Karna and fate

[Guest guest]

While digging around Google for something on the Moses/Karna river reed stories I came upon this from Chennai on line.

 

It doesn't really spend time on what I was looking for but I liked reading it and thought it worth sharing.

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Our character...is an omen of our destiny, and the more integrity we have and keep, the simpler and nobler that destiny is likely to be.

George Santayana, US (Spanish-born) philosopher (1863 - 1952)

 

XI. Congenital fate

 

Moses, the legendary Hebrew liberator and prophet, led the Israelites out of the tyranny of the Egyptian ruler. He was born a Hebrew but was abandoned by his mother Jochebed at infancy when the Egyptian edict dictated that all male children born to Hebrew captives should be killed. The birth and future destiny of Moses was prophesied to the Pharaoh who then ordered the murder of all Hebrew boys. He was placed inside a reed basket and floated on the river Nile by his mother so that he could live elsewhere. As fate would have it, the Pharaoh’s daughter picked him up and raised him as her own and named him “Moses”. He had a luxurious life until adulthood, until he found out that he was born a Hebrew. He rebelled against the Pharaoh and from then on his whole life and that of the bonded Hebrew men changed forever. Was fate responsible to turn Moses from a wretched infant life to an opulent palace life only to revert back to a long and troublesome life in trying to establish the land of Israel? Was his fate fixed at birth?

 

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If karma is the sole cause for an individual’s fate, then the fate of the individual is sealed at birth. Whatever good deeds the individual does in his present birth might not mitigate the evil consequences of the bad deeds of the previous birth. The good deeds performed in the current life might confer the benefits in the next birth but are of little use in the current life. There are instances of such cases in Mahabharatham. The case of Karna is one such. Karna is known as one of the most generous persons given to charity. But he met with a cruel fate all his life. Let us examine his case in detail. It appears to be a case of congenital fate - case sealed at birth inside a box with a combination lock (with million codes) whose number was forgotten.

 

Karna was born to Kunti (and the sun god), out of wedlock, when Kunti out of youthful indiscretion practiced the mantra taught by the sage Durvasa. Karna was born with divine armour and earrings that would confer him protection from death. Fearing shame, Kunti put him in a basket and floated him out on the river Ganga. At this point Karna’s life bears a resemblance to that of Moses. The growing-up phase was very different as was the adult life later. While Moses went on to achieve prophet-hood, Karna met with a tragic end fighting the great war on the side of the Kauravas. What a gulf of difference for two individuals who started their lives’ journey on “riverboats”!

 

Karna was picked up from the river and raised by Adiratha (a charioteer) and his wife Radha. When Karna wanted to learn archery Drona refused to teach him because he was of lower caste (shudra) than Brahmins and Kshatriyas. He went to Parasurama and learnt the various skills in warfare disguising (deliberately or otherwise) his ancestry. When Parasurama learnt ultimately that Karna was not a Brahmin, he cursed Karna that all his knowledge would fail him when he needed it most. That would be tragic to Karna in the war. In addition, during a skills competition in Hastinapur, when Karna challenged Arjuna for the championship he was disqualified on the basis of his birth again. At that time, Duryodhana stepped forward and anointed Karna as king of the land of Anga. For that gracious gesture Karna was indebted forever to Duryodhana. That was destiny in the making since the repayment of that gesture involved fighting on the side of Duryodhana as a mark of loyalty.

 

Before the war Kunti went to Karna and tried to coax him into joining the Pandavas after disclosing to him that he was her first son. Years ago fate prevented Kunti from disclosing that fact during the skills competition when Karna was humiliated for his “lowly” birth. Despite the promise of the throne of Hastinapur, Karna politely but firmly refused Kunti’s offer citing that his loyalty lay with Duryodhana. It was cruel fate again that Kunti extracted a promise from Karna not to kill any of her other sons except Arjuna. Karna was gracious to accede to that request. Besides, she asked him not to use the nAgastra on Arjuna more than once. Fate was building up the momentum through the merciful (?) mother. Even Krishna could not convince him to switch his allegiance to the Pandavas. Kunti’s disclosure caused discomfiture to Karna and disturbed his mental equilibrium. Karna knew very well that the Kauravas would lose but was rather content to serve out his duty.

