Karna’s tragic choice

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna In this case, one of the most controversial characters in the Mahabharata, often described as a immensely popular book, at least among those who know some things about the Indian tradition. In that, Karna is often seen as a tragically wrong figure. That he was repeatedly audible or is that too much echo? No echo sound.
It’s clear? Is it better now? Okay. Okay. So, Karna is often thought of as a wrong, tragically wrong figure.
So, I have discussed about Karna, and in this class, I presume that most of you know the basic storyline of the Mahabharata. Am I correcting my assumption? So, of course, from specific points, I will elaborate where some issues are going to be taken. But overall, you should be able to understand the analysis which we are doing.
So, I won’t be telling so much story. I’ll be primarily analysing the story only. Now, the Mahabharata, every book, has some defining purpose.
For example, the Sri Bhagavatam’s main focus is on what is the duty of a dying person. If we look at the Ramayana, that starts with Valmiki Bhishma asking Narada Muni, what are the characteristics of an ideal human being? And then in response to that, Narada Muni tells about Lord Rama and his characteristics. Right at the start of the Ramayana, there’s a quick summary of the major events of the Ramayana.
And then after that, Narada Muni goes into a trance and he gets the metre of the Ramayana and then he composes the Ramayana. So, the theme of the Ramayana is primarily that, what are the characteristics of an ideal human being? So, this question permeates the full book. So, every book has a defining question that permeates the entire book, around which everything in the book is centred.
Similarly, the Mahabharata has a defining question and that question is what is Dharma? What is Dharma? That is the question that the Mahabharata centres on. And there are several places where it is said that Dharma is very gullible. It is not very easy to understand Dharma.
Its intricacies are very complex to figure out. Now, one of the characteristics of the Mahabharata is that it explains that Dharma is categorical. Dharma is contextual.
It is not categorical. What do I mean by contextual and categorical? That here, roughly when I use what is Dharma, the word Dharma has multiple meanings. And in the Mahabharata, when it is used as a defining question, it basically means what is duty? What is one’s duty? That is the question the Mahabharata asks.
Now, duty or morality or the right code of conduct, what the Mahabharata’s narrative tells us is that it is contextual. It is not categorical. Categorical means that this is the category of right and this is the category of wrong.
And everything in this category will be right and everything in this category will be wrong. So, real life is not so simple that you can classify things so easily. This is right and this is wrong.
So, for example, in a general sense, to be truthful is good and to lie is bad. But, there can be exceptional situations. Now, suppose there is a religious or a racist or a communal riot going on and there are a hundred crazy people chasing someone and the victim comes to our house and asks to be saved.
So, we give him a hiding place and then that crowd comes along and says, is there anyone here? Now, what should we do? Should we be truthful? At that time, by being truthful will cause the death of the person. So, truthfulness is a good quality. But, we cannot put it in an absolute category that being truthful is always very good and being false is always bad.
So, it also works out in a in a… Puranas also have this. There is a story of… Involved story. I won’t get into the specifics of the story.
But the point is, there was a Brahmana who had taken a vrata that I will always be truthful. And he was sitting in a village at a sort of crossroad under a tree and he was doing meditation. At that time, he saw a cow rushing away in great fury and then the cow… So, it was a crossroad and the cow went in the left and then a butcher came there.
Very thirsty. And he asked this Brahmana, Where is the cow? Now, this Brahmana had a dharma sankat. He said, what to do? He said, I cannot speak a lie but how can I speak a truth? So, finally he decided to take a medium course of action and he did not speak anything but he just pointed.
He pointed, the butcher went and he slaughtered the cow. And in the Puranas, it is described that in the later next lifetime, it’s a whole intricate story, but he became a travelling mendicant and he came to a particular house and in that house the lady was there and the husband was there. So, this lady, this woman of the house, she became attracted to this mendicant and when he refused she got very angry and she blamed him.
She took a knife and she stabbed her husband and he started screaming. And when the neighbours came, he said, you know, he had evil designs on me. When my husband came to defend me, he killed my husband and now he wants to abuse me.
So, then the villagers were shocked. He was a mendicant. How can he do such a thing? And then they decided that we can’t kill him but they chopped off his hands because with his hands they tried to assault him.
That was the accusation. And then when he went he was thinking, you know, how did such a thing happen? He started praying fervently and then he heard Akash. In which, that story was told.
So, that Brahmana had become this travelling mendicant now. That cow had become the wife and the kid had become the husband. So, basically, the cow killed the kid because with his hands, he had pointed where the cow had gone.
So, his hands got cut in this way. So, the point of the story is that we cannot have morality as absolutely categorical. It is contextual.
There will be certain situations where certain things which are normally right may turn out to be wrong. So, with this background of categorical and contextual morality now we can look at Karna’s life. So, I’ll analyse his life in three main phases.
First is his birth. Second is his growth and training and his maturity as a warrior. And third is the Kurukshetra war itself where ultimately he met his death on the 17th day.
Now, Karna throughout the Mahabharata often feels that he is wrong because he was considered as born in a Suta family. Suta was a charioteer’s family. Now, the charioteer, the Suta’s, they would assist the Kshatriyas but they were not considered at all in the same category as Kshatriyas.
Kshatriyas were very respectable warriors. So, now it’s interesting that we know in the fourth chapter of Bhagavad Gita Krishna says, सकालेनेहमहता योगोणश्ट्यः परन्तव सेवायन्यादेध्या योगोणश्ट्यः परान्तव So, he says that in 4.2 that this knowledge which I had given originally at the beginning of creation this has become lost now. So, सकालेनेहमहता How it has got lost? By the power of time.
And I have come now to re-establish it. So, now Krishna is saying at his time 5000 years ago that this knowledge has become lost. Now, what this means is that the society in which Krishna is coming is even according to Krishna’s assessment not an ideal society.
Even in Krishna’s society the principles of Dharma at least to some extent are lost. In fact, they are much more lost now than what they were at that time. But now people are so lost that they don’t even know they are lost.
Sometimes when a person is drunk a little bit, the person thinks that I am drunk. I should not drive a vehicle now. Otherwise, driving an intoxication is not just legally penalizable but it is also dangerous.
You may kill ourselves. You may kill somebody else. But if a person is very drunk that person doesn’t even understand I am drunk.
So, to be drunk is bad but to be so drunk as to not understand I am drunk that is even worse. So, like that people are so lost that they don’t even know that there is any ultimate goal for life. Leave alone pursuing it.
Or leave alone thinking that I don’t know the goal. So, but point is that Krishna in Krishna at his time is saying that the society which is there and the culture that is there that is not the ideal culture. So, the ideal culture was the culture of Varanasi which Krishna described in 4.13 is Guna Karmal Bhaaksh.
It is a division according to qualities and activities. In every society for the efficient organisation of the social body there has to be some kind of division of labour. Now, that division of labour may in today’s society it largely works out to be circumstantial.
