Karna’s colossal blunder

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So let’s discuss about Karna. I will discuss now four main points.
So here primarily we are discussing about Karna’s choice, in terms of whether he chose right or wrong, when Krishna invited him to the site of the Pandavas. So before we discuss that, let’s look at the background. In terms of what all was implied in this choice.
Siddhi Mahabharata, as contrasted with the Ramayana, is a book which deals in shades of grey. The Ramayana has white and black, quite clearly. Ravana is the villain, Rama is the hero.
And Ravana is a Rakshasa, Rama is a Mani. In contrast in Mahabharata, both the parties are Mani’s. Because Ravana is not a Rakshasa, he is a human-like body.
He is born from a human being. And both are Mani’s. And we see that, on the Parampara’s side, the other side, there are many people who are quite noble.
Karna is one example. Who others are there? Krishna is there, then Varuna is there. In many ways, Ashwathama was also noble.
Of course, later on he did a very brutal thing. But he was also noble. So the lines between good and bad, they become blurred in the Mahabharata.
And that’s why it requires deeper thought to understand things. So, we will discuss about Karna’s life. Our primary focus is to understand how, when there are multiple forces in our life, one pulling this way, one pulling that way, how do we make a decision? On what basis? Now, if we look backwards, Karna, he came in a… His life begins with a tragedy.
So now, as is pointed out, at one level, we can say Kunti is the culprit. She begot a child and the chief abandoned the child. But, you know, fixing blame is always very easy.
Whether it is on Kunti or Karna or anyone else. But if you look at the complete situation. So, how things work for us.
In those times, and even today to some extent, the tradition is there that if somebody serves saintly people, you get blessings. And generally for a woman, blessings are that you get good children. So, Kunti was not yet married.
She was just a maiden. At that time, Dharvasandhu came to her father’s palace. And her father asked him to serve Dharvasandhu.
So, Dharvasandhu was very pleased by her religious service. And he blessed her that you will be able to get children and sons from the Devtas. Generally, the person from whom we get the sons, that person’s qualities also comes.
So, it was a great blessing. At that time, Kunti was basically a teenager. And she was heartened to receive this blessing.
And she was curiously, she was lying in her room. She glanced up at the sun and remembered the mantra. So, she chanted the mantra with the name of Surya.
And then Surya appeared over there. So, when Surya appeared over there, at that time, he said that you have called me. I went.
They called me. So, this mantra is meant to call a person. So that they call a person that they would have to assign to you.
So, Kunti was horrified. She said, no, no, no. Actually, I am sorry.
I didn’t have that intention. I was just curious. I was given this mantra and I wanted to see whether it works.
That’s how I called you. So, Surya said that actually, when you call a Devta, a Devta is meant to give a blessing. And you have called me for a particular purpose.
How can I go without giving you a blessing? I must give you a blessing. She was horrified. This is not your blessing.
This is like a curse for you. So, she started begging with Surya. She said, I am unmarried.
What will people say? What will happen to me? I will get a chance. He said, don’t worry about that. You will remain a virgin.
Your virginity will not be lost. But because you have called me, then you have to accept this blessing. So, she tried to request Surya.
But it was not possible. See, how the Devtas also to some extent are bound. That means, if a particular worship is done with a particular mantra, they are to some extent bound to you, the fruit.
So then, after that, Kumbhakarna, her child was born. And the child had celestial eye, you know, and earrings. Now, Kunti was terribly conflicted.
She did not know what to do. So finally, after frantic praying and contemplating, she decided. She fashioned.
Very secretly, her own pregnancy happened. And then, at that time, the woman would stay in the private quarters. And Kunti, this is a long story.
Basically, Kunti was the son of the daughter of Sura Singh. But Sura Singh had a friend, Kuntibhuj. So, her birth name was Prutha.
But, Kuntibhuj did not have any children. So, her father, Sura Singh, gave birth to his friend. So now, in Kuntibhuj’s palace, there were not many other ladies.
They did not have any sisters. And his mother was not there. And Kuntibhuj, for some reason, he could not marry.
That’s a long story. He could not remarry. And he had passed away.
So, she was all alone. She just had to play with him. So, her pregnancy remained a secret.
And then she fashioned a very sturdy wooden basket filled with pillows. And then, when the palace was adjacent to the river, so she took it to the river, and she hugged the child to her heart. She longed to take care of the child, but it was not possible for her to be in an unmarried state.
And then she put the basket in the water and then started praying fervently. She looked at Suri and said, this is your child. Please take care of your child.
And as the basket started moving, she started praying, O Varuna, it is your awareness. Please carry this child to safety. As she started praying, O Vahiyo, please pray.
Please bless this child so that he will be in safety. And then she kept watching the basket till it went out of sight. And although it went out of sight, the child never went out of her heart.
And her prayers went with the child. And so many things could have gone wrong. A basket is customary, it could have capsized, the child could have drowned, but could carry… Although she was just a teenager, carrying the basket in such a way that it safely went across.
And then, there was a child here. And he, somehow, he and his wife, they were trying to have children, but they could not have children at that time. So, Adhirath and Radha.
So, they saw this basket coming, and when they opened the basket, they had been praying, O Devdas, please give us a child. And when they opened the basket, they saw this extraordinary child. They were amazed.
And then, they decided that this child is an answer to our prayers. They raised him as their own son. So now, here, if we see this as a circumstance, Kunti, in one sense, was helpless.
Especially, even today’s society is difficult for a single mother or unmarried woman to raise a child. In those times, times were even more conservative. Now, who do we blame? Surya for that? Why did Surya make such a predicament? To understand that you have to go back further.
Actually, Karna, ultimately, whatever happens to us, it is by our karma. So, Karna, in his previous life, was a devotee of Sahasrara Kavachana. In Sahasrara Kavachana, he had performed a lot of austerities.
He had worshipped Lord Shiva, Surya Deva. And while worshipping Surya Deva, he first asked for immortality. When he was told, even I am not immortal.
I cannot become immortal. Then he thought, he said, okay, I want a blessing by which I will have a thousand Kavachas on my body. And those thousand Kavachas should be such that that one Kavacha can be killed only by a person who has performed austerity for one thousand years.
And as soon as the Kavacha breaks, if a person breaks a Kavacha, then that person will immediately die. So, two conditions. The Kavacha can be broken only by a person who performs austerity for a thousand years.
And as soon as the breaker of Kavacha will immediately die. Now, with these two conditions, it’s almost impossible to kill. As a breaking Kavacha.
And the Yudhis and the Devatas, they were agonised. They went to see the Surya Deva, who had not commanded. He did the austerity.
I had to do the blessings. So, they went to Lord Vishnu. So, at that time, they went to Narayana and Narayana Vishnu.
So, Narayana and Narayana is Vishnu in two forms. As a human, as Vishnu. So, both of them are Vishnus.
And they begged him, please save us. So, they begged him, please save us. At that time, so, they decided that they will fight with him.
So, Narayana and Vishnu, they are in one sense, one. They are two, but they are in such an intimate state of union, of love, that they are almost like one. So, Narayana and Vishnu, they had already come up with austerities for a thousand years.
So, then, so, Narayana and Narayana went there. So, Narayana fought with Sahasrara Kavacharya. His earlier name was Dambhavan Bhavan.