 

If that was not enough limitation placed on Karna, Indra (the father of Arjuna) too plotted against Karna by disguising as a Brahmin and begged Karna’s armour as alms so that Arjuna could kill Karna without the protection of the divine armour as a shield. Karna’s father (Surya) appeared in his dream to warn about this deception but Karna’s generosity excelled the caution advised by Surya. Indra, in exchange for Karna’s generosity, gave Karna a formidable weapon, Shakti, but imposed a condition that it could be used only once. That condition would also prove detrimental to the prowess of Karna. He was forced to use it to kill Ghatotkaca (Bhima’s son) although he reserved it for use against Arjuna. Without the Shakti weapon and without his armour, Karna was rendered powerless. Perhaps Indra knew that the weapon he gifted to Karna would be used against Ghatotkaca and not against Arjuna!

 

After assuming the leadership of the army (after Drona’s death), Karna fought valiantly. Without the Shakti weapon, Karna relied only on the nAgAstra to kill Arjuna. Even there fate intervened. He promised Kunti that he would use it only once. He was so confident at his skill that he aimed it at Arjuna’s head. Shalya (Karna’s charioteer) warned him that he was aiming too high. Karna ignored that warning. Fate was smiling! Krishna depressed the chariot a few inches so that the weapon could miss Arjuna’s head. The weapon came back to Karna for re-use. But he could not re-use that again in view of his promise to Kunti. There fate really conspired against him. Deployment of other weapons that he learnt from Parasurama was not possible because of the curse. Karna could not remember the proper incantation to use them.

 

As a result of killing a cow that belonged to a Brahmin, Karna was also cursed by the Brahmin that he will be killed in a helpless situation when his chariot would get stuck in the ground. When it actually happened, his charioteer walked away. Karna appealed to Arjuna to hold the fight until he could release the wheel of the chariot from the mud. But Krishna prevailed over Arjuna’s hesitation and prodded him to kill Karna then and there citing all the unjust activities of Karna (including his ganging up against Arjuna’s son Abhimanyu). Arjuna did the bidding of Krishna and killed Karna who was unarmed. One of the many truly unfair practices by the Pandavas in the war, indeed! That was the end of the great warrior who was doomed from birth.

 

The conspiracy of fate is seen nowhere else in Mahabharatham in its fullest form as in the case of Karna. Of all the characters in Mahabharatham, Karna was the one who was “more sinned against than sinning”. We see several factors each one chipping away Karna’s strength. The curse of guru Parasurama (was the bee which bored into the thigh of Karna really an agent of fate?), the curse of the Brahmin, the promises extracted by Kunti, Indra’s participation by securing the armour, the chariot wheel getting stuck in the ground, the desertion by the charioteer Shalya, Krishna’s tricks, and above all the staunch friendship with Duryodhana were all nails in the coffin of Karna (which worked to ensure Karna’s defeat and death).

 

Karna lived true to the dictum of Thamizh saint poet TiruvaLLuvar, “e^n^nanRi konRArkkum uyvuNDAm uyvillai sey^nanRi konRa magaRku” (there is the possibility of expiation for violating various forms of virtue but there is no salvation for one who is ungrateful for precious timely help rendered to him). He was steadfast in his loyalty towards Duryodhana but from cradle to grave Karna could not escape the crude reality of cruel fate. The good deeds that Karna did in his lifetime entitled him to a place in Heaven, we are told.