That means you know people depending on where they are born or what their financial resources are they get a particular kind of education. And even after they get a particular kind of education they depend on what kind of jobs are available at a particular time they will take that job. So, someone may do some hardcore engineering as a mechanic or something.
But then they find that is not very lucrative so they may shift to software. So, the point is that the kind of jobs that we get and the kind of training that we get it is largely circumstantial. Depending, not necessarily, very rarely on the person’s own nature or interests or abilities.
It largely depends on circumstances. And this often leads to a lot of job dissatisfaction. Because people feel that I am not in the kind of job I would like to be.
So, this problem the Varnashram tried to address this by recognising the different people have different natures. Now, the word Varna is often translated as caste. But that is not an accurate translation.
Because the word caste has certain Eurocentric denominations where it was used in Europe. And the word caste comes from colour. And in the West they had the idea that the people of the white skin, they are superior.
And everyone else is inferior. In fact, one of the most famous British literary figures, Rudyard Kipling you know, he said that actually the whole world except the white man is uncivilised. And he wrote a poem that it is a white man’s burden that he has to civilise the rest of the society.
Rest of the world. So, based on their own cultural conceptions the word caste has certain denotations which really did not apply at least to the original Vedic context. So, instead of considering Brahmin, Kshatriya or Shudra as caste, we use the word Varna, but Varna may not correlate with us, with our terminology.
So, the appropriate word for this would be four human types. Brahmin, Kshatriya or Shudra. They are not caste.
They are four human types. Broadly speaking humans can be classified as intellectuals, as administrators, as merchants and as general assistants. So, now we will see, now in today’s society there are various psychologies come up with various systems of personality classification.
Some people use Enneagrams. Some people have a type A, type B, type C. Some people use seven types of intelligences. There are different ways of classifying.
Now, just as those systems of classification are essentially universal. So, universal in the sense that they are referring to human types. So, the Varanashram is essentially talking about four human types.
And original system was that the people who are of a particular nature, say if a person is an intellectual and that person is suppose asked to run a business, the person will be miserable. For everyone, there are problems in life. Whether a person is a Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra, everybody will face problems.
But the expertise of Varanashram is that it gives people the problems that they will like to solve. If you come to an intellectual and tell that person, if you come to a devotee context, tell the intellectual that you know, there is a verse in the Bhagavatam which says that in certain circumstances one can lie. Can you find that verse for me? Now a person will say, yes, which pastime can it come in? Maybe it’s the Bali Maharaj pastime.
The person will be eager to search it. And now if somebody is a Vaishya, Vaishya nature, just forget the verse. Why do you need the verse? You know the point, it’s good enough.
On the other hand, if you are a Vaishya, you know, we want to build a new temple and we have to raise a lot of funds. The Vaishya will be enlivened. Yes, we can do this.
On the other hand, if you tell a Brahmana, you know, to build a big temple and we have to raise 10,000, 50,000 dollars. What is the meaning? Just study scripture and be happy. So, depending on one’s human type, one will find certain problems inspiring to tackle.
And certain problems will seem just like birds. Why do you have to do this? So, that the world is filled with problems is undeniable. But when people are forced to face problems that they are not equipped to face, then the misery becomes compounded.
So, the expertise of Varanashram is, depending on the talents of people, they are given certain kinds of problems to deal with. And that way, several things happen. People feel satisfied because their talents are being utilised.
And society also gets an optimal contribution from the different talents that are there in different people. And in the original Varanashram, Varanashram system, birth was not unimportant. Birth was also important because it was understood that say, if a Brahmana and a Brahmani, they get married, both of them have Brahmanical consciousness.
And when they beget children, it’s not by chance that a particular kind of child is born to a particular kind of parents. Now, there’s a whole philosophical understanding that depending on the kind of consciousness that the parents have, the souls of that corresponding consciousness are attracted to that particular set of parents. It’s all arranged by the Supreme Lord.
So, the point which is that, if a Brahmana and a Brahmani unite, a soul of Brahmanical disposition will be born from their womb. So, it would happen quite often that the children of Brahmanas would be Brahmanas. And similarly, for the other Varanas also.
But this was not mandatory. In the Bhagavatam itself, in the 7th canto, after the Prahlad Maharaj’s pastime, Prahlad Maharaj’s pastime which goes from 1st chapter to the 10th chapter, then from 11th to 15th chapters in the 7th canto, which is in Bhagavatam, it describes the Varanas and the Ashramas. There’s a discussion elaborated on that.
There they said that the characteristics of the various Varanas is given, and the duties of the various Varanas are given. And then, at the end, it is said that Ekadattu Lakshanas prove this. That these Varanas are to be determined not by birth, but by Lakshana, by the qualities.
So, if a person of, say, a Vaishya propensity, exhibits Brahmanical qualifications, then that person is engaged in the Brahman. And similarly, for mature Varanas. So, there was a structure, but there is also flexibility within the structure.
But the nature of any system is that it is only as good as the people who are running that system. And over time, things start getting deteriorated. So, by the time of the Mahabharata, the caste system, to some extent, had become stratified.
And people would be largely defined by their birth. This itself is not the original system. By that time itself, it was a deviation.
And of course, that deviation became further later on. And certainly, the caste system as it exists today is a great evil in Indian society. It has led to a lot of discrimination.
So, but at the same time, there is often a lot of anti-India, anti-Hindu propaganda, anti-Vedic propaganda, which demonises the caste system. Certainly, the caste system as it exists today, we are not here to defend that. But the point is that this sort of discrimination has been there in every society.
In every society, where certain class of people have more power in order to entrench themselves more in power, and in order to keep those who are lower to them under control, people often become unscrupulous. Although there were lower caste people who were exploited, who were discriminated against in many ways. But if you look at the rest of the world, everywhere there was something like that.
If you look at European society, they had their broad four classes. They had the papacy. Papacy was the priesthood.
Then they had the aristocracy. That was the royalty. That is roughly equivalent to this Brahman Shastra.
Then they have the serfs. And they have the merchants. So, basically, they also had something similar.
So, every society will have these four functional divisions. The thinkers, the administrators, the merchants, and the liberals. But if you see, when the Europeans went to America, there were Native Americans over there.
And what happened? It’s like, there’s one Native American chief. He said, you know, when the white man came to America, we had the land, and they had the Bibles. Now, we have the Bibles, and they have the land.
So, what he meant is that actually, those people were living there. But then, the power was taken away from them. And if you see, it was a lot of terrible killing of the Native Americans.
Millions of people were killed. Similarly, in European history also, we see there was discrimination against the blacks. The Africans were enslaved.
And for a long time, there was discrimination. Even now, all the society claims to be progressive, but still there is some discrimination. So, discrimination is a characteristic that happens wherever some humans get power, and they let their lower nature take over.
So, similar happened in the Varanasi also. But at least we see that, even in India, all the lower castes have been discriminated against. But still, the lower castes are living.
