The unlikely (or undesirable) has happened

[Guest guest]

I familiarised myself with Mahabharat, and somehow the character of karna seems to have left an indelible mark. I just can't get myself to 'like' or EVEN respect the other characters, not even the protagonist Arjuna or his guru Krishna. I dont know why. In fact, I positively hate Arjun for killing Karna.

 

I thought by getting to know this great Hindu epic, I could appreciate the heroic deeds of arjum or bhim or the virtues of Yudhistra, as also get close to the GOd (krishna) himself. But things have taken the wrong turn, and I am only beginnign to hate those good characters. Instead, the only character I love the most is karna, a person who is on the evil side. WHat am I to do? Do I force myself to like the good guys (pandavas) or what? This is so confusing.

[Guest guest]

No doubt. Twist of fate concerning his birth but we can see he had many glorious qualities. He was just placed in a situation of bad associtaion it seems.

 

Is there a lesson there for us?

 

Anyway just keep reading the story and the attractiveness of Krsna will shine through. Just enjoy reading and let it unfold without so much worry over your mental reactions.

[Vanguard]

Several souls with glorious qualities fought for the Kauravas; Bhishma, Drona, and Karna, to name a few. I dislike the manner how Bhishma and Drona were defeated in battle, but I know it was all necessary and Krsna's will. Before Bhishma died on his bed of arrows, he gave classes where Krsna Himself was in attendance. Perhaps you'll feel more at peace with Mahabharata if you do not preceive the Battle of Kurukshetra as one of the classical western black and white "good versus evil". Many honorable souls died painfully. Others died that were quite dishonorable. Only those five mahajanas who were with Sri Krsna survived.

[vanamali]

Personally I like Bheeshma a lot. He was happy to be killed in a dharmic war; he felt Himself indebted to the Kauravas and felt he had to fight on their side. Still he was a good person, and composed Sri Vishnusahasranamam as He died. Even though Krishna fought against Bheeshma in the battle of Kurukshetra, still Bheeshma achieved Krishna...

 

The beautiful moment of one bhakta trying to stop Krishna, one bhakta ready to die by His hand... He Krishna!

 

[Jahnava Nitai Das]

Everyone was killed by Krishna; the Pandavas were only instruments acting on behalf of the Lord.

 

Krishna awarded mukti to Karna and all the participants in the battle.

 

They received the greatest benediction for a small sacrifice.

[Guest guest]

I was going through this thread of articles as I too am a great Karna-bhakta.( BTW do you know that karna never liked to be addressed by that name and always wished to be called Radheya). I too feel great affection & helpless pity whenever I come across incidents about Radheya, the great son of Surya. I would always question why the Lord who is fair to all was so unfair to him at every step. This matter ate my mind so much that I started reading almost anything and everything about the Mahabharatha in general and Radheya in particular. I'm still reading various books and I have realized that the more I read the more I am atleast able to come to terms with his character and how his life was unfortunate.

Infact Krishna himself tells everybody in the Pandava camp in Kurukshetra that Karna is the most superior warrior present there and with his kavacha and Kundala and without his curses would have been impossible to defeat.He also reminds everyone of Karna's unsurpassable ability at generosity and self mortification. That shows even Krishna's regard for Karna's life. However, there is a history behind Karna's birth and life. During his previous birth he was an asura called Dambodbhava. He would constantly cause havoc during the the meditations and austerities performed by the divine incarnations of the lord in the forms of Nara and Narayana. He finally repents and the Lord grants him a boon that he would have to undergo just one highly unfortunate but great birth before granting him Moksha. That explains the life of karna which was brought to an end by Nara-Narayana in the form of Arjuna-Krishna.

I hope this helps to clear the mystery of the unfortunate but great Radheya a li'l bit.

[st1801]

Hi,

 

I was going through some editorials, which claim a different version for Karna's birth.....he is claimed to be as Sahasrakavacha, the one with 1000 Armours. The story referred is as below, and appears much more appealing:-

 

Sahasrakavacha had pleased Brahma with his devotion, was granted a boon by the Creator of this universe, “Your life exists in the thousand kavachas (armours) that I have bestowed upon you and because of which none can kill you. But, if any one of your enemies were to remove the kavachas from your body, then they will lose powers. I also grant you another boon-one who intends to take away even one kavacha from you will have to fight you for a hundred years.”

 

With such powerful boons granted to an asura, it was enough reason for this to go to his head. He began to exercise his powers for both good and evil purposes, as a result of which all came to dread him and gave him the name Sahasrakavacha (a hundred armours). The devas were so disgusted with his behaviour that they decided to approach Lord Vishnu to seek his intervention. On hearing their pleas, Lord Vishnu agreed to help them and descended on earth in the form of two men, named Nara and Narayana.

