Karna

Karna.

In Mahabharata the only character who suffered the most was Karna and even his death was by deceit. From birth to death he was alone, dishonored as a Sudra and led a life full of sufferings.

Kunti his mother who was a virgin tried to test the mantra of Durvasa which could give her sons from the Gods, just tried one in her eagerness and became pregnant with the son of Sun God and delivered a boy.  Worried and afraid of the scandal of becoming a mother Kunti immediately left him in a vessel into the river and the baby was adopted by a lowly charioteer. So in the birth itself he was abandoned. Karna learned all his greatness in archery and other forms of war and became an undisputed warrior and hence taken by Duryodhana to be his general and adviser.

Karna had joined Duryodhana in the war against Pandavas because of his friendship for Duryodhana who had made him the king of  'Anga'. Duryodhana  wanted him to defeat Arjuna . But Arjuna was a great warrior and had many  equipments and arms blessed by Gods and was the friend of Lord Krishna. So Duryodhana wanted Karna to be fully prepared to face Arjuna in the war and advised him to go and  get  the ‘Sacred Astharams’ from Parasurama. 'Sacred Astharams' was so powerful and as Parasurama was also having it, Karna wanted to learn it from Parasurama.

Parasurama was a Brhmin who had killed his own mother on the instruction of his father  Jamathagni, a famous sage, and himself an avatar or reincarnation of Lord Vishnu. After killing his mother, his father became very happy as his son had accomplished what he had asked him to do and  promised a boon to Parasurama. Parasurama without any hesitation asked his father to give life to his slain mother and brothers  which his father happily did and his mother and brothers came back to  life.

Parasurama’s father was killed by a king, belonging to the  Kshatriya community and Parasurama in his anger had taken a vow to kill all kings who were Kshatriyas and went on killing all of them. Only Lord Rama was able to stop him and was himself another incarnation of Lord Vishnu and hence was equal to Parasurama in might with all the equipments including the archery. So when Parasurama tried to take his bow and was about to aim at Rama, Rama just caught the bow and Parasurama could not move his bow. So he accepted his defeat and went to mediate.

So Karna went in search of Parasurama  in the guise of a Brahmin and became Parasurama’s  disciple and stayed in his humble abode, doing all his daily chores honestly and obediently for many years. Parasurama was very happy at his unwavering integrity and sincerity  and taught him all the techniques of archery including the ‘Sacred Astharams’ which was a powerful tool against which there was no protection and if it was sent against anybody it would surely kill the person and destroy him. Parasurama got the  ‘Sacred Astharams’ as a boon from Lord Siva.

One day Parasurama was sleeping on the mat with his head resting on the thigh of Karna as he was his favoured disciple. Indra, the father of Arjuna was worried and afraid that Karna could kill his son. He wanted to spoil the chance of Karna getting the ‘Sacred Astharams’ and wanted to expose him to Parasurama as a deceit. He took the form of a spider and went and started boring the thigh of Karna.

Blood began to ooze out of the wound and Karna was in great pain but he kept quiet and did not move any of his body parts as the movements could disturb the master, Parasurama from his slumber who was in deep sleep.

After some time Parasurama got up from his sleep and found Karna bleeding and in great pain. He asked Karna for the reason. Karna showed him the spider and the wound. By the time Indra,the spider has vanished from that area and flew away.

Parasurama became very agitated and asked Karna who he was. “You cannot be a Brahmin as you could tolerate the pain and sit still while no Brahmin could do that and you must be a Kshatriya to bear such a pain.So tell the truth.”

Karna folded his hands and fell at the feet of Parasurama and told him who he was.

Parasurama became angry and told Karna  that he has learnt the ‘Sacred Astharam’ by deceit and lies. So Karna would forget the use of the ‘Sacred Astharam’  at the hour of its need. He asked him to leave his abode and never come in front of him. Karna left that place with the curse of Parasurama and came back to Duryodhana and informed him what has happened.

Duryodhan consoled him and made Karna as the General of his army after the death of Bishma, his grand father. Karna did wonderfully in the war and killed scores of people.

Finally Arjuna and Karma had to fight. Arjuna’s chariot was driven by Lord Krishna. In the fighting when Karna as a last resort aimed the Sacred Astharam at Arjuna and was about to say the mantra for that, he forgot the mantra and Sacred Astharam went to Lord Siva who was its creator. Finally the charioteer of Karna King Salliyan had quarreled with him  and deserted him and walked out of the war. Salliyan was the maternal uncle of Pandava princes Nakul and Sahadev.  Karna’s  chariot  sank in the mud and one wheel got entangled in the mud. Karna got down and was extracting it  Krishna asked Arjuna to aim his arrow at Karna and kill him . Arjuna did as he was asked to do and Karna got shot with an arrow and died in the battle field. Before his death Karna donated his ear rings and his vest which protected him from being killed and he was born with it to Indra who came as a poor Brahmin and demanded them as alms. As Karna was a prolific and philanthropic  man by nature he donated them to the poor Brahmin. Even before that Kunti went to him and confessed to him that he was her son and proved it and asked him to spare her other sons from Karna and Karna promised to kill only Arjun and would spare the other four.

Hearing Karna’s death ,Kunti his mother, came to the battle field and took him on her laps and cried. Seeing this Arjuna and his other brothers were surprised and asked the matter. Then only they were informed that Karna was their own brother as Kunti revealed the truth. Kunti had the five  boons from sage Durvasa that she could have sons from the five Gods, Soorya, Dharma, Vayu, Indra and Aswini . She had  four sons Karna, Dharma, Bheema, Arjuna and one boon she came to Madhuri and she had Nakul and Sahadev. Since Karna was born before Kunti was married, she put him in a box and left him in the  river Ganga and Karma was taken and brought up by one charioteer.

In the whole Maha Bharata, Karna is the only character who had the love of all whoever reads it as he  suffered the most. He was repeatedly cheated and tricked by many and was the man who has suffered all the while till his death.