerities

for a period of one year before the conception of Arjuna, and that is one

reason why the Pandavas were so firmly anchored in the mode of goodness.

 

Association

***********

Karna's loyalty to Duryodhana brings forth the importance of accepting higher

instructions when implementing the some times contradictory codes of dharma.

Since Duryodhana was his patron, benefactor and friend, Karna felt morally

obliged to support him in all his endeavors. However the scriptures also

recommend that when such association becomes contradictory to the basic tenets

of the Vedas then there is no infamy in rejecting them. Examples of this are

the rejection of his guru Sukracarya by Bali Maharaja, of his father

Hiranyakasyapu by Prahalada Maharaja, and of his brother Ravana by Vibishana.

However Karna, refused to accept the counsel of his well-wishers and remained

steadfast in his support to Duryodhana even though he was well aware that this

would take him on the path of irreligion.

 

Envy

****

Perhaps the biggest eclipse to the glory of Karna was his envy for Arjuna and

his anger at destiny for denying what he considered to be his rightful share of

glory. He considered Arjuna to have everything that should have been rightfully

his: a royal lineage, the fame of being the foremost warrior in the word, a

wife like Draupadi and a mother like Kunti. This envy contaminated his

consciousness to such a great extend that he even rejected the counsel of

Krishna. Even though he was aware of the divinity of Krishna, unlike Arjuna, he

did not surrender to Krishna. His ultimate downfall came from the fact that

Krishna did not favor him.

 

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Oct 23 2001, Tuesday Durga Puja

 

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