And then, when he got this thousand Kavacharyas, his name became Sahasrara Kavacharya. So, Sahasrara Kavacharya, so, Narayana fought with him and finally, after fighting, he broke one Kavacharya. And, he was surprised.
Nobody would be able to break Kavacharya now. But, his Kavacharya was broken. Thak! He, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, So Suryadevi, he knew that the Pandavas were the Kenyans, but still he had to do it.
And then Narayana Rishi came to him and said, you know, he is a demon. You must kill him. He said, no, he has taken my shelter.
I cannot kill him. So then Narayana Rishi said, okay, in the future we will deal with him. So still I won’t come to Germany.
And then he was with Suryadevi. And at that time Suryadevi was thinking, what should I do with him? Now how do I deal with him? So he had to come and take shelter. And then when Kunti approached him, he, Suryadevi arranged that Kunti was impregnated with this Dambavan power.
Now earlier he had a demoniac mentality outward. But because he contacted Suryadevi, and this time he was impregnated through Suryadevi, so he developed some karmic abilities also. So now what happened is, in his previous lives, he had done austerities, he had got rid of those things.
But once he had got the powers, he did a lot of bad karmas. And because of the result of the bad karma, now, although he won’t birth the Thirashakshya family, although he won’t birth through Suryadevi, but still, circumstances were in such a way that he was known as a Sutaputra. Sutaputra.
So whatever happens to us, it’s ultimately our own karma. That’s the first point. We can’t justify the wrongs that we do in the future because of the wrongs that have happened in the past.
If you want to look at it that way, it’s often that Suryadevi was deprived, the karma was deprived because he never got the honour of being called Shatrughna, or being recognised as Shatrughna. He was always called as a Sutaputra. But, he had a tremendous starting advantage.
What was that? He had a Kavacha. He had a Kavacha throughout his life, which, although the Pandavas, they were born from the Devatas also. They were known as Kshatriyas also.
But still, they did not have a Kavacha, anything like that. They were born from Indra and Varuna and others, but they did not have such thing. So, in one sense, karma had a starting disadvantage.
That, he was born as a Sutaputra. But, he had a starting advantage also. What was that? He had a very powerful Kavacha, which the Pandavas did not have.
Now, after that, he decided that he wanted to learn, he had a Kshatriya nature. He was a Kshatriya, he was a fighter from his previous life. And, he wanted to take training.
So, eventually, through Parashurama, we will not go through the full story. We will get the question answered, if we have any further questions, we will discuss at that time. But, eventually, he got Shastravidya from Parashurama.
And, then he decided that he will display his talents. So, at the end of the education, which Drona had offered to the Kavaravas and Pandavas, at that time, Drona arranged an exhibition. Just like sometimes, we have a felicitation programme.
When you graduate, in the felicitation programme, you get felicitations. So, like a felicitation ceremony, in which not only are they going to be felicitated, but also, their talents are going to be displayed. So, basically, it was an event organised by Drona for Drona’s students.
This is where he discharged or something? So, what is going on right now? So, in this event, primarily, it was meant for Drona’s students. So, after all the volunteers exhibited their skills, and finally, Arjuna came. And, Arjuna was unharmed.
And, as all the spectators were cheering for Arjuna, at that time, Karna came first. I think you all have read the story, isn’t it? It is there in your notes. So, I want to reiterate the story, but I will emphasise some points.
When Karna came first, he said, whatever Arjuna has done, I will do better than that. And, actually, in the exhibition, he equalled Arjuna. He did not excel Arjuna.
So, now, after this, at that time, Duryodhana helped him. How did he help him? You know the story. He first said that, I will give him Anga, so that he can be considered a Kshatriya.
I will give him Angalesh, and I will celebrate him. So, now, at a time of dishonour, if somebody helps, surely, one should be grateful to that person. And, that gratitude is lovable.
At the same time, if a person does one good to another person, does that mean that one should do good to the other person forever? One should become indebted or enslaved to the other person forever? No, one good can be repaid by another good. But, what happened to him? Once, as associated with Duryodhana, initially, Karna wanted to be with Arjuna. Because he wanted to do that, I am the best Arjuna.
He did not have much against the other part of us. But, gradually, Duryodhana’s envious nature started affecting him. Now, why was Duryodhana envious? Because, the Pandavas, you know, initially, they were living in the forest with Pandu.
So, at that time, nobody was sure whether they would come back or not. So, Duryodhana was expected to become the king. When the Pandavas came back, then, they were virtuous, they were kind.
Duryodhana, in contrast, was arrogant, self-centred. So, he was favoured by the citizens. He was favoured by Duryodhana.
So, naturally, Duryodhana became envious. And, even when Duryodhana wanted to initiate some devious means, some cheating means. So, initially, Karna said, why do you do all this? Let’s fight it.
We’ll have a fight and we’ll defeat them. So, Karna always had this pride that, I am the best archer. He felt that, I have got the opportunity to demonstrate that.
So, we will look at how good an archer Karna was, slightly later. But, right now, let’s look at the character. We’ll look at the character of Karna, then we’ll look at his competence.
So, as far as character is concerned, initially, he said, let’s have a fair fight and defeat the Pandavas fair and square. And then, you can have it. Shakuni said, no, we’ll not give them anything.
They are very powerful. So, he said, we’ll try something else. So, he decided to, they were sent to the Lakshadraha, where Karna also knew they were to be fought.
So, Karna consented to that. He consented, that’s all. Then, after that, when the gambling match was held.
In the gambling match, Karna comes out throughout the Mahabharata. See, people’s character, how do we know their character? It is revealed through actions. And especially actions when there are challenging situations.
See, anybody can be honest when there is no temptation. Anybody can say, I will never, you know, anti-corruption drive. Anybody can say, I will not become Karna.
But tomorrow, if somebody comes and says, you just sign this, that’s it, I’ll give you one lakh rupees. Then, the question comes. So, when the temptation comes, then provocation comes.
At that time, one’s principles get tested. So, what happened in this situation? When the Pandavas gambled, and they lost. So, Karna, initially, was not very much in favour of the gambling match.
But once they got into the spirit, he wanted to please the Rukmini. So, he said, yes, let’s gamble. And then, as the Pandavas started losing everything, Shakuni suggested, why don’t we gamble Nakula, Sahadeva.
And eventually, Shakuni suggested, why don’t we gamble Draupadi. So, at that time, the whole assembly erupted. How can you gamble a woman like this? So, then, Shakuni insisted, and eventually, the gamble took place.
And then, what happened? It was Karna, who suggested, that now, Draupadi is your slave. Why not bring her into the assembly? Why not bring her into the assembly, and let her join the serving men? She doesn’t deserve to live in the royal chamber. She should live in the servant’s quarters.
And then, at this time, Dushasan, the messenger, came back. And Dushasan went. And Dushasan dragged Draupadi inside.
So, then, as Draupadi came, she was mortified. And the whole assembly was in uproar. And then, seeing Draupadi in this condition, and seeing the Pandavas mortified, it was Karna who suggested, now that Draupadi is your slave, why not this Rukmini? Now, is this the characteristic of a noble person, to want to disrobe a woman in public? Not just a woman, a normal woman.
Actually, no woman can be disrobed like this. So, it was he who suggested. And, in fact, before that also, Draupadi raised a question.