If you look at America, the Native Americans are near extinction. So, certainly, that level of discrimination was not there, where they were threatened and killed. So, the point is, this caste is going to play a very significant narrative, significant role in Karna’s narrative, so we can broadly understand the historical context.
So, now, Karna was born to Kunti before she was married. So, Kunti, she was just a teenage girl, and at that time, the tradition was that even now it is understood that girls, in order that they can have good husbands and they can have good children, they are urged to serve saintly people. So, that’s why when in Maharaj Kunti Bhau’s palace, Durvasa Muni came, so, Kunti was engaged to serve her.
And she served Durvasa Muni, was pleased with her service, and he gave her a blessing. He said that you can invoke a Devata. I’ll give you a mantra by which you can invoke a Devata.
And, now, Kunti was just a teenage girl, and she just out of curiosity invoked the mantra. And then Surya came over there. And Surya said, now you have called me, and I am meant to give you a son.
He said, no, no, I am not married. How can I accept a son now? He said, no, this mantra, the Devatas are themselves not entirely independent. Now, if certain mantras are chanted, they are expected to give certain things.
In some situations, they can exercise discretionary powers. But in general, the Devatas are not independent. So, that’s why sometimes even the demons do certain rituals or do certain tapasya.
The Devatas are obliged to give certain results. Surya said, you chanted this mantra, I have to give you a child. And then he said, no, no, but if it will be attained, and if I lose my virginity, how will this child be protected? He said, no, you will not lose your virginity, and the child will be protected.
So, then, now, then, he got a child, and Kunti, she was petrified. She took her maid, and then when the child was born, she arranged, she put a very nice wooden container, where she had cushions, and she put a lot of her jewellery and treasure. She thought, I cannot keep this child, but whoever finds this child, they should know that this child is coming from a very well-to-do family, and all these jewels are there, which will indicate that this child should be taken care of.
And then, as she put her child in the river next to her palace, she was praying fervently, she was praying to the wind god, please let this box be guided towards some safe hands. She was praying to the river deity, please let this box not capsize. She was praying to the lord, she was praying to Surya, it’s your son, please take care.
And then, with a heavy heart, she let the child go. And then, this child was found by Adhirath and Radhe. They were suitors in the Kuru dynasty.
And they started taking care of him. And they treated him, they saw this celestial child. Now, Kunti also had this very special person.
He had kundala and he had kavach, earrings and he had aadam, which was immanent to his body. So, Adhirath and Radhe, they started taking care of him. And then, their son came to be known as Karna.
So, Karna, because he was brought in a suitable family, so he was throughout his life identified as suitable. He went on and became a very accomplished warrior. Some teachers refused to teach him, but eventually he learned from Parashurama.
But Parashurama had told him that, had said that, you know, Kshatriyas have become very autocratic, so I will not teach Kshatriyas. So, he pretended to be a brahmana and he learned from him. He became his most expert student.
But eventually, Parashurama came to know that this is a, this is not a brahmana. So, he said, oh, you have lied. He said that, because you have lied, so the knowledge that you have got, the most important weapon which I have taught you, you will lose that knowledge.
And then, as he was going away disturbed, he suddenly saw an animal. And he thought this is a wild animal. He quickly took out his bow and he shot.
And he pierced that animal and suddenly he heard a wail. And he went there and he saw to horror, there is a cow. And there is a brahmana doing the cow.
And he said, you look like a respectable warrior. How could you have killed a cow like this? This is atrocious. This is a curfew that at the very moment when you are supposed to fight your greatest battle, your chariot will sink into the ground.
Your chariot will be swallowed by the ground. And in that way, just as you have made this cow immobilised, you will become immobilised. So, Karna got these double curses and then this proved very, in one sense, fatal for him to do this final encounter with Arjuna.
So, now let us go back in the story before we move ahead. We could say all this is unjust. First of all, why was he treated as a suitor? If he was actually a Kshatriya, born in Kunti’s family, then yes, it is unjust.
But the simple fact is that life is unjust. It’s for everyone. When I say life is unjust, I am talking from this life perspective.
When we are students in class, we may find that some students, they just have a photographic memory. And we have to study for hours and hours and the students study for a few minutes and everything is there. It seems so unfair.
This person remembers something so quickly. Or we are doing a job. Some people are like software biscuits.
We spend hours and they just finish it in minutes. So, if we look at things from a limited this life perspective, life is unfair. There is no point in resenting it.
It’s just a fact of life. And if you want to look at the unfairness of life, it was not only Karna who got a Raudi. The Pandavas got a Raudi also.
The Pandavas, they were born in a royal family. But their father passed away when they were very young. And then, for no fault of theirs, they found themselves right in the middle of a political power struggle actuated by the envious cousin.
And allowed by an important father, by an important uncle. So, the Pandavas never did anything to trigger the envy of Duryodhana. But Duryodhana was right from the childhood, he was very envious of them.
And the Pandavas suffered so much. So, the whole point of scripture is not to rant on injustice to this person or injustice to that person. But, the point of scripture is to teach us how to respond to adversity with integrity.
How to respond to adversity with integrity. Yes, there are problems. If we see the Ramayana, you know, what fault, what is the fault of Lord Ram? Suddenly, Kaikeyi decided that my son should be a king.
And tomorrow, Ram is going to become the king. And the next day, he is a exile. Can you imagine such a situation? Say, a person is supposed to become, even if in this world, we see somebody is going to inherit his father’s property.
And suddenly, next morning, you come to know that not only you are penniless beggar on the street. So, for what fault? No fault of his. But the point is, Lord Ram responded with integrity.
So, in one sense, if you want to look at injustice, there was injustice for the Pandavas also. They did not do anything to deserve the kind of atrocities that the Kauravas did on them. So, injustice happens to everyone.
The test is how we respond to that with integrity. And unfortunately, Karna makes wrong choices. We’ll come to Karna’s wrong choices.
But let’s expand this perspective first. And from this life’s perspective, there are many things which seem unjust. When we expand the perspective and look at previous lives, then, what seems unjust also turns out to be just.
So, Karna, in his previous life, was a demon named Sahasrakavacha. He had performed a huge amount of austerities. And, specifically, Surya, the killing Surya, he had got a benediction that he would have a thousand Kavachas on his body.
That’s why he was Sahasrakavacha. And he had got a benediction that anybody who would destroy even one Kavacha on his body, as soon as that Kavacha would get destroyed and fall off his body, that person would fall dead. And, now, without destroying all the thousand Kavachas, nobody could kill him.
And, that means, he was himself a formidable warrior. And there had to be thousand formidable warriors. 999 of them would die.
And a thousand would also die. Only a thousand would be able to kill him. So, it was impossible.
And he started terrorising the world. And, finally, the sages and the kings and the devatas, they went to Narnarayan Rishi. Now, Narnarayan Rishi are both forms of Vishnu.
The dual incarnation of Vishnu. And Mahabharata says that Narnarayan came as Arjuna and Krishna. So, Narnarayan Rishi, when they heard about Sahasrakavacha, they said, okay, we will take care of him.