 

 

[Guest guest]

Inquiries Into The Absolute

 

BY HIS HOLINESS ROMAPADA SWAMI MAHARAJA

 

EDITORIAL, Jan 12 (VNN) — Answers by His Holiness Romapada Swami Maharaja

 

Q.1) Brhat-bhagavtamrta is BBT's latest publication. On p 414 there is indication that Karna and Duryodhana were 'partial incarnations of demons'. Could you supply the background to this statement? Was it due to the past life of Karna, or some other reason as to why he was destined to suffer so much, and do so many bad things? What wrong deeds had he done in his previous life or in his present life as Karna?

 

Answer.1) There are three different angles to consider this from. The first is simply from a scriptural or textual point of view.

 

1) In the Vana-parva of Mahabharata it is decribed that Duryodhana and Karna found out that the Pandavas were living in a forest nearby and decided to humiliate them. So, under some pretext, they took their army, dressed very opulently and headed that way. On the way, Duryodhana wanted to bathe in a river which is occupied by the Gandharvas. Owing to this, finally a battle ensued in which Karna was severely hurt and fled from the battle, while Duryodhana was held captive by the king of Gandharvas. One of his soldiers went to the Pandavas for help and under instructions by Yudhisthira, Arjuna battled the Gandharvas and rescued Duryodhana.

 

This humiliated Duryodhana to such a great extent that he resolved to give up his life by entering into type of self-igniting samadhi, much like we find at the end of Dhrtarashtra's life. While he was doing so, the Danavas found out and performed a sacrifice to create a celestial goddess. She was instructed by the Danavas to go and get the subtle body of Duryodhana, which she did, and then brought Duryodhana before the Danavas.

 

The Danavas then explained to Duryodhana that he had been created as a result of a great sacrifice they performed to please Lord Shiva. His body was like thunderbolt and his strength immense. They also mentioned that the powerful demon Narkasura has incarnated as Karna and "remembering his old enmity with Vishnu, will fight with great determination." They also assured that at the time of the battle, great warriors like Drona and Bhishma would come under the influence of the Danvas and give up their natural compassion and discrimination to fight with great vigor against the Pandavas. Thus they assured that Duryodhana's victory was certain and that he should thus give up his resolve to commit suicide.

 

Elsewhere in the Mahabharata, indication is given that Duryodhana was the incarnation of Kali.

 

2) Character evaluation of Karna

 

Our ISKCON translator of Mahabharata, Hridyananda Maharaja, makes the following comments in relation to Karna's character. Karna was basically an evil person. Even though he was abandoned at birth, he was brought up in a very loving and nurturing family, so the generally accepted fact of a "dysfunctional childhood" really does not hold true.

 

He deliberately lied to get training from Parsurama, and was simply envious of Arjuna (like trying to humiliate Arjuna in his graduation ceremony). In addition there was his conduct with Draupadi, his refusal to accept the instructions of Krishna and his steadfast friendship with Duryodhana, who was obviously evil. On more than one occasion Karna ran away from the battle field leaving his friends and army exposed. In Mahabharata war, he refused to fight along side Bhisma because he did not want to share the glory. His charity etc. was the result of vows he had taken to enhance his own material position.

 

Though he had excellent parentage, namely Kunti and Surya, because he was conceived out of lust, fear and anger, his character was thus shaped. Apparently after summoning the Sun god, Kunti became fearful of the consequences, but also very much attracted to the Sun god (who was angry at being summoned trivially). During the time of pregnancy he was concealed, thus there were no purificatory rites performed, and there was also the constant refrain of fear and connivance. All this combined to possibly shape Karna into what he finally became.

 

3) The third response to this question has to do with the pronciple of association. Through the association of Duryodhana, Karna's character became debased. Even the direct son of Lord Krishna, Bhauma, born of Mother Bhumi through her contact with Lord Varaha, became changed from a good son to an asura due to his association with a bad person, namely Banasura.