She said to that, Yudhishthir, did he gamble himself first, or did he gamble me first? So, he had gambled himself first. So, he has gambled himself away. Then, am I, if he is not his own owner, then how can I be his property? How can he have gambled me away? So, at that time, he said, please answer this question.
So, nobody in the assembly had answered. Vikarna, one of the brothers of Duryodhana, who did not, who had a little bit less Timurian mentality, he said, actually, there are four activities, under the influence of which, when people go, they act in insane ways. These were, meat-eating, womanising, then, intoxication and gambling.
So, whatever happens in these cases, it should not be taken seriously. So, Yudhishthir was under the frenzy of gambling. That’s why I can say that the whole loss of the kingdom and the loss of the Pandavas was null and void.
We should not take it seriously. Moreover, his own gambling mind was held improperly. He says, Yudhishthir, right when he came in first, he said, you should not gamble.
He did not want to gamble. But because he was instructed by the king, Dhritarashtra, he could not disobey the instruction. And moreover, the gambling mind was improper, because when two people stake wealth, they have to gamble.
Here, Duryodhana has staked the wealth, but Shakuni is handing the dice. So, because of all his improperities, I feel that this whole result should be declared null and void, and the Pandavas should be given back the kingdom. So, when Vikarna spoke this, many people in the assembly, they all cheered him.
They all applauded him. At that time, Karna got up. Silence, silence, he said.
He said, I have seen many things improper in the assembly, but the most improper thing is the speech of Vikarna. So, not the disobeying of Draupadi, not the dishonouring of the Pandavas, the most improper thing is, the spun speech that he is trying to give back to Akhileya. And his argument was, nobody throws Yudhishthira to the canvas.
He said, Yudhishthira chose on himself. He chose on his own to gamble. And he could have stopped at any time.
By his own free will, he has lost himself, and he has lost Draupadi. And he said, as far as disobeying Draupadi is concerned, now what is the big deal about it? As it is, she has accepted five husbands. That means, she is a prostitute.
So, a prostitute, even if she is disobeying, what is the problem with that? This is a whole scandalous incident. You know, actually, yes. There is polygamy, one man having many wives.
It happened in the Vedic culture. One woman having many husbands was a layman. But there is a whole story behind it.
The Asade himself sanctioned it. And it is described that Draupadi, in her previous life, she had prayed to Lord Shiva for a husband. And she was so eager that when Lord Shiva came, she said, I want a husband, I want a husband, I want a husband, I want a husband, I want a husband.
She prayed five times. So, Lord Shiva said, because you prayed five times, your desire will be fulfilled five times. And you will have five husbands.
So, what did the Asade, he came and he said, that actually, this has been sanctioned by, he told the story of Draupadi’s past life, that this has been sanctioned by Lord Shiva. And he himself sanctioned it. So, a prostitute means a woman who offers her body for the sake of money to others.
So, now Draupadi never did that. There is no monetary considerations over there. She was one in a sonata by Arjuna.
And after that, the arrangement was that, because of Kunti’s birthday, and because of the prayers they had made, she was the common man of all the five mantras. She was a chaste woman. She never had any, I call, near-by man.
And she served her husband very neatly. In fact, her service to her husband was so exemplary, that even Krishna’s queens, Rukmini and others, they came and did the prayers on Draupadi. How do you serve your husband? How should we serve Krishna, Draupadi? So, calling a woman, calling a chaste woman, a faithful wife, as a prostitute, is a horrific crime.
So, this is simple. So, Karna comes out as this. The worst of Karna actually comes out in the asat-samhara, in the gambling match.
And somehow, when Karna spoke this, all these arguments, Karna’s world created. And the Karna’s world was neglected. And the whole Arjuna’s thing that happened, it went down in that direction.
You know, actually, the Pandavas were excited. So, we should not think that Karna was a very virtuous character, who was wrong many times. Yes, he was wrong.
But he also himself did many wrongs. He did many wrongs. And all this, what did happen? Why did Karna suggest Draupadi to disrobe? Many reasons, but the prime reason was, he got spoiled, terribly spoiled, by the bad association with the Indra-Dana.
And further, in the forest. Now, the nature of envy is that, one cannot be satisfied with the things that one has. One has to see, compare what I have got, and show what others have.
And then show that what they have is bad, and what I have is good. So, this is actually the mentality of envious. So, Duryodhana, he was now in the kingdom, Pandavas were in the forest.
But still, Duryodhana, he said, we should put salt on the wounds. So, he decided, we will go to the forest, and where the Pandavas are living in poverty, we will go with our wealth. And we will exhibit our wealth.
And then, the Pandavas will see how miserable they are, and how happy we are, how prosperous we are. Then, our joy will come. So, when Duryodhana came up with this plan, Dhritarashtra was very fearful.
He said, we are all ready, and where those five sons of Pandu, what have they done for us? So, at that time, Duryodhana, Dhritarashtra, and Karna came up with the idea. Karna said, tell the king, that actually our shepherds are in that area, in Kamyonam. So, we are going there to supervise the activities of shepherds.
And by this excuse, they went there. So, Karna also participated in the evil ways. And if you see further, when the war happened, the Kurukshetra war, now some people say that Karna is also killed unfairly.
We’ll come to that later. But Karna was killed when he was of his childhood. So, right at the start of the war, right at the start of the war, the two commanders met.
Who was the commander of the Kauravas? Bhishma. And of the Pandavas? Arjuna was the foremost warrior, but Dhristadyumna was the commander. So, they met.
So, at that time, Bhishma repeated the codes of to be fought in the war. And he said that, these are the codes to be fought. This code should be followed.
Dhristadyumna thought, the Kauravas are known to be so vicious. They have done so many wrong things. Why are they now suddenly remembering morality, the codes of war? Dhristadyumna said, yes, we’ll follow the code of war, as long as you follow.
If you break the code of war, then we will also break it. We may not let the war codes hold us back. We will get our way.
And what happened? Now, there was a specific war code of warrior and chariot, not attacking a warrior who is of the chariot. That is a war code which was violated in the case of Arjuna’s case. But it was Karna himself who violated this code before three times.
Actually, two times. Three times, I can say. I’ll just explain how it is.
First was in the case of Abhimanyu. Abhimanyu connected with Chakravyuh. At that time, Abhimanyu was destroying everyone, defeating everyone.
He killed Lakshmana, son of Duryodhana. And then he killed the sons of Karna. And Karna came and fought with him.
Abhimanyu was so fierce that Karna was not unconscious. Then, one by one, the Kauravas, Abhimanyu, Ashwathama was killed. Then again, Karna came back to consciousness.
He came back and fought again. Again, there was a fierce fight. And again, Karna was God wounded by Abhimanyu.
And then, again, third time he came and he was completely overwhelmed. He could not do anything. And finally, Karna said, Duryodhana, Duryodhana said, Karna, you said that you were going to kill Arjuna, but you are not even the son of Arjuna.
Duryodhana said, No, I am trying my best. He said, let us go to the commander, Drona. He will tell us what to do.
And then, Drona, at that time, actually to some extent, Drona also got spoiled by the bad decision of Duryodhana. He felt that now I am a commander, I have to do whatever is required to protect. So then, at the suggestion of Karna, Duryodhana went to Drona.