So, they had, they knew the Mithunja Mantra. Mithunja Mantra is a mantra by which a person who is dead cannot be brought back to life. So, Nara, no, and there is one more condition, that actually, nobody, no warrior, however powerful he would be, so, Sahasrakavacha and Arjuna Dixit, that person would have to fight him for a thousand years before he would destroy one Kavacha.
And like that, he had to destroy thousand Kavachas. So, what would happen is, that, so, Nara, they fought and they fought, Nara fought and destroyed one Kavacha. And as soon as he destroyed the Kavacha, he fell down.
So, at that time, Narayan was there, Narayan Rishi was there, not Lord Nara, Narayan Rishi. He immediately took up a bow and started fighting. And he came, now the Mithunja Mantra and the Mithunja result of that mantra, its potency was not lost.
So, what would happen is, when Nara has died, Narayan would chant the Mithunja Mantra, bring Nara back to life. And now the mantra is lost. So, Nara would perform austerity for thousand years.
While Narayan will be fighting with the first Kavacha. And then, Narayan destroyed the second Kavacha. And then, Narayan will fall dead.
So then, Narayan will chant the Mithunja Mantra, bring Narayan back to life. And, then Narayan will again start performing austerity to get the Mithunja Mantra back. And for a thousand years, Narayan will fight again.
And like that, they destroyed 999 Kavachas. One last Kavacha remained. And at that time, Sasar Kavacha was very arrogant.
He thought nobody can destroy him. But when 999 Kavachas got destroyed, he just fled from there. He wondered where to go.
He thought, Surya, Surya, Surya is my lord. He has given me this lesson. He ran to Surya, give me shelter, give me shelter.
Now, one of the codes of a Kshatriya is that if anybody asks for shelter, you have to provide shelter. So, now, Surya said that if he has come to ask shelter for me, I have to provide him shelter. So, he offered him shelter.
And Narayana Rishi said, no, he is a, he is a terrorist of a universal scope. He will terrorise the whole universe. So, you should not give him shelter.
He said, no, I have to give him my shelter. So, then, Narayana Rishi decided not to create austerity with Surya. And they kept Surya.
Now, Surya started thinking, what should I do with this person? And it was at that time that Kunti chanted the mantra. So, then, Surya was thinking, Sahasrara Kavacha is there with me. He has only one Kavacha remaining now.
And, what should I do with him? So, then, he gave him as a son to Kunti. So, now, if you look from the background point of view, Sahasrara Kavacha, he had some level of dharmic inclination. That’s why, some level of dharmic, that’s why he did worship Surya.
And further, he stayed with Surya for some time. Then he was also in the womb of Kunti for some time. So, there was some dharmic inclination.
But also, from his previous life, because he is a demon, he had a demoniac mentality also. So, that’s why when Karna is born, we see there are, his character has shades. Now, Duryodhana is quite evil.
He is always envious, always arrogant. And his character is largely black. But, Karna is not like that.
There are shades of grey in his character. So, he had noble qualities, but he also had some ignoble traits, which we will see. So, if you look from the broader perspective of previous life, now, what Karna got in this life was a result of his past life Karna.
Because he had terrorised the universe so much. So, he was in this life, got a position which was not with much honour. So, his Suta birth was a result of his past life Karna.
Now, in that sense, it’s not ultimately unjust. From this life’s perspective, let’s move forward. So, when he was living as a Suta, he got education.
And now, he felt that I want to prove my prowess. I want the world to know how glorious Akshatriya I am. And now, where to do that? How to announce? You know, I am a big person.
So, Drona, he had taught the Pandavas and the Kauravas in his academy. And then, he decided to have martial exhibition to exhibit the skills of the princes for the citizens to see. Now, the idea is that citizens have to have faith in their king.
That this king can protect them. And that’s why the king has a lot of martial skills and that inspires faith in the king. So, this was the exhibition in which the Kuru princes, that means here Kuru is used genetically, the Pandavas and the Kauravas, they would exhibit their power.
So, that’s what they did. And all of them came and they started exhibiting their prowess. So, Duryodhana was expert at mace fighting.
And Bhima was expert at mace fighting. And it was supposed to be exhibition fight. But when they started fighting, it became a real fight.
So, then when it became a real fight, then Drona told Akshat, come on. Go in between them. Stop them.
Pull them apart. And then, everybody exhibited their skills. And Arjuna came.
Now, Arjuna was phenomenally expert. He exhibited such skill that everyone was laughing. And as everybody was applauding, suddenly they heard some thunderous footsteps in the entrance of the Dharana.
And everyone looked. They saw this magnificent looking figure of a person who had a bow and arrow. And he kept clapping.
And he said that I can do everything that Partha has done. And I can do better. Do I have the permission to exhibit my skills? He bowed indifferently towards Drona.
So, Drona looked at him and nodded. And started exhibiting his skills. And he equalled everything that Arjuna had done.
Now, he had said I will excel Arjuna. But he did not excel. He equalled.
And after that, he said can I have a duel with Partha? Now, Arjuna was already annoyed. Who is this person who is just coming? See, it is… As I said, it was a private exhibition by the royal, by the martial teacher of a kingdom. To exhibit to the citizens of that kingdom the skills of their duels.
Suddenly he had come in. So, he came forward. And at that time, Kripa said wait.
Duels can be only among equals. So, we know the antecedents of Arjuna. We know who he is, from where he is.
So, can you tell your antecedents? So, then Karna looked down. Everybody understood that he is not a Shakti. So, now, what had happened was Duryodhana already had enemies.
See, how things had happened is, we have to go little back into the history. When there was the previous generation, there was Vichitravirya was a king. And through some system he got three sons.
I don’t know who it is. He got Dhritarashtra, Pandu and Vidura. But Vidura was born of a maid servant.
So, he was not going to become a king. So, the kings could either be Dhritarashtra or Pandu. But Dhritarashtra had been born blind.
So, now, a king it’s not that blindness is a disqualification necessarily, but especially for a king at those times he was not just a figurehead who ruled politically. Nowadays, if we have no country nowadays, the political head of state will go on a battlefield to fight. The military is different and the political wing is different.
But at those times, the king would lead from the front. And the military commanders of the Kuru Kings, they said, if you have a king without eyes, how will you lead the earth? So, Dhritarashtra couldn’t become the king. So, Pandu became the king.
And Pandu was a little renounced in nature. So, he consolidated the power of the kingdom. But then he said, I want to go to the forest and devote myself to ascetic practises.
And so, he went with his wives. So, now, in the meanwhile, Duryodhana was born along with his 99 brothers to Dhritarashtra and Gandhari. Now, because at that time, it was not even known that Pandu had got sons.
And if the sons would come back. So, it was thought by everyone that Duryodhana will become the next king. And because he was going to become the next king, everybody pampered him.
He was the centre of everyone’s attention. And he became like a spoiled child. Nowadays, many children who are born in very prosperous families, they have an entitlement complex.
