The story of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana reveals to us the different archetypes and how their life unfolds. Being universal archetypes, you can find them even today. That is one reason that the story has such a universal appeal and engages every generation, including ours and will be relevant for generations to come. It is against this larger universal background that one has to see the characters, rather than as individuals who lived and died. These characters are saying something to us, and first, we must get that message. Then the details of their individual life can be filled up.
The story of Karna is a story that tells us about the importance of choices. We have no control over where and in what circumstances we are born. But as we grow into adulthood, we can make choices and rewrite our destiny. The basis of these choices, as we see in the Mahabharata, is neither outer rules and legal regulations nor social rules and moral conscience, which is the dupe and imitation of dharma at best or its travesty. Sri Krishna breaks these outer encrusted, rigid formulas and restores the true meaning of Dharma. He tries his best to show to each of the main characters the course they should take. But no one listens. In other words, the Divine guides us, but each one is free to accept or refuse. The script of destiny is not written in stone, and we can change it based on our choices. God’s Will is eventually always fulfilled. But the path we take is our choice.
Karna could have turned his initial disadvantage of birth and circumstances into a strength by undertaking the work of changing the mould of society, of which he felt himself to be a victim. He could have, for example, opened a school for archery for those capable persons who were possibly deprived due to hereditary factors. He could have fought for the right of a woman to conceive and bring up a child, even if the father remained unknown. He was strong and capable and could have taken this route. Instead, he chose to play the victim, allowed jealousy and ambition to veil his soul so much that defeating Arjuna became almost his life’s mission. He was clouded by the sting of jealousy so much that he agreed to join the bandwagon of adharma, knowing fully well what he was doing. Worse still, he justified it under the pretext of friendship and loyalty, high words but completely misapplied in his case, where the fate of a civilisation was to be decided. Instead of sympathising with his mother, who had to abandon the child due to fear of social ostracisation, he himself made fun of Draupadi, justifying her disrobing. He was killed by his own jealousy and hate; the arrow of Arjuna and the play of destiny only helped his soul’s release from a body misused by forces of adharma.
It is a tragic story, not because Kunti abandoned him but because Karna abandoned Dharma and prefered Duryodhana over the voice of his own soul and of Krishna, the embodied Divine. All the rest of if and but could be explained, is in fact explained by digging into his past life where he having received an impossible boon from the Sun-god he misused it to fight against the twin sages, Nara-Narayana. But even that is not important. He could have done course correction. Destiny helped him become a king, get trained by the greatest teacher, Parashuram, even directly intervened to bring him back to the true path of glory through none other than Krishna. Alas, he became a victim of jealousy and hate and died through the same adharma that he followed all his life. This is what the story of Karna teaches us in its essence.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
I have always found his story really tragic, since all his potential was wasted because of a fake friendship. I also find it ironic that despite being the son of Suryadev, who represents Truth, he gets stuck in falsehood.
Yes, it is a tragic tale, not so much because of being abandoned as a newborn, – in fact he didn’t know this and was brought up well by none other than the charioteer of Bhisma. His tragedy is in the potential with which he was born and how it was wasted due to a selfish friendship.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
Yes Alok da. However, I have not been able to understand why Parashuram ji cursed Karna. I understand that he had lied but still he was totally clueless about his Kshatriya lineage.
Yes Alok da. However, I have not been able to understand why Parashuram ji cursed Karna. I understand that he had lied but still he was totally clueless about his Kshatriya lineage.
Parashuram did not curse him because he was a Kshatriya. After all he had trained Bhisma also. He cursed him because he lied and concealed his true identity. In ancient times there was a great stress on Adhikar bhed. Such sophisticated weapon use was not given to anyone and everyone. The fact that Karna concealed his identity raised questions about his true intent behind approaching Rishi Parashuram. However by then the knowledge was already imparted. So the only cap, and a logical legitimate one was that the Guru cursed his disciple that if ever he misuses this profound rare knowledge for evil purpose he would then forget it when he needs it most. Karna not only stood on the side of evil but actually broke all rules of dharma by joining the other kauravas in killing Abhimanyu in the manner they did. Since then the curse became active and led to his fall. Parashuram’s far reaching vision and the curse saved dharma and acted as a catalyst to fulfil the Divine Will manifesting through Sri krishna.
The story of Eklavya has a similar lesson. These kinds of knowledge that can be dangerous for everyone has to be imparted only to the inwardly deserving who will use it only to defend the cause of dharma. Drona’s hunch also proved to be right as Eklavya did end up joining the Kauravas.
As a corollary, Drona gave this knowledge to his son Aswatthama out of attachment even though he didn’t deserve it. He did misuse it in the war. There is a lesson for all of us today where we have lost the truth of adhikar bheda.
I couldn’t understand the reason for Parashuram ji’s curse as I’m not familiar with the concept of Adhikar Bheda. Yes, jealous people like Karna don’t deserve to receive such knowledge.
In fact it was not so much of a curse as a warning. It was rather a blessing. Had Karna received it rightly and followed it he would have been saved both ways, his life as well as his soul. But he actually disregarded the warning and stood by the side of adharma, worse still because he concealed his jealousy and ambition under the of friendship.
Interestingly all the curses given by Rishis ended up doing good. Durvasa’s curse to an Apsara made her bear Hanuman. The curse to Parikshit ended up liberating him through the Bhagawat. These stories point out towards the deeper workings behind the earthly events and how the Divine Will is eventually fulfilled through all the challenges of life. They finally point out that the highest wisdom consists in aligning our choices to the Divine Will rather than be driven by forces of lust, jealousy, anger, fear, ambition.
Aligning with the Divine Will is difficult sometimes but I think we should still try. I don’t know what happened to Karna in his next lives but I imagine that there is hope for him too.
Yes. His fall in an inglorious way exhausted and compensated for his tendencies that thwarted the call of dharma in this life. The soul itself however remains unsulled through all this and advances further towards its divine goal. According to popular literature he was reborn as a devotee of Shiva who arrived at sainthood and achieved Moksha.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