 

Now these two men challenged Sahasrakavacha to a battle, which the asura willingly accepted, conscious as he was of his prowess and the hundred kavachas that he wore.

 

The day of the battle arrived. Nara engaged Sahasrakavacha in the confrontation for a hundred years while Narayana sat down to do penance. After a hundred years, Nara managed to force one kavacha off from the asura’s body by piercing through it and then embarked on penance. Meanwhile, Narayana took up the battle from where Nara had left. Thus alternating with each other, Nara and Narayana continued fighting with the asura, till he was left with only one kavacha upon his body.

 

Now Sahas-rakavacha realised that he was left with the last kavacha and if that too was ripped off his body, he would die. So, he went and hid himself behind the Sun-god. With Sahasrakavacha having left the field, Nara and Narayana returned to heaven.

 

After a long time, a son was born to Kunti with the blessings of the Sun-god. The child was named Karna and he was born wearing a single kavacha upon himself. This evidently proved to the shocked people around him that Karna was none other than Sahasrakavacha who had taken rebirth as Karna.

 

As we all know, in the battle of Mahabharata, Karna supported Duryo-dhana. Lord Indra disguised himself as a poor Brahmin and approached Karna for alms. Karna was a kind-hearted man, so he willingly took out his kavacha to hand over to the poor Brahmin. With the last kavacha off, Karna went to the battlefield and was killed by an arrow directed at him by Arjuna, who rode his chariot with Lord Krishna driving it. Arjuna and Krishna were Narayana and Nara respectively, in earlier life and were responsible for killing Karna.

 

Thus, as promised by Brahma, Sahasrakavacha lived so long as he wore the kavachas.

 

 

I was going through this thread of articles as I too am a great Karna-bhakta.( BTW do you know that karna never liked to be addressed by that name and always wished to be called Radheya). I too feel great affection & helpless pity whenever I come across incidents about Radheya, the great son of Surya. I would always question why the Lord who is fair to all was so unfair to him at every step. This matter ate my mind so much that I started reading almost anything and everything about the Mahabharatha in general and Radheya in particular. I'm still reading various books and I have realized that the more I read the more I am atleast able to come to terms with his character and how his life was unfortunate.

Infact Krishna himself tells everybody in the Pandava camp in Kurukshetra that Karna is the most superior warrior present there and with his kavacha and Kundala and without his curses would have been impossible to defeat.He also reminds everyone of Karna's unsurpassable ability at generosity and self mortification. That shows even Krishna's regard for Karna's life. However, there is a history behind Karna's birth and life. During his previous birth he was an asura called Dambodbhava. He would constantly cause havoc during the the meditations and austerities performed by the divine incarnations of the lord in the forms of Nara and Narayana. He finally repents and the Lord grants him a boon that he would have to undergo just one highly unfortunate but great birth before granting him Moksha. That explains the life of karna which was brought to an end by Nara-Narayana in the form of Arjuna-Krishna.

I hope this helps to clear the mystery of the unfortunate but great Radheya a li'l bit.

[melvin]

We should not take pity on Karna. Because anyone killed by Krsna or Krsna`s devotee achieves liberation. I can`t count how many demons were liberated after being killed by Krsna & Rama. Take note of Bhisma who is a great devotee of Krsna. He`s only bad luck was he was on Duryodhana`s side. Bhisma could have killed Arjuna instantly when Arjuna`s chariot broke and yet Krsna saved Arjuna from Bhisma`s arrows because Arjuna was a devotee. Krsna lied to Bhisma that he would not interfere in the Battle at Kuruksetra. It`s not Karna I pity in that story but Bhisma because Bhisma was also a devotee of Krsna. And Krsna chose to save Arjuna instead of Bhisma because the former was on His side.

[vishalwish77]

Only karna is respectable to me, and all u also, i can support this

u only know the krishna aud arjuna as the mahabharata tells, but do u know, that the history what we are supposing is written by the winners. off course the pandavas is winner but they win with there all ba..... wishes,

now let come to kauravas and pandavas, the Duat game was played by pandavas with theire own wish and not with anyone's wish, they loosed, they apply all there powers in deal but they just loosed, dont u think kunti was also loosed by this pandavas and after that game she was only property of kauravas, how can pandavas own her after such loosed game, but after her vasraharana( u will say this was bad, but u just think, hw draupadi give bad treatment to Karna and duryodhan when they just come as guest twice) and let her go another day for vanvasa, indra BEGS to Karna Kavach Kundalas just to keep alive his son arjuna from karna, real politics not only this after that at last when Karna was outside Ratha, this krishna man say arjun to attack on wealthless Karna. which dharma says to attack on such condition, instruction was from so called dharma expert krishna, hw can u imagine the Karna was with head down and shame when he was killed???????????and if u think then u are great sinners of this earth and also with useless thinking! the only truth was KARNA IS WINNER!!