I am entitled to everything. I have this, and this, and this, everything I want. So, he had that entitlement complex.
I am entitled to the attention, to the prestige, to the royal privileges. And suddenly, when he was living like this, and although he had become to some extent a spoiled brat. He was arrogant, not very respectful to elders.
But they all tolerated because there was no one else. He was going to become the king. But then suddenly, the Pandavas came back.
And both the courtiers, the Kuru elders, as well as the citizens, they could not but see the contrast between the spoiled and arrogant behaviour of Duryodhana and the very culture and respectful conduct of especially Yudhishthira. So, Duryodhana could see the affections of everyone shifting from him to Yudhishthira. So, that created irritation and envy.
And on top of that, what happened is, Duryodhana was also quite well-built. He was good at wrestling and fighting. But, so, one way is that, in terms of political entitlement, this is the martial spirit, in terms of physical strength.
But even in physical strength, Bhima outclassed him. So, both ways, he felt himself being displaced. Now, Yudhishthira never had any envy.
And it was not that he tried to do anything to belittle Duryodhana. But Duryodhana just felt like that. And that’s why he was very envious of the Pandavas.
So, now, when they went to the Gurukul of Drona and prayed, there also he found that, although he also became a good archer, he was just no match for Arjuna. So, he thought that if I am to gain the kingdom in future, I will be, Yudhishthira is a virtuous person, but I can outclass him by conspiracy. And as to the war, he felt, I can deal with Bhima.
But who will deal with Arjuna? And then he saw Karna exhibiting his skills. Yes! Karna is my man! Then, what did he do? When he saw, there, the objection being raised. We don’t know his antecedents.
So, immediately, he grabbed that opportunity. He said, can’t you see? This person has got such abilities. He is a warrior.
And if you think that a true warrior is one who is a king, then I will make him a king right now. And he immediately gave him the kingdom of Anga. So, now, interestingly, this is considered as an act of great charity, great helpfulness.
And Karna became very indebted. It is that way. If somebody is being dishonoured in a public assembly, and somebody comes and saves the honour at that time, then naturally, the person will feel very indebted.
And Karna said, I am so grateful to you. So, immediately, there itself, in the Maharashtra exhibition only, Duryodhana arranged for a priest to come and he had Karna coronated as the king of Anga. And Karna had tears of gratitude.
He said, I am so grateful to you. What can I do for you? I am at your service. He says, All that I want is your friendship.
Now, Duryodhana knew what buttons to press. By which he really… We will see how he manipulated Karna to some extent. And later on, how the manipulation worked for Karna’s own harm, we will see that also.
But anyway, at this point, Karna was helped by Duryodhana. And Karna naturally felt indebted to Duryodhana. So, their friendship was born over here.
By the time this whole thing happened, then the sun set. So, that day, the conflict could not take place. The duel between Karna and Arjuna could not take place.
Karna was not originally, at least in this life, he did not have an even nature. He was quite a principled warrior. And he is an example of a good person, spoiled by bad association.
He is a good person, spoiled by bad association. So, initially, when the Pandavas started to become very prosperous, and Duryodhana and the Kauravas were really fierce, when Duryodhana started hatching schemes to try to steal everything away from the Pandavas, Karna said, you know, why do you need all these schemes? Let’s challenge them for a fight. And we’ll defeat them in an open fight.
And we’ll get their power. So, in the initial stages, Karna protested. Karna tried to oppose Duryodhana’s schemes.
But over time, the bad association had its effect. In general, whichever community we belong to, or whichever social circle we belong to, we want acceptability and respectability in that. And then we will do what it takes to become respected.
Sometimes, say, if in a college or in a university, some children may be born in a nice cultural family, but when those students go to colleges and they’ll see all their friends there, you know, they say, crack nasty jokes, and vulgar things they do. Now, just to get a sense of belonging in that circle, sometimes people also start doing that. They may not like to do it, but just because that sort of jokes bring a laugh in that circle, they’ll do that.
So, we get moulded by the circle that we belong to. And Karna, unfortunately, let himself be moulded by that circle. Now, going back for a little bit, Duryodhana gave the Anga Kingdom to Karna.
But interestingly, if we look at the political power at that time, the Anga Kingdom was not Duryodhana’s to give. It was not Duryodhana’s to give because, if you see how it was, Pandu had been the king. And when Pandu departed, Dhritarashtra could not become the king because he was blind.
So, Dhritarashtra was simply a caretaker. And Duryodhana was the caretaker’s son. So, he had actually no political power to give a kingdom like that to him.
But neither the Pandavas nor the Kuru elders opposed Duryodhana over there because they all thought it’s one family. If in a family, in a public place, somebody gives a charity and then if you tell, hey, you cannot give charity like that. It’s a disgrace.
So, the Pandavas and other Kuru elders did not oppose. But technically speaking, what charity Karna received from Duryodhana, that was not Duryodhana’s to give to Karna. But still Duryodhana gave and the Pandavas also ascended to that.
Karna, he completely sided with Duryodhana. And over a period of time, he became so spoiled. He himself lost his virtuous nature.
It became obscure and it came to such an extent that when the asad sabhaya, when the gambling match took place in the Kuru assembly, actually there are multiple reasons for that gambling match. First is that there are certain rituals which have to be done in certain situations. So, it was understood that when Rajasuya yajna is performed, at the end of the yajna, the king is supposed to play a gambling match.
Yudhishthira had to play a match. But that match could have just been a casual match with no high stakes. But Shakuni and Duryodhana, they hatched a plan and they said, oh, Yudhishthira, you have become a big king.
So, you come to our kingdom and we will have a grand gambling match. Yudhishthira himself was suspicious. He said, better, you know, if we have a gambling match like that, gambling can lead to fights.
Yudhishthira opposed. But Yudhishthira was very respectful to his elders and he considered Dhritarashtra in the absence of my father is like my father. And so, I had to obey his instructions.
And so, he had the gambling match. And in the gambling match, the Pandavas lost everything. And then eventually, when the Pandavas lost even themselves, then Yudhishthira put Draupadi for gambling.
And when Draupadi was herself lost, then Dushyasana went to her private chambers and he dragged her back. So, at that time, Draupadi had just ended her period. She was just a single cloth.
And he dragged her in that single cloth and it was atrocious. And at that time, Draupadi’s character you see in this whole gambling match, the only character who comes out shining is Draupadi. The way she defends herself, the way she defends her husbands and the way she tries to remind the whole assembly of their duty.
It’s extraordinary. So now, when Draupadi heard what has happened, she was shocked. But then, when the commands came and she came, she came to the assembly and she realised that there is some way I have to salvage the situation.
And she said assembly, I will do whatever you tell, but I have a question. If Yudhishthira gambled himself before he gambled me, then if he was not his own owner, then how could he be my owner? And how could he have gambled me? The point is, first of all, the gambling was supposed to be a casual sport. It’s not that humans have to gamble.
