If Karna was not stronger than Arjuna why did Kunti weaken him emotionally and Indra weaken him physically before the war?

Transcript

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See the question is, was Karna actually weaker than Arjuna was he not stronger? So Arjuna had to fight with Drupada second time. So at that time Drupada would have become weaker because already he has fought.
Yes it’s possible but it’s also true that there were 100 Kauravas plus Karna whereas the Pandavas were only 5 so in that sense if 5 people can do what 101 cannot do then that means it’s not just a matter of whether the opponent is weaker or stronger. See my point is these 5 are still strong enough and secondly even if we leave that particular situation aside still there are other types. If you see the most unambiguous is the Virata Yantra there Karna was defeated fair and square.
No no factors involved over there. Now with respect to Kunti going to Karna at least from what I have read, it was not that Krishna told Kunti to go to Karna Kunti herself decided when the war became ultimate even if it was there that Krishna was involved, but the point was that what was Kunti’s reason for being there See for Kunti she, because of the social situation, she could not personally take care of her child but she did whatever she could to take care of the child. In fact I forgot to mention that in the basket Kunti also put a lot of jewels so the idea was that whoever takes care of this child, everyone of them there are so many jewels, you take the jewels also but please take care of the child.
So she could not take care of the child personally but she did what she could to ensure that the child got a good life in her situation that eventually when the first time she saw Karna come in the martial exhibition she saw the Kavash, she saw Kunti and said this is my child. She is so happy she is so happy but then when the enmity happened between them, Arjuna and Kunti she fainted in horror at that time and her heart was constantly churning in agony so she was conflicted whether I should tell or not so she had two choices before the war started eventually when the beginning of the war was going to happen, she had two choices she would have told Yudhishthir that Karna is your brother, don’t fight against him if she had told this, Yudhishthir was such a Dharmaraj that he would have killed the king of Karna let him have the king so now she could have done that, but her concern was that actually the Kavash was very and Kunti actually she told when Krishna came as Shantibhuti at that time if they met she told Krishna that tell Yudhishthir don’t become very soft because Panchali has been dishonored and for no other reason at least the honor of Panchali has to be regained so she did not want to take that choice so her concern was my son should not fight a danger my son should not fight a danger so she had that option but that option would have kept Draupadi’s it was a very grievous insult it would have stayed unavenged another option was to go to Karna now when she went to Karna, her purpose was primarily to save not just the life of Arjuna but save the life of Karna also she wanted all her sons alive and she went and told Karna and then he had to come inside the palace and she told Yudhishthir let me kill the king if you come inside the palace he said no I will not do that I will not do that so again his idea was to take a sense of friendship so then Karna had taken a vow that anybody who comes to me for asking for charity that person will not go empty handed now if you read this section of Mahabharata carefully it is depicted in different ways most of us, our knowledge of Mahabharata comes not by reading Sanskrit text of Mahabharata it comes from various television depictions or Mahasikha Datta depictions we read carefully what happens is Karna was concerned about his reputation you know if anybody comes to me for charity I will not say no so here he says I cannot say yes so it was he who came up with this idea that I cannot say yes to you but still you will not go empty handed so he said you will have five sons you always have five sons and you know as I have five sons you will have five sons so I will not kill the other Kunti’s so this he gave a promise which is good but this promise was primarily to maintain his own reputation that I will never turn anybody who comes to me for charity empty handed so Kunti went on her own desire not just to protect Arjuna but to protect her sons basically all her sons all her sons and then at that time Kunti was still thinking maybe I will go to Yudhishthira and tell her she just wanted to avoid any other sons to be killed so that time Karna told her not go to Yudhishthira because if you go to Yudhishthira Yudhishthira will offer the kingdom to me and I because I am indebted to Arjuna will offer the kingdom to Yudhishthira so he stopped her from doing that now is it that Karna became emotionally weakened by this there is no evidence of that in the Mahabharata Karna fought with fury he did not fight for the first 10 days 11th day when he came he fought fiercely and there are no incidents anywhere where Karna became sentimental or ego there is no place in Mahabharata that I am fighting against my brothers you are fighting against he was fighting fiercely throughout and he did not fight against the other brothers and he did not kill them he kept his word but whether that was a decisive act on the part it is unlikely real fighters in the war were Arjuna and Bhima and so there is no evidence that Kunti giving him this information emotionally weakened him he fought vigorously and actually there was no meeting between him and the Pandavas ever directly face to face after he got this knowledge so there were no bonds of affection that were formed which could have weakened him and Kunti also had only one meeting Kunti did not try to pressurize him after that so that did not happen now the third thing yes why did Indra go and ask for the Kavacha so naturally Indra wants to help his son Arjuna so now lets look back what was the result of the Kavacha the Kavacha is considered to be a great help for Karna but even with the Kavacha Karna was still defeated by the Gandharvas Karna was still defeated by Drupada’s army Karna was still defeated Karna was still chained at the at the Drupada’s army so he did not really it was not a winning advantage it was not something which would have led to victory so now when Karna got this Indra decided to come now Surya intuited this and Surya also came to Karna and actually Surya gave him two advices first he said whatever Kunti is saying you should do this so actually when Kunti told this you are my son and you are the son of Surya so Surya at that time spoke in Akashic what Kunti is speaking is the truth so Surya did not go on the side of the Kavacha or the Gandharvas he did not agree then Surya told him at that time that don’t give your Kavacha so now Karna had to choose not to give but Karna you know he was very status conscious he had a tremendous sense of integrity and he thought I want to be famous as Dhanavir charitable person so I have given charity to so many people but where in history will be a situation where the king of the Devatas will come to a Manu to ask for charity and at that time I give charity my fame will become unbearable so his concern was to maintain his reputation so he could very well have said no and that’s what Surya advised him but he did not and eventually what happened was when Indra came and asked for that he gave it but then he also said as per Surya’s advice that actually you are the Devatas and Manavas, you should be giving me charity not I give you charity but still ask me something and I will give you but then you should also give me something at the time and he asked for the Shakti Asthana so now if we look at it was it really charity practically it became like a swap an exchange you know I give my Kavacha, you give me Shastra so now somehow the Kavacha could have saved his life at least saved him from death but the Kavacha had not saved him from defeat the Kavacha would not have guaranteed him victory the Shakti Asthana which he got it could have guaranteed him victory you can kill your enemy by that and if you had used the Shakti Asthana you could have killed Anjana so in that sense it was not a huge loss it was not a huge loss and somehow because of carelessness when he went to Virat he forgot to take the Shakti Asthana and then for the first four days of the war he did not use the Shakti Asthana I imagine the Kavacha threatened him so much that he used it in a way of anxiety so the point is he lost something, he gained something so what he lost would not have guaranteed him victory what he gained, gave him a chance at victory so therefore it was not such a big loss it was a loss in one sense not such a big loss so therefore as I said ultimately it is very difficult to decide who is a better warrior, who is a lesser warrior there are only the results that matter let us speak you can always say I am comparing this to a cricket match simply because cricket is a very bad game so somebody can say is this a better bowler or is this a better bowler is this a better batsman or is this a better batsman there are so many factors that can go in for comparing things but one way of comparing is look at the results so as far as you see there is no battle in which Karna defeated Arjuna and there are several occasions where Arjuna does turn out to be superior so even if we can’t make a clear sense that you know we are not saying that Karna was no good and Arjuna was all good both of them were great warriors but as far as the result track record goes Arjuna’s track record is on the side of Karna is on the game side of Karna and is on the side of Arjuna is it clear any other questions