And at the suggestion of Karna, Drona came up with the idea of six maharathas attacking one warrior. And actually, all six of them attacked. And when they attacked, first they broke the… So there were six of them.
They all attacked. One of them broke the chariot. One of them broke the horses.
One of them broke the bow. One of them killed the charioteer. And Karna and Arjuna… And Abhimanyu was left carless.
And then Abhimanyu was still fighting. He took a bow and arrow. He was shooting from there.
So Karna at that time was on his chariot. And Karna shot. And he broke Abhimanyu’s bow and arrow.
Then Abhimanyu took a mace and a sword. And he is fighting from the ground. And Abhimanyu had some stick balls also.
So he rose into the sky. Too many arrows were coming. He had some stick balls.
He rose into the sky. And then Karna and several other warriors, they shot. And they broke his bow and shield also.
So here we see that there was a charioteer’s war here. And he was alone. And Karna was one of the six maharathas who attacked.
So grievous violation of the war. So the next day… The next day, when Abhimanyu had decided to take a war, to do what? This happened on 13th day. Abhimanyu was there.
Karna. Arjuna took the war. To kill Jaidrath.
So at that time, the whole army was arranged for the protection of Jaidrath. So the military formation was actually almost 40 miles long. And behind that was Jaidrath.
So now, it was not just 40 miles, 40 miles of warriors at different places. So Arjuna had to penetrate through them. As Arjuna was penetrating, penetrating, fiercely fighting, nobody could stop him.
But after some time, his horses got completely exhausted. And Krishna said, your horses are celestial, but this fight is even beyond the celestial horses. They have got exhausted now.
They need rest. So now Krishna said, they need rest. So Arjuna said, okay, I’ll get up the chariot.
Arjuna got up the chariot and he invoked a celestial astra and he shot it towards the ground. And he shot it towards the ground. Suddenly the ground parted and a lake appeared over there.
And around the lake, some horses also, some trees appeared, shade appeared. And Krishna said, very good. And then he took the horses over there.
Took the horses and now, this was right in the middle of the war field, on the Kaurava’s side. And Arjuna was all alone, without any horse, without any chariot, without any chariot. And see this opportunity, all the Kaurava warriors were there.
They were on horses. They were on the chariot. They were on elephants.
He charged towards Arjuna. And Arjuna was moving around, round and round and round, shooting arrows. And he shot arrows with such blinding speed that it was practically like there was a wall around him.
Walls of arrows. Whoever came to him, nearly they just hit by his arrows and they fell back. So, Krishna, Arjuna talks, He says, Vaham is horseshant.
They will be exhausted. And then I was, I had no chariot and my opponents were the Devas. And I was blissful.
But still, you see, that I checked there. So, at that time, Karna did not say, Fau, Fau, Arjuna did not say, Fau, Fau, land on the ground if you are going to attack me. No.
When a fierce war is going on, no quarters are to be asked, no quarters are to be given. So, from the Kaurava’s side, this code was violated. Second time.
Now, the Mahabharata is not exclusive whether Karna was there at that time or not. Why? Arjuna was off the chariot. Even if Karna was not there, the point was, the Kauravas violated the war code of attacking the charioteer as warrior.
Then, on the 17th day, Karna became the commander on the 16th day. And he was the commander for 16 to 17 days. 17th day, when the war was going on, at that time, Karna decided that I am the killer.
The war was going on and both of them were almost equally matched. So, Karna decided now I am the killer. So, he decided I use a celestial astra.
So, he took the Nagastra. And at that time, there was a there was a Naga warrior, Ashwasi. So, he entered into the Nagastra also to increase his power.
And he shot. He said, shoot the arrow. So, Shalya told him, you know, shoot the arrow and the chest of Karna and the Abhimanyu.
Sorry. So, Shalya told Karna, shoot the arrow at the chest of Arjuna. Why at the chest? Because, even if you miss a little bit, still it will be a mortal wound.
Below is the stomach, above is the neck. So, it will be a mortal wound. So, Karna thought, no, no, I want to kill Arjuna in a classic way.
So, see what happens is, sometimes, in a battle, I want to clean the wound and I will knock out his middle step. So, like that, Karna thought, I will cut off his head and the head will fly away and fall at the point of attack. And everybody will see my victory.
So, he said, I will shoot at the neck itself. So, he shot at the neck. And now Arjuna had a formidable armour also.
So, when the arrows were being shot, sometimes Arjuna would counter the arrows and sometimes when Arjuna was shooting even the arrows, he would let the arrows hit him. And the arrows would not damage him much because he had a very formidable armour. And he did not recognise this vertical weapon.
He just let the weapon come towards him. He thought, my armour will protect him and I will shoot other arrows. And as this armour came sizzling towards him, Arjuna, Krishna recognised and Krishna banged his foot on the ground.
As he banged the side of the chariot, the foot rest was there, he banged his foot heavily on the foot rest of the chariot. The chariot sank into the ground. And as the chariot sank into the ground, Arjuna also sank down.
So, what happened? The arrows were meant to go to his neck. Because Arjuna bent down, so it knocked off his diagonal. His crown.
Knocked off his crown. Now, of course, Dhrusad himself was inside for Shatrughna to have his crown knocked off. But, of course, getting a crown knocked off is better than the head getting knocked off.
So, now, after this happened, the Ashwasi, he immediately went back. He had missed the point and he said, shoot me. He said, I am enemy of Arjuna and I will help you kill him.
So, Karna said, I will never shoot the same arrow second time. And, nevertheless, I won’t use any of his power. I will kill by my own power.
Go wherever you are. And he started shooting his own arrows. The significant thing is, at this point, Arjuna’s chariot has hit a bit mobile.
Because when Krishna knocked the chariot down, the chariot went under the earth. And then, what happened? When the chariot was under the earth, Arjuna said, stop, stop, don’t shoot that. He didn’t do that.
And, now, that Karna, he saw what had happened. Karna did not stop shooting arrows. What happened? Arjuna kept defending to the best of his capacity.
And Krishna again got the chariot and then he put his hand under the ground and lifted the chariot up. He brought the chariot back on the ground and the fight continued. So, the point is that there was abundant unfairness even before the Kurukshetra war by the Kauravas.
And in the Kurukshetra war, the major first unfairness was by the Kauravas. The same rule that was violated by the king Karna, that was violated by Karna himself as it was by the Kauravas. Like, Karna twice and Aparna twice.
So, we see that Karna’s character in that sense is not all that noble. He was noble in his own ways, but he also acted deviously. Deviously means in wicked ways at several occasions.
So, this is the diagram. Now, when Krishna let’s come to the character of Karna. Now, we will try to understand the context.
We will try to understand why we use this diagram. Now, why Krishna made this proposal to Karna and what was the implications for Karna if he chose to go on side of the Pandavas and not go on side of the Pandavas. So, Karna chose not all that virtues.
Then, apart from that, why did Krishna go to Karna at all? We know that Krishna went as a shanti guru to the assembly of Hastinapura to ask for peace. in that assembly Duryodhana completely rejected Krishna and even tried to arrest Krishna and in the plan to arrest Krishna Karna was also accomplice. Karna told, I don’t think this will be successful.
But, when Duryodhana listened, he consented to that plan. And then, Duryodhana’s insolence, not only did not accept the peace proposal, but he tried to arrest the peace messenger. That was clear enough.