And not to speak of a woman like Draupadi. But the assembly had become so blinded to everything else that Draupadi caught on to this technicality. Somehow I have to salvage the situation through this.
So at that time, I can’t go into the whole discussion over here, but one of the points that Vidura and even Vikarna, Vidura strongly opposed what was happening over there. Vikarna was among the Kaurava brothers. He was a relatively virtuous person.
And he also opposed. He said Draupadi has raised a very valid question. You should answer this.
And when nobody answered, he said that I will give an answer. And he said, my answer is, firstly, Yudhishthira was constrained to gamble. He did not come willingly.
Secondly, the gambling match has to be held between the two people who are taking the wealth. This gambling match was between Duryodhana and Yudhishthira. But Duryodhana appointed Shakuni to go the match.
This itself is wrong. It’s like, you know, say, Zimbabwe wants to fight with India in a cricket match. And Zimbabwe thinks, our cricket team is not very good, so we’ll get a South African cricket team for myself.
You can’t do that. There is a match between South Africa and India. You can’t have a match between Zimbabwe and India.
So, if the gambling match was to be between Duryodhana and Yudhishthira, Duryodhana should have been throwing the dice. Shakuni throwing the dice was wrong. So, Karna said, this is the second thing wrong.
And third thing is what Draupadi has said. Because Yudhishthira is gambling already and lost himself, so Draupadi is not lost. And therefore, I urge you, O king, Dhritarashtra was still the king, so everybody is trying to make sense.
I urge you, O king, to declare the results of this gambling match null and void. And give the whole kingdom back to the Pandavas and let them go back in peace. This is what Vidura had said.
This is what Vikarana had said. The whole mood of the assembly was shifting in that direction. At that time, Karna got up and he silenced Vikarana with his huge arms and he said that I have heard many wrong things going on I have seen and heard many wrong things going on in this assembly, but the most wrong is the speech of Vikarana.
Actually, Vikarana was defending. The correct one was wrong, but Vikarana said this is the most wrong thing. He said that nobody forced Yudhishthira.
He gambled willingly. Any time he could have stopped from gambling. And as far as Shakuni is concerned, Yudhishthira agreed to that.
He should have objected at that time itself. He did not object. And he said, as far as Draupadi is concerned, a woman who marries five husbands, she is already a prostitute.
So, whether you drag her into an assembly and whether she is clothed or unclothed, it doesn’t matter at all. He says, you are a maidservant and you act like a maidservant. Now, factually speaking, maidservants are not treated like this.
So, now, for Karna to call Draupadi a prostitute, this is a grievous, outrageous insult. Not only is it not true, even if it were true, it is not to be spoken like that in public. A prostitute is a woman who sells her own body for money.
Now, Draupadi, in the swayamvar, she participates in swayamvar simply because her father told her to. And the idea was, she was going to get one husband. And Arjuna, in a disguise, won that.
Won her. But then, because of various circumstances, she got five husbands. We can’t go on with the story.
But later on, not only Draupadi, but even Drupada’s father, Dhristadyumna, they all objected. How can a woman have five husbands? And then Vyasadeva appeared over there. Vyasadeva told a story from a previous life.
Now, Draupadi was a Rishikanya in a previous life. And she was not getting a husband. So, she did worship with Lord Shiva.
And after a long time, she was with Lord Shiva. When Lord Shiva appeared, what do you want? She was so desperate. She said, I want a husband.
I want a husband. I want a husband. I want a husband.
I want a husband. She asked five times. Shiva said, you can have five husbands.
So, I mean, the point is that Draupadi did not go out of her way to get five husbands. Now, that was what was said by her elders. Kunti said that.
And then Vyasadeva said that. And Drupada bhai sanctioned it. So, there is just nothing right in that statement.
Now, Karna surely had some issues with Draupadi. Because in Draupadi’s Swayamvar, the purpose of Swayamvar was to have her select, her groom. So, at that time, there was a contest.
A particular target was set. And when now in the popular, there is a, there is the Mahabharata, there is a book. And there are popular renditions of the Ramayana.
Of the Mahabharata or of Ramayana itself. So, now, often in the popular renditions, it is shown as if when Karna came to contest. So, Draupadi said, I will not marry a Suta.
I will not marry a Suta. And therefore, she rejected Karna as a Suta. And Karna felt extremely insulted by that.
Now, if you look at the Mahabharata, the Mahabharata is a huge book. 110,000 verses. Before the Mahabharata, in the European history, the longest poems were thought to be Iliad and Odyssey.
But when the Europeans discovered Mahabharata, they found the Mahabharata is 8 times longer than Iliad and Odyssey combined together. It’s astronomical length. And Madhvacharya, in his commentary says, he has written a not exactly a commentary, a summary study of the Mahabharata.
He called it the Mahabharata Tatparindhan. And he is saying that there are many things which are interpolated in the Mahabharata. So, for example, many times in TV show, also the Mahabharata, they said that when, we’ll come to that incident a little later, but when Duryodhana slips in the Mayasabha of Yudhishthira, he slips and falls in the water.
And it is very humiliating for a king to slip and fall like that. At that time, Draupadi laughs and says Andhe ka beta andha. The son of a blind person is blind.
Now, Draupadi never says anything like that. Nothing like that at all. So, these are all interpolations.
Now, specifically with respect to Karna narrative, if you see, Madhvacharya gives a reconstruction of the Mahabharata and he says he has his own sources. He says that actually Karna contested and missed the target. Now, we don’t know exactly what happened.
This is what Madhvacharya says. But apart from that, the academic scholars have also prepared a critical edition of the Mahabharata. Critical edition means they look at various editions of the Mahabharata and they try to figure out which is the original one.
And even in that, they have not included this particular incident of Draupadi refusing Karna. So, that actually, if you look at the Mahabharata, as far as the Mahabharata text is concerned, that has not happened. But even in that, we assume has happened.
We have to look at the sequence of events. See, a Suta is considered to be below Kshatriya. And a Brahmana is considered to be above Kshatriya.
So, in Draupadi’s Swayambhara, when the Pandavas came, at that time, the Pandavas were in forest, in hiding. Because the Kauravas had planned to burn them in the Varnavat forest. And they were in the garb of Brahmans.
So, when they were in the garb of Brahmanas, at that time, when they came there, all the Kshatriyas first contested for the hand of Draupadi and nobody could win. And then, after that, Arjuna got up. And Arjuna went to Draupadi.
And Arjuna, at this time, was in the dress of a Brahmana. So, he asked, you know, is a Brahmana allowed to participate in this Swayambhara? So, then, Draupadi looked, this was the last thing that was expected. Some of the Brahmanas, they all started, Arjuna, you cannot go.
He said, what the Kshatriyas cannot do, how will you be able to do? You will become a laughing stock. And some of the Brahmanas, they said, Oh, just see how well-built he is. You know, he will bring glory to the Brahmana class by showing that we Brahmanas are better than Kshatriyas.