 

[Guest guest]

karna was the incarnation of Sugreeva and was by no means evil. He was the best archer and episodes regarding his alleged defeats (like ganhdarvas) are bogus, they aren't mentioned in vyasa mahabharat. In fact, arjuna lost to cowherd men and was rejected by jarasandha (jarashanda was once defeated by karna), surely he wasn;t karna's equal which was why the pandavas had to defeat karna unfairly. If karna were easy game, they wouldn't go through so much trouble, would they?

 

And it was bhishma who prohibited karna from participating, in fact, bhishma, despite knowing karna's parentage, never once stopped pandavas from abusing karna as sutaputra. And this hypocrite is supposed to be a mahajan! But he was quick to point out karna's faults, as if others were faultless. Kunti was worse than duryodhan in this respect, but she's regarded as a fine lady for disposing off an innocent child; whereas duryodhan, who gave life to that child, is evil. Phew!

[Guest guest]

This is the story of why Karna and Arjuna were fated to fight in the Dwapara Yuga from a previous dispute on the behalf of Brahma and Vishnu. This is part of the story, the last part.

 

From the Padma Purana:

 

The fierce fight that ensued between Raktaja and Svedaja continued for two years. By then Svedaja had lost everything but one of his shields and Raktaja had only his two arms to fight with. At this stage Vasudeva (Visnu) in great alarm went and asked Brahma whether Raktaja might not kill Svedaja. Brahma answered `In the next birth Nara may defeat Svedaja'. Saying `Right, let that be so', Visnu returned to the battlefield and withdrew them from fighting with the assurance that they would be given an opportunity to fight again during the period of the Kali and the Dvapara-yugas.

 

Afterwards Visnu directed Aditya (Sun) and Akhandala (Indra) to look after Raktaja and Svedaja. He told Aditya further : - “At the end of the Dvapara-yuga you should see that Svedaja is reborn, in the interests of the Devas, as your son. In the Yadu dynasty will be born a very powerful fellow called Sura and lie will have a very beautiful daughter named Prthd. Durvasas will advise her some mantras as a boon and she will have some sons from the Devas whom she will invoke with the mantras. With that object in view, while in her periods, she would, at the time of dawn gaze at you with love. Then he (Svedaja) will be born as the son called Vasusena of Kunti, the virgin."

 

The Sun-God agreed to obey the above instructions of Visnu and told him further :-"I shall procreate in the virgin a very powerful and valiant son, who will become well-known in the world as Karna. He will gift away all wealth to brahmins." After saying this Surya disappeared.

 

After this Visnu told Indra as follows :-"You should, at the end of the Dvapara-yuga see that this Nara, born from blood, is reborn as an aspect of yours on earth. King Pandu will one day go into the forest with his wives, Kunti and Madri, and 'he will then become the object of an animal's curse. He will therefore, in a spirit of renunciation, go to mount Sata~:rnga where he would ask Kunti to become a mother by another man. Unwilling to 'do so Kunti will desire to have sons by Devas, and when she prays to you, you should favour her with this Nara as son.

[bajrangbakht]

 

Inquiries Into The Absolute

 

BY HIS HOLINESS ROMAPADA SWAMI MAHARAJA

 

EDITORIAL, Jan 12 (VNN) — Answers by His Holiness Romapada Swami Maharaja

 

Q.1) Brhat-bhagavtamrta is BBT's latest publication. On p 414 there is indication that Karna and Duryodhana were 'partial incarnations of demons'. Could you supply the background to this statement? Was it due to the past life of Karna, or some other reason as to why he was destined to suffer so much, and do so many bad things? What wrong deeds had he done in his previous life or in his present life as Karna?

 

Answer.1) There are three different angles to consider this from. The first is simply from a scriptural or textual point of view.

 

1) In the Vana-parva of Mahabharata it is decribed that Duryodhana and Karna found out that the Pandavas were living in a forest nearby and decided to humiliate them. So, under some pretext, they took their army, dressed very opulently and headed that way. On the way, Duryodhana wanted to bathe in a river which is occupied by the Gandharvas. Owing to this, finally a battle ensued in which Karna was severely hurt and fled from the battle, while Duryodhana was held captive by the king of Gandharvas. One of his soldiers went to the Pandavas for help and under instructions by Yudhisthira, Arjuna battled the Gandharvas and rescued Duryodhana.