He was not ready for peace. So, now, why did Krishna have to go for peace at all? Because, Krishna wanted to avoid violence. He wanted to prove to the world that my devotees will try their best to avoid violence.
And they were ready to accept and fight in five villages. That’s all. So, a tribe is best to minimise the violence.
So, first is to avoid the violence entirely. That doesn’t work. Then, Krishna thought, let me try to minimise the violence.
How can you minimise the violence? So, he said that, this thought was that, from the side of the Kauravas, Bhishma, Drona and Ashwathama, they actually don’t bear any malice towards the Pandavas. They are fighting against the Pandavas because they are formal warriors but they are obliged to fight. The people who bear malice are primarily the Kauravas.
Duryodhana and Dushasana. But, Duryodhana is a formidable warrior. So, the less the number of formidable warriors on the side of the Kauravas, the less is the chance that fighting will go on for too long.
The whole point is to minimise the violence. Then, now, the only person who was almost eager for war, the other, as I said, Duryodhana, Dushasana, Duryodhana, Dushasana, was not eager for war. Duryodhana was eager for war.
And, apart from Duryodhana, the only Mahabharata who was really eager for war was Karna. So, now, Karna also had an animosity towards Arjuna. So, Krishna’s reasoning was that if once we need to come to side of Arjuna or Pandavas, then Duryodhana’s back would be broken practically simply.
So, Duryodhana may again rethink his rejection of the peace proposal or even if he doesn’t rethink even if the fight is there, the fight will be much shorter because that enorm of Duryodhana will not be supported by the strength of Karna. And, some people say that actually, Krishna was afraid that Karna would kill Arjuna. And, that’s why, to protect Arjuna, Karna, Krishna, went to Karna and bet on his side.
Now, is that true that Karna was such a strong warrior that could have killed Arjuna? Now, if you look at the history, and let’s look at it from the beginning, how strong was Karna and how strong was Arjuna? Now, different people can give different assessments. Now, Krishna and Drona, Karna was also quite boastful. You know, I said, I can, what to speak of Arjuna, I can defeat all Pandavas in one day.
So, at that time, Kripa was like, you are like a cloud with only thunders but never rains. So, Karna was furious. you will see my reign in the battle field when I come.
So, basically, different people can give different assessments. Krishna said, Karna is not even one-sixteenth of Arjuna. So, on the other hand, Krishna himself, before the final battle happens on 17th day, Krishna says, O Partha, be careful, because I think Karna is equal to you or even superior to you.
Therefore, you should fight very carefully and should kill Karna. Now, it is illogical. If Krishna is saying Karna is superior to you, how will he kill Karna? But actually, Krishna, he also has, before the war, he counsels.
And at counselling, he speaks whatever is appropriate. So, in this speech, he is cautioning, he is urging and he is inciting. Krishna says, yes, you cannot take him lightly.
Fight carefully. So, different people can do different assessments. Parashurama, when he cursed Karna, he said that at a time when you are fighting with your equal, at that time, the memory of your best weapon will be lost.
So, for Parashurama, Arjuna is equal. So, different people can do different assessments. But let’s look at the results.
So, when are there the confrontations? The first was in Dronacharya’s milk martial exhibition. At that time, Arjuna exhibited skills and Karna exhibited the same skills. And there was going to be a deal between the two but before the logistics could result, it could be worked out, sunset.
So, what happened? It was a draw. So, Arjuna 0, Karna 0. Then after that, then the Pandavas and the Kauravas went to Dronacharya to ask what Dakshina can be. So, he said that you should arrest Drupada and bring Drupada to me as a prisoner.
So, Drupada you know, he had already seen that all Pandavas had outshone him in the martial exhibition. He said, now I will show best. He said, he charged and charged Drupada.
Pandavas also went with him. Arjuna said, wait, let Duryodhana go first, we will go afterwards. So, Duryodhana went and because Karna was his friend, Karna also went with him.
So, they charged and attacked Drupada. And Drupada fought fiercely and after fierce fight, Drupada defeated him. Defeated Duryodhana and Karna was also there in the party and Karna was also there.
Then after that, the Pandavas came and Arjuna came and attacked with such ferocity. So, Arjuna tackled Drupada and Bhima tackled Drupada’s commander. And they overpowered and defeated the rest of Drupada.
So, what happened here? Drupada defeated Karna and Arjuna defeated Drupada. So, what happened? Arjuna won, Karna zero. It’s indirect but it’s clear.
It’s clear. Karna was defeated and Arjuna won. Then after that, there was the assembly.
There was Draupadi and So, actually, at this time, Drupada desire, although Arjuna defeated him, he did not have an assembly against Arjuna because he knew Arjuna has come on behalf of Drona. Arjuna is just a fearless warrior. I wish such a warrior was my son.
But he is already Let me have a daughter who will become his wife and then later on when he did the yagya and from the yagya Dhrishtadyumna and Draupadi came out. But they came out not as babies, they came out as fully grown-ups. And then when Draupadi Swami was there, at that time Karna came and Arjuna came with Then eventually when Arjuna went and dropped the Swamigal, the Kshatriyas got angry with Draupadi.
They said, he has called us Kshatriyas for a Swamigal and then now he is giving his daughter to a Brahmana. He has disgraced us all Kshatriyas. We should punish Draupadi.
And they started charging with Karna and Shalya at their head. The kings started charging towards Draupadi to punish her. So Yudhishthira at that time, he told Arjuna and Draupadi.
He said, now Draupadi is our father-in-law, it is our duty to protect her. So then Bhima and Shalya were fighting and Arjuna and Karna were fighting. So initially Karna should not light arrows because he thought he is a Brahmana.
But Arjuna counted all his arrows and then Karna asked him. Arjuna’s arrows rocked Karna, completely blocked him. Karna said, who are you? Except for Indra or Surya or Vishnu or Parashurama, nobody’s arrows can come from my arrows.
Who are you? So Arjuna did not want to reveal his identity. He said, I am just the disciple of my teacher. And then Karna became very thoughtful.
He said, the martial power of a Shakuni is always subordinate to the spiritual power of a Brahmana. I will not fight with a Brahmana. And he lowered his bow.
So here basically what happened? There is a draw. So Karna, the score is 0-0. So Arjuna still won, Karna is 0. Then after that, when was the next battle that happened? The next battle, I told you that when they went for a shepherd.
When the Pandavas were in the forest, the Kauravas went to the Kamiyama to flow on them. So at that time, the Gandharvas were playing in the lake over there. So on one bank of the river, the Pandavas were camping.
On the other bank, the Kauravas went and then the Gandharvas responded. And the Gandharvas said, we are playing over here. You cannot come here.
Guru Duryodhana said, I am the king of the earth. Who are you to stop me? You get out of here. So the Gandharvas said, what fool are you? We are human beings.
We are already God’s. Before we get angry, leave here because you will die. Guru Duryodhana got angry and said, I am the king of the world.
I don’t care for anyone else. You go out or I will kill you. So then a war started.
And then Guru Duryodhana’s forces were powerful. And Guru Duryodhana himself was there. Karna was there.
Dushasana was there. They attacked him. They were destroying the Gandharvas army.
And at that time, Srinu Duryodhana was there. The commander of the Gandharvas, Chitrangada. And Chitrangada, he got up.