Because all the Jaina was going on at that time. So, Drupada looked curiously at this Brahmana and he said, the Brahmanas are always respectable for the Kshatriyas. And certainly, you can participate in this.
And then, Arjuna participated and he shot the arrow at the target and he won Drupada’s hand. The point which I am making over here is, although Arjuna, at that time, was in the garb of a Brahmana, he still asked for permission before participating in the contest. He didn’t presume that I have the right to participate.
So, even if he assumed that Karna was rebuffed, but still, he should not have presumed that I have the right to participate. It was well known that it was a Swayambhar, that Kshatriyas are the primary participants. And by his presuming that I have the right to participate and then being rebuffed, he actually opened himself to a position where he could be dishonoured.
And more importantly, the whole point is that it is Drupada’s Swayambhar. Swayambhar, the very word means that she has a right to choose her Guru. And a contest can be set.
But the purpose of the contest is to screen the candidates. Ultimately, it’s her Swayambhar and it’s her choice. So, for her to choose was not wrong in that sense.
So, the point is that most, if we, now, we don’t have the Mahabharata that Vyasadeva wrote 5000 years ago. In India, because of the hot weather, whatever you write in the scripture on, it isn’t preserved. So, unless there is a parampara which preserves the text very carefully, sometimes texts get lost.
And when they are lost, that means what happens? The original script gets lost and some things get added, some things get removed. So, the point is that even if we assume that Karna was dishonoured, but is Draupadi to be blamed for it? Not necessarily. Yes, it was a society where caste had become solidified.
And you can’t just blame Draupadi. If at all, on caste basis, Draupadi rejected Karna. It’s not exactly that.
It’s her Swayambhar. So, it’s her right. But even if we argue for caste, on caste basis, Draupadi rejected Karna.
But still, she can’t be blamed. So, there’s a system over there at that time. She simply acted it.
She’s just a young girl who’s about to get married. And you cannot expect her to go against the whole social system. So, it is unfair for Karna to hold Draupadi alone responsible for the insult.
And even if he feels Draupadi has insulted him, it’s one thing to call a warrior as a sutra. That is an insult. But it’s a completely different category of insult to call a royal lady, a chaste one as a prostitute.
It’s unforgivable. And Karna himself, before the Kurukshetra battle starts, twice, Karna admits that I have made a mistake. I should not have spoken to Draupadi like that.
We’ll come to those incidents later. Once he tells when he meets Krishna, before the Kurukshetra war, I was so caught with the desire to please Duryodhana that I did many things for his pleasure which I regret now. So, the whole gambling match and Draupadi’s disrobing, it was not so much because of lust as it is because of pride and arrogance.
No, the Pandavas wanted to humiliate the Pandavas. And when they wanted to humiliate, Karna joined in that and he said, what humiliation can I offer? He says, call the Pandavas wife a prostitute. What greater humiliation can he say? So, he himself, he regrets it afterwards.
And he tells the same thing to Bhishma. For the first 10 days of the war, Karna does not fight in the war. On the 11th day when he is supposed to fight, at that time he says, Bhishma is soon going to die.
So, he says, he goes and buries the hatchet with Bhishma. And he says that, you know, if I offended you, please forgive me. And that time also he says, I did many things for pleasing Duryodhana which I should not have done.
And he again speaks this on that, I should not have called Draupadi a prostitute. So, this was quite a grievous wrong that Karna did. So, actually speaking, again in this assembly, it is Karna who suggests to Duryodhana, why not disrobe Draupadi? She is already army’s servant, she is already like a prostitute, disrobe her.
And Duryodhana is delighted and he says, Dushasana, you go and disrobe her. So, actually in the assembly, Draupadi comes out as the shining character and Karna comes out as the darkest one. So, now after this, the Pandavas go for exile and then they come back and then Duryodhana rejects all the peace negotiations and then the fight is about to take place.
So, at that time, Krishna comes as a Shantiputra and Krishna tries to negotiate peace and Krishna goes to sit next to him and says, this will be the Pandavas’ five villages. And Duryodhana adamantly refuses. Then, the next morning, Krishna requests Karna that I want to meet you.
And when they meet, Krishna tells Karna that you are actually the son of Kunti. You are fighting with the Pandavas but you are the less Pandava. And you are fighting on the side of Duryodhana because he gave you a kingdom.
He says, you come on the side of the Pandavas, you will rule the whole world. The whole world is yours to rule. And Duryodhana is on the side of Adharma.
And he is going to be killed. By going on his side, you too will be killed. So, Karna nods and he says, yes.
He says, what you have told me, I mean, Kunti has also come and told me that I am her son. So, anyways, he says that I know it. And he says, what you are saying is also true.
I had a dream in which I saw that Duryodhana is dressed in black and he is being dragged to the nether regions. And Yudhishthira is dressed in white. And he is a shining child with horses.
And he is lifted up towards the sky. And he says, this dream foretells that I am going to die, that the Kauravas are going to die, be destroyed. But he says, for so long have I been taken care of by the Kauravas.
It is by his trust in the force of my arms that Duryodhana has waged hostilities against the Pandavas. At his moment of greatest need, if I desert him now, I will do him a great disservice. I will be labelled as a betrayer of my motherland.
And I have given him my word that I will fight with him. I will fight with him. I cannot give up my word.
Krishna embraces Karnali and he says, it is your decision. If death is what you want, it is what you will get. We will meet on the battlefield next.
And then they depart. So Karna, now sometimes Karna says, he is such a man of honour that he honoured his word. But there is a choice, Karna had a choice between a word of honour and a life of honour.
A word of honour and a life of honour. What does it mean? Certainly, Karna was helped by Duryodhana in his time of need. And when he is helped in the time of need, it is natural to be grateful.
It is desirable to be grateful. But then, we cannot make gratitude as again an absolute moral principle. Why is that? Because if we are grateful to someone and that person tells us to do something grievous, then we may end up doing harm.
So to give an extreme example, say, especially in Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Middle East, where there is oil, that is a rich country. But the other Islamic countries, they are quite poor. So, if there are some poor children who are born in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and this poor child has no food, no clothing, no shelter.
And at that time, some group of terrorists, they give him food, they give him clothes, they give him shelter, they help him to get trained. And then, naturally, because at his time of need, they gave him so much. But then afterwards, if they tell him, you become a terrorist and you kill thousands of innocent people.
Does gratitude for what they provided him in his childhood oblige him to become a terrorist and kill innocent people now? No. Gratitude is an important Dharmic principle. But it has to be seen in the broader context of Dharma.
The broader context of what is right and wrong. So, for Karna, to be grateful to his friend Duryodhana is good. But to make that into an absolute principle and to not consider that actually Duryodhana’s cause was wrong.
Duryodhana was Adharmic. Now, if a prince, generally speaking, sometimes there are brutal people who abuse women, who molest women. So, they do it discreetly, where nobody will catch them.