 

This humiliated Duryodhana to such a great extent that he resolved to give up his life by entering into type of self-igniting samadhi, much like we find at the end of Dhrtarashtra's life. While he was doing so, the Danavas found out and performed a sacrifice to create a celestial goddess. She was instructed by the Danavas to go and get the subtle body of Duryodhana, which she did, and then brought Duryodhana before the Danavas.

 

The Danavas then explained to Duryodhana that he had been created as a result of a great sacrifice they performed to please Lord Shiva. His body was like thunderbolt and his strength immense. They also mentioned that the powerful demon Narkasura has incarnated as Karna and "remembering his old enmity with Vishnu, will fight with great determination." They also assured that at the time of the battle, great warriors like Drona and Bhishma would come under the influence of the Danvas and give up their natural compassion and discrimination to fight with great vigor against the Pandavas. Thus they assured that Duryodhana's victory was certain and that he should thus give up his resolve to commit suicide.

 

Elsewhere in the Mahabharata, indication is given that Duryodhana was the incarnation of Kali.

 

2) Character evaluation of Karna

 

Our ISKCON translator of Mahabharata, Hridyananda Maharaja, makes the following comments in relation to Karna's character. Karna was basically an evil person. Even though he was abandoned at birth, he was brought up in a very loving and nurturing family, so the generally accepted fact of a "dysfunctional childhood" really does not hold true.

 

He deliberately lied to get training from Parsurama, and was simply envious of Arjuna (like trying to humiliate Arjuna in his graduation ceremony). In addition there was his conduct with Draupadi, his refusal to accept the instructions of Krishna and his steadfast friendship with Duryodhana, who was obviously evil. On more than one occasion Karna ran away from the battle field leaving his friends and army exposed. In Mahabharata war, he refused to fight along side Bhisma because he did not want to share the glory. His charity etc. was the result of vows he had taken to enhance his own material position.

 

Though he had excellent parentage, namely Kunti and Surya, because he was conceived out of lust, fear and anger, his character was thus shaped. Apparently after summoning the Sun god, Kunti became fearful of the consequences, but also very much attracted to the Sun god (who was angry at being summoned trivially). During the time of pregnancy he was concealed, thus there were no purificatory rites performed, and there was also the constant refrain of fear and connivance. All this combined to possibly shape Karna into what he finally became.

 

3) The third response to this question has to do with the pronciple of association. Through the association of Duryodhana, Karna's character became debased. Even the direct son of Lord Krishna, Bhauma, born of Mother Bhumi through her contact with Lord Varaha, became changed from a good son to an asura due to his association with a bad person, namely Banasura.

Respected holy brother Shri Romapada, please do not misinterpret the original Mahabharata by Ved Vyasa and the Gita press, Gorakhpur version of Mahabharata.In both the above versions, Karna is declared to have been the 'avatar' of the sun-god.The Supreme court of India had declared long back that the Gita Press, Gorakhpur version of Mahabharata is the most authentic version of the immortal epic.In both the above versions,it is clearly mentioned that to bring the flourishing ancient Indian civilization to an end, the Sun-God himself took birth on this earth as "Karna". As it is the golden rule of nature, that all civilizations will reach their peak & then disintegrate and finally collapse, that is what happened to the civilization of the Kurus.Even, Krishna's dynasty disintegrated & ended verifying this unchangeable law of nature.

[bajrangbakht]

Karna was killed by Indra's divine weapon,Anjalika. This weapon was second only to Indra's most powerful weapon,shakti. The other frontline Kaurava warrior to have been killed by a divine weapon was Jayadratha, who was slain by PASHUPATHASTRA, Lord Shiva's divine weapon.