And he was shooting arrows. He had such ferocity that, first Karna was the formidable one. So they started fighting with Karna.
And a fierce fight went on. Eventually, Karna fell unconscious. Karna got wounded.
Karna got heavily wounded, almost unconscious. And then Dushasana was already wounded. So Dushasana on his chariot was clean.
Karna’s chariot was wounded. Karna’s chariot was tired already. So Karna jumped on his chariot, jumped on Dushasana’s chariot and ran away.
And Guru Duryodhana was still in his old army, routed. Duryodhana was proud and furious. He kept fighting, fighting, fighting.
But he was no match for the Gandharvas. And the Gandharvas arrested him. And right in front of his soldiers, he had brought his queens and great sons also.
To show how much he was enjoying life. And right in front of them, he got humiliated. He was arrested and imprisoned and shackled.
And somehow, Duryodhana’s warriors, soldiers, they escaped. And they ran across to the other side of the river. And they told Dushasana, Look, Duryodhana has been arrested.
Please help me. So when Duryodhana is arrested, Bheema hurled at him. Bheema said, Oh, very good news.
He said, I am disfortunate. But still the gods, the Gandharvas, who are among the gods, they are ready to help us. What we would have accomplished after much effort, at the end of our exile, they have accomplished for us.
So what Bhagavad Gita said, In the history, the age was not much different between the Pandavas and him. But whenever he wanted to correct anyone, he could say, Oh, child. So he told Bheema, Oh, child, don’t speak like this.
We may have our conflicts. So for between us, we are five, they are hundred. For the rest of the world, we are all the descendants of the same dynasty.
So we are hundred and five. And they have arrested our prince. They have arrested our Avadaisa.
So we should protect him. So Avadaisa was born and protected. But because I am performing the sacrifice right now, I cannot leave.
You please go. Bheema was not at all ready. Yudhishthira was intelligent.
Yudhishthira said, I do not know. What will give you more joy than to have your enemy at your mercy? So then Bheema went and attacked the Gandharvas army. And Arjuna attacked the Gandharvas army.
And then Chitravatha and Arjuna had a fight, brief but fierce. And Arjuna overpowered Chitravatha. And as he was about to shoot a final arrow at Chitravatha, Chitravatha said, Hey wait, I am your friend Chitravatha.
So actually there is a past story when they had a friendly discussion. So he said, Actually I have been sent by Indra to teach some humility to this insolent Duryodhana. Now Duryodhana was there right in front of him only.
And he told the whole scheme which Duryodhana had planned. So what happened? Here Arjuna defeated Gandharva, Chitravatha. And Chitravatha defeated Karna.
So what happens? Again Arjuna won. So now Arjuna’s score is 2. Karna’s score is 0. And after that, this was told in the 11th year. Then how many years is the exile? 12 plus 1. So when the exile happened, the Pandavas went to the king of Virat.
And then Duryodhana got some suspicion that the Pandavas are going to invade the Virat kingdom. So he sent Susharma, one of his commanders, to attack the Virat kingdom from one side. And the whole Virat’s army went to defend.
And then the whole Kaurava army attacked from the other side. And when they attacked from the other side, then we know, I don’t want to tell the whole story, Arjuna came to fight with them. And when Arjuna fought, at that time all the Kaurava warriors were there.
They all came and they all fought. And Arjuna defeated all of them. So Arjuna defeated Bhishma, Arjuna defeated Drona, Arjuna defeated Asvatthama, Arjuna defeated Vishasana, Arjuna defeated Kripa, Arjuna defeated Karna.
Every single one of them. And this was a fair and square fight. And finally, he just used his Ammohanastra and one astra gave thousands and thousands of arrows.
And the Kauravas were defeated. And then they retreated. So this, this was a direct fight.
Till now, this is inference. We are in a direct fight. Karna proved no match to Arjuna.
So why am I discussing all this now till now? To illustrate the point that it was not that Krishna was concerned about the safety of Arjuna. That Krishna was not concerned about that Karna would have killed Krishna or Arjuna. So Krishna wanted to get Karna on this side.
No. Karna was, Arjuna had already proved by repeat track record that he was superior to Karna. Sorry, Arjuna was superior to Karna.
The repeat track record. Krishna’s concern was that minimise the violence. Minimise the violence.
So that’s why he killed Karna and offered. Now here comes a very important point. On what basis do we make our decisions? See there is a moral crisis and there is an ethical crisis.
Moral crisis means there are two choices. One is moral and the other is immoral. Very clear.
For example, you know, if a if a man has a temptation and is attracted to some other man’s wife, that is immoral, isn’t it? So to resist that temptation is morality. To accept that temptation is morality. So immoral temptation, immoral crisis is basically a lack of inner strength that will make a person do wrong.
And then ethical crisis. Ethical crisis means what? There are two options. Both of them seem right.
And then at that time one has to decide which is the higher morality and which is the lower morality. So in the Mahabharata itself, Krishna tells this story to Arjuna on the 17th day of the week. What he says is that once there was a there are many stories like this.
I’ll tell you one of the stories which illustrates this principle. That once there was a brahmana who had taken a vrata I will always speak the truth. And he was sitting under a tree in a village at a crossroads and he was doing his tapasya.
And at that time he saw a cow running at high speed. And he was sitting, the road was like this. He was sitting at a crossroads.
One road going this way, one road going that way. And the cow was running all his life. And the cow went in the direction.
He saw that cow going in the direction. And after that, a bachelor came swinging his knife. And he came to the crossroads.
And he asked where in this where did this cow go? Now this brahmana had a ethical process. Dharma samukhata. What should he do? Should I speak the truth? If I speak the truth, what will happen? The cow will die.
And I will be a part of the cause of Govanda. If I speak a lie, then my brother will be broken. So what should I do? Finally he said like this.
He is pointed in that direction. It’s a long story. Basically in the next lifetime, what happened to this brahmana? He was a travelling brahmana and he came to the house of another brahmana and stayed in the house of that brahmana.
And then I was sitting How many of you know this story already? I won’t repeat it. A few of you know this story. So what happened to this brahmana in the next life? He was staying in the house of a brahmana and then that brahmana’s wife she started feeling attracted towards him.
And she proposed to him. And he said, no, no, no, I am not interested. He said, I am a brahmana, I am not interested in this.
And she got angry and what she did? She killed her husband. And she took all the blood and sprinkled it on his body. He said, yes, kill my husband.
And then the villagers came over there and there was a panchayat and they decided that he is a brahmana, we cannot kill him. And because he has done this, we will cut off his hands. So his hands were cut off.
So what happened was that bachal that brahmana who had pointed in the wrong direction his hands were cut off in the next life. And that cow who he killed that cow became the woman in his life. So the point which I am making over here is that the point is that one may have a personal promise to speak the truth all the time.
But one cannot consider that personal promise to be the highest moral principle. There can be a higher moral principle, that is protecting the life of someone. Protecting the life of a cow is more important.
This brahmana made a wrong choice. So similarly in the case of Karna, what happened? He had to make a choice. When Krishna came, Krishna could have just told him, you are the son of my wife and you have the right of the cow.
He did not tell him that. You know, he knew that Karna was was indebted to Duryodhana because Duryodhana had given him the kingdom. So Krishna told him that whatever kingdom Duryodhana has given you if you are attracted to a kingdom then I will ensure that you will get a bigger kingdom.