But here, a person like Duryodhana is ready to do it in a public assembly in the presence of his elders. Vishnu was there, Vidura was there, his own father was there. And if a king can do such a thing in public, what will that king do when he is in absolute power? Now, during the 13-14 years that Duryodhana was in rule, he did not do too much atrocious activities because his hold of the power was not very secure.
He knew the Pandavas were going to come back. And he wanted to win over the citizens. That’s why he tried to put on a very good garb, and he gave a lot of charity, and he tried to win the people over.
But, his nature was evil. And if he had got access to absolute power, he would have wrecked havoc. So, the point is, overall, Duryodhana’s cause was evil.
And even if we say, no, he was also a prince, he was also, Yudhishthira was also a prince, then Duryodhana is entitled to a kingdom. Fine. Duryodhana could have had half the kingdom.
Doesn’t Yudhishthira deserve at least half the kingdom? And Duryodhana, Pandavas are ready to satisfy his five kingdoms. Duryodhana is not ready to agree to that. So, clearly, Duryodhana’s cause was evil.
He had done a lot of wrong things. And for Karna, to choose the side of Duryodhana, in such a situation, was to choose a world of honour over a life of honour. Life of honour means, to live on the side of Karna.
And, he made a disastrous mandate. And he had to reap the consequences for that, in terms of, he had to die in the war. Now, some people argue here, that Duryodhana, that Krishna went to Karna and tried to win him over by bribing him with the offer of a kingdom, because Karna was stronger than, Karna was better than Arjuna.
And because Karna was better than Arjuna, so, Krishna was afraid. And to protect Arjuna, Krishna had to bribe Karna. And Karna was so upright, that he refused the bribe.
So, first of all, it was not a bribe, because Krishna basically told him, you are the head of this manga, that’s what you are entitled to, if you come on the side of Arjuna. But, more importantly, let’s look at this premise, whether Karna was really better than Arjuna. So, we’ll need to, this is the last part of the class, we’ll just go over history.
Now, we need a scorekeeper. We’ll keep scoring. Now, we’ll see what are the duels between Karna and Arjuna, and what happens.
The first encounter between them was in the martial exhibition, where both of them exhibited equal skills. And after that, there was no direct contest that happened. The second encounter between them was, so, this is the first encounter, we can say, it’s a draw.
So, Arjuna 0, Karna 0. The second encounter between them was in Draupadi’s assembly. There, Arjuna hit the target, Karna either did not hit, or missed, or was not allowed to participate. So, again, that’s not a way to decide.
So, again, it’s a draw. It’s a 0-0. Then, after that, or slightly before this, immediately after the martial exhibition gets over, at that time, both the Kauravas and the Pandavas go to Drona, and they say that, what Dakshina do you want? Drona had an old rivalry with Drupada.
And he said, you arrest Drupada and bring him to me as a president. So, immediately, both the Kauravas and the Pandavas start rushing. And Arjuna says, you just wait.
Because now, what has happened is, Duryodhana, he really wants to show his power. And because in the martial exhibition, the Pandavas are outclassed, he thought, now I will get this Dakshina. So, Arjuna said, let the Kauravas go.
And the Kauravas go, and Karna also goes with them. And then, Drupada comes out with Dhristadyumna, Drupada comes out with his army, and he defeats the Kauravas. All the 1000 Kauravas, and with them, Karna is also there.
And he gets defeated. And then, after that, the Kauravas flee. And then, Arjuna says, let’s go now.
And the five Pandavas go, and just the five Pandavas, they defeat Drupada, his commander, his army, and they have Drupada arrested. So, this is indirect. Karna is defeated by Drupada, and Drupada is defeated by Arjuna.
So, by indirect inference, you can say, Arjuna won, Karna zero. Now, if you look at direct contests, they don’t have too many direct contests, but there is another indirect contest. In the, when the Pandavas are in the forest, Duryodhana thinks, let me go and humiliate the Pandavas further.
So, he decides, I will go with all my wealth and my queens and my maidservants, and we’ll flaunt our wealth. And the Pandavas will say, oh, we are living in the forest, you know, we are so miserable. The nature of envy is that you cannot be satisfied with your own happiness.
You have to make others miserable to be happy. I saw an advertisement of a car. It said, you know, purchase this car and enjoy the envy in your neighbour’s eyes.
What a pathetic standard of enjoyment! So, Duryodhana, he had the kingdom, but he did not have happiness, because he had so much envy. So, anyway, when he went there, at that time, he wanted to go and bathe in a river, and the Gandharvas were bathing. And the Gandharvas said, this is our time, we will be bathing here, you should not come here.
Now, Duryodhana had the arrogance, he said, I am the king of the earth now. So, who are you? Get out of here. So, the Gandharvas said, you know, we don’t take orders from humans, we give orders to humans.
So, Duryodhana got angry and he attacked the Gandharvas. And there was a big fight in which Karna was there, Shakuni was there, Dhristadyumna was there, Duryodhana was there, and the Gandharvas completely routed them. And Karna became so severely wounded that Karna along with Dhristadyumna, along with, not Dhristadyumna, Dushyasana, they fled from there.
And Duryodhana felt so angry, all my troops were scattering, he kept fighting, he kept fighting, he kept fighting. And finally, Duryodhana had more anger inside him than skills outside him. So, he was overthrown.
And he was arrested by the Gandharvas. And at that time, some of Duryodhana’s soldiers, they ran over to Yudhishthira. So, Duryodhana was on one bank of the river, Yudhishthira was on other banks.
And then they told, Duryodhana has been arrested, please help him. So, Bhima, he started laughing. He said, oh, what we would have done after great effort at the end of the exile.
The Gandharvas are done for us now. Very good. Laughter So, Yudhishthira was just a brother.
But he was the eldest brother. So, whenever he wanted to chastise anyone, he would immediately take a paternal look. And he tells me, oh, child, Bhima is a massive Kshatriya.
You don’t know how to call a child. So, he says, oh, child, you know, among us, we may be five and they may be a hundred. But for the world, we are a hundred and five.
And, they have arrested not Duryodhana, but a prince of our dynasty. And they have arrested, Duryodhana’s wife had also been arrested over there. They have arrested the ladies of our dynasty.
Yudhishthira is so conscientious that he wants to protect the honour of Duryodhana’s wife Lakshmana. And here we have Duryodhana and his friend Karna calling Yudhishthira’s wife as a prostitute. There is a difference in their values.
So, now Bhima, he did not at all want to go and fight. Why should I fight for Duryodhana? I want to fight against Duryodhana. So, at that time, Yudhishthira, you know, he is principled, but he was also Kshatriya.
He was intelligent. Then he wanted to get Duryodhana to accompany him. He wanted to go.
So, he said, oh brother, you know, what will give you greater joy than to have your opponent dependent on his freedom, on your mercy? Haan, now I understand. So, Bhima agreed with that. But then, Bhima when he went there, Arjuna returned his chariot.
So, Arjuna fought with the