Because if Krishna’s kingdom was practically the whole world, you will get a bigger kingdom. And he said, moreover you know that Duryodhana is on the side of Karna. Don’t choose him.
Come on the side of Karna. Now you have read the whole past time. Isn’t it? It was there over there.
Do you have notes to us there or not? I won’t go into the past time right now. Whatever the discussion that happened. But here, what was the choice for Duryodhana, for Karna? Again, on one side is his friendship.
And within that friendship, further is his word. I will be by your side. I will fight for your side.
But now, there is another moral principle. What is the moral principle? See, even if at the highest level we can say Krishna is God. Even if he doesn’t accept that Krishna is God, still, he can objectively access.
Who is Dharmic? Who is Adharmic? So, it’s quite clear that the Pandavas are Dharmic. And the Kauravas are Adharmic. So, now he has a right to make a choice.
Now, at a best point, if he either chooses based on the attitude of friendship or his promise, what is he doing? No, he is giving up a higher moral principle for a lower moral principle. So, imagine in Pakistan and Afghanistan, these are the places where there are poor Muslims. In the Gulf, Muslims are relatively wealthy.
So, most of the people who become terrorists, they become terrorists and suicide bombers. They are hired from this area, from the poor parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Suppose a child is starving and is in the verge of… and is very miserable.
And a group of terrorists come. And they offer him food, clothing, shelter. And they offer him honour.
And initially, the child is desperate for food. He is begging for food. Whoever gives him food, he accepts.
You know, when a beggar is asking for food, beggar just knocks on any car. The beggar can’t see, this car belongs to a corrupt person, this car belongs to a honest person. So, initially, when a person is in need, a person can take help from a beggar.
But eventually, with this, only God comes to know that these people who are sheltering me, they are terrorists. They kill innocent people, you know, hundreds of innocent people. And now, when he sees that at that time they gave me food, he says, I am so grateful to you.
I would have died if you had not given me food. You have given me life. Therefore, my life is worth it.
Even if he says like that, if he later sees that these people are killing hundreds of innocent people, should he stay on their side? No, he should not, isn’t it? At that particular point, he may have been very cruel to them. And as an act of gratitude, he can do something for them. But he cannot give his whole life to be on the side of those who are criminals like this.
So, if you think from this perspective, you know, there was Osama Bin Laden who wanted to kill innocent people in the Twin Towers. Now, when we are talking about innocent, we are talking about innocent from this right perspective. We discussed earlier, from previous guy’s perspective, everybody dies by their own karma.
But from this guy’s perspective, they are innocent. So, it’s like he has to kill those people. And there was Mohammed Bin Atta, who abducted that man.
He says, I am faithful to Osama Bin Laden. But what is the result of that faithfulness? The result of that faithfulness is thousands of people are being killed. So, if you think from a detached perspective, you know, how real is karma’s faithfulness to Duryodhana different from Mohammed Bin Atta’s faithfulness to Osama Bin Laden? If one is on the side of Adharma, one is on the side of, there was a record of a terrorist killing innocent people.
But, what he did from the point of view of Kshatriya standard, trying to dishonour and disgrace a woman in public. Now, if a person’s character is so brazen as to do that in public, in the assembly, in the presence of one’s elders. Now, all these are things which a sober person will do.
People may want to do dirty things, but they are not doing it in public. They are not doing it in assembly. And certainly not in the presence of elders.
But if somebody is so brazen as to do something like that, then if that person becomes under the power, who knows what that person will do in future. So, to stay faithful to a person is, even from the mental point of view, a terribly wrong choice. A terribly wrong choice.
And from the spiritual perspective, you can see, Krishna is God. As you pointed out in your charts, actually, Krishna is the property of everything. So, even the Anga Pradesh, Duryodhana has given to Karna.
Where does the Anga Pradesh come from? Ultimately, it has come from Krishna. And even circumstantially, actually, whatever Duryodhana gave to Karna, that kingdom was actually Duryodhana’s kingdom. From the dynastic line, which Pravini was the king.
And because Dhritarashtra was not, Dhritarashtra was blind, he could not become the king. So, Karna wanted to take the king. And Dhritarashtra was simply the caretaker.
So, a caretaker cannot take decisions like this. And, actually, Duryodhana was not even the caretaker. But, as long as Dhritarashtra was sort of officiating as the king, Duryodhana was having all the powers.
So, Dhritarashtra was in the chair, and Duryodhana had the powers. So, India has had this experience for 10 years now. One person in the chair, another person in power.
Isn’t it? So, what happened? So, actually, the kingdom of Anga, which Duryodhana gave to Karna, that kingdom, whom did it belong to? It belonged to Pandu. It belonged to Pandu’s sons. Dhritarashtra was simply a caretaker.
So, Duryodhana himself did not have the right to do that. But, even putting aside that property dispute, we still have a point that ultimately, Krishna took over the kingdom. Krishna is now asking him, what is he asking him? Come and sit with one of us.
And, if it is the desire of Krishna, then I will give you the kingdom. So, both have the point of view of paradharma and aparadharma. From the point of view of aparadharma also, there are two aparadharmas.
One is friendship, and the other is the protection of society in general. What should be done in higher priority? Even in Mahabharata, the principle is given, that actually, for a higher gain, a lower thing will be given. Dhritarashtra tells that your son, when Duryodhana is born, at that time, he says, your son will become the cause of the destruction of the whole Kuru dynasty.
Give him up. He says, he is my own flesh, my own blood, how can I give him up? So, at that time, Dhritarashtra says, for the sake of a family, one member can be given up. For the sake of a village, a family can be given up.
For the sake of the country, a village can be given up. And, of course, the Advaita says, for the sake of the soul, the whole world can be given up. So, even from the material point of view, there is one friendship.
But, for the sake of one friendship, should he be a part of the war that will kill thousands and thousands of people? No. So, even from the point of view of Aparadharma, there are two Aparadharmas. There is, if Karna is truly a Kshatriya, then there is a Kshatriya’s duty to a threat.
But beyond that, the Kshatriya’s duty to the citizens. So, to have a war, to choose a war that will lead to bloodshed, on a horribly huge scale, that is not Aparadharma. That is wrong.
So, even among the two Aparadharmas, the duty of Kshatriya to the citizens is higher than the duty of Kshatriya to some threat. And, from the point of Aparadharma, the duty to God is far greater than the duty to any man. So, Karna made a disastrously wrong choice at that particular point.
And that wrong choice led to the disaster. The war would not have actually, Duryodhana would not have had the guts to fight the war also. If it had not been for Karna, quite likely the war would have not happened.
Even the war after the war would have been much shorter. So, Karna is also in one sense, responsible not just for making a wrong choice, but for perpetuating a wrong course of action which led to a vast slaughter. And then eventually, when the final war took place, final war happened, confrontation, and Karna and Arjuna were fighting.
At that time, Karna’s chariot went underground. Karna was always given a bad hand by fate. You know, always things went unfairly for him.
So, at that time, we know that because of the curse of a brahmana, his chariot went underground. Because of the curse of Varshuram, he forgot the memory of his weapons. So, yes.
This you can say in one sense, sir? Sorry? Karma what? His karma caused him. Okay. His karma caused him.
I talked about karma earlier. So, I’ll talk about it from another perspective right now. See, there are many people in the Mahabharata who were from Kamsa.
Now, when wrong curses come up, you have to deal with them. So, Arjuna also got a wrong curse. You know what was the wrong curse of Arjuna? You know, Urvashi came to him and offered her Simran.
And what happened? Arjuna said, I see you like a mother. Because you were the spouse of Indra, who is my father. And also, long ago, there was Pururava, who is the ancestor of the Kurus.
And she had married him at that time. She said, he is not exactly a spouse of Indra. But he was the spouse of Pururava.
Pururava, sorry. Pururava. She said, I see you like a mother.
So, I cannot do anything. So, now in one sense, for a man, the woman offers herself, for a man to say no, requires a lot of self-control to do that. It’s a laudable thing to do.
But Urvashi got angry with him. He said, you are, no, you are not fulfilling my desire of acting like a man. Therefore, you lose your manliness.
You will become a black insult. Now, what happened? Arjuna accepted this curse. And he converted this curse to a new one.
How? That was, during the Bhagyat Vats, he acted like a dance teacher who was a eunuch. So, people get curses. And fight is such that sometimes the wrong thing happens to us.
We have to deal with it. So, now, Karna also got a curse. Karna could have tried to find ways to deal with the curse.
He knew that his chariot was going to get sunk into the ground. Now, he could have found some other way to fight. He could have trained to become an elephant warrior instead of a chameleon.
He could fight for elephants. He could have gone and tried to deal with the curse that way. But he could not.
And he attempted to fail. And what happened to the chariot? It started sinking. Karna told Arjuna, Arjuna, stop.
Do not entertain thoughts entertained by cowards. Wait for me. Do not attack while I am weakened.
I am not ready to fight. So, Arjuna lowered his bow. Remember the bow.
And then Krishna shouted to Karna. He said, Oh Karna, it is fortunate indeed that today you remember the codes of morality. Now, people always censure destiny as cruel for getting the wrong deeds done.
So, he said, you are talking about the codes of morality. But was it the codes of morality that prompted you to join five other Maharatas to kill Jayandran? Was it morality that prompted you to kill Abhimanyu? Was it morality that prompted you to join Duryodhana in his scheme to burn the Pandavas along with their mother Nalai? Was it morality that prompted you to have Draupadi dragged impersonally to suggest that she be disloved? Was it morality that prompted you to go to the Kambhaval and flog Duryodhana’s wife in front of the Pandavas and enlist in all the units of which Karna had been appointed. And Krishna said, if it was morality at that time, Arjuna would use the same morality to kill you again.
And then he said, Arjuna, shoot! Now Karna could have taken this as a warning that Arjuna is not going to stop. He could have just picked up his bow and tried to defend himself. But he persisted in just trying to get his arrow out of the ground.
He persisted and Arjuna shot Arjuna and killed him. So, Karna was ultimately killed not by the arrow that Arjuna shot. That was the inevitable fate that was going to come.
Karna was killed the day he rejected Krishna’s arrow. The day he chose the side of the Pandavas, chose the side against the Pandavas, his fate was sealed. And that sealed fate, that’s the time when Arjuna took Karna’s arrow, Tanjirikastra, came in the form of his head.
So what Karna’s story illustrates is two important points. For our context, for our context, see, all of us, we have to make choices. Life is all about making choices.
We would like to be all things to all people. But we cannot be all things to all people. Karna would have been like, Oh, I would like to be a noble person, but I would like to help people also.
So, for example, when we come to the hostels, we will have different kinds of people around us. And some of us, there may be some friends, who may help us also. But those friends may help us, but they may also have some bad habits.
And in state and association, we may develop those bad habits. Or, just to please them, we may do those things. And then, what happens is, we also become spoiled.
Now, if somebody has, you say, what happens is, for example, some seniors help us. But then seniors also introduce us to some bad things. Now, we can’t say no to them, because they already help us.
So then, just to, sort of, express our gratitude, we do the bad things they tell us to do. And then people get spoiled by that. So, what happens? We have to make choices.
If somebody has helped us, we can help them in some way. But that does not mean that we compromise our capital just because somebody has helped us in some way. This was what Arjuna, Karna, unfortunately, did.
Now, Arjuna helped him. Duryodhana helped him once. But, just to reply, to repay that help, Karna compromised his capital.
And that is not something which, there is a weak heart in this. So, when we have to make choices, we cannot make choices based merely on sentimentality. Oh, you are my friend.
So, now there is another important one. What was that? Jaan jaye par, kuchin na jaye. Now, these sort of words sound very attractive.
Yes, they are attractive. And it’s valid. At certain levels.
Here, what was at stake for Arjuna, for Karna, was not just his life. It was not, jaan jaye par, kuchin na jaye. If that is the choice, okay, on one side you lose your life, on one side you lose your words.
So, it’s better to preserve the words. But that was not the choice for Karna. His primary choice was between choosing God and choosing the world.
Or choosing to satisfy a friend or to take the sacrifice. So, if we phrase the choice in the wrong way, then we arrive at a wrong decision. Is that clear about this? You know, if Karna’s only consideration had been Oh, it is right to be on this side because he is my friend and I have given a promise to him.
But, if I stay on this friend’s side, I will die. And I don’t want to die, so I will go on one person. If that can be the only thing at stake for him, and he can use up his friend just for the sake of protecting his life, then that would be bad.
But that is not the issue here. It is not that Karna is being asked that you come on the side of the Pandavas to protect your life. He is given that there are many other reasons which are far more compelling.
And those reasons cannot be neglected. So, when we understand this point, he made a wrong choice based on sentimentality. And that wrong choice went him.
So, as devotees, we are also trying to practise spiritual life. And we have to make choices. We don’t want to hate anyone.
We would like to be friends with everyone, if it’s possible. But many times, it’s not possible. And we have to make choices.
Who are the friends who will help us to develop our character? Or who are the friends who will actually drag us down? And then when we choose, unfortunately, because of some notions of friendship, if we choose a circle of friends, who drag us down? Then unfortunately, what end result will we get? We’ll be dragged down. I know one boy. He was close to a group of… He was in my college only, when I was in the college.
Intelligent boy. But he was friends with a group of people who were into alcohol. Drinking a lot.
And this boy was from a very cultured family. He would not drink, he would not smoke. That’s how his parents had taught him.
And then eventually, in his first year, he met this friend circle. From a relatively relaxed sort of background, he came to the hostel. And his friends helped him a lot to acclimatise to the city.
But then they introduced him to smoking. And drinking. And he was a very intelligent boy.
And he stayed a topper. But he smoked and drank. And by the time he became the final year, he became a chain smoker.
So, now, he had some other friends who told him, don’t stay with these people. They are intelligent. And eventually, because he was a topper, he got a job in an MNC.
Very good job. But, in the first year, because of his chain smoking, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. And he died within three months.
Three months after passing out. So, three months of his bright career was all cut short. So, he could say that, his friends helped me up and here.
You don’t have to give up those friends. But, you don’t have to embrace the bad habits. So, if someone has helped us, we can and we should help them.
But helping them doesn’t mean that we have to compromise and help them. Helping them doesn’t mean that we have to give our life to them. That was a mistake of mine.
And that mistake cost him his life. Any questions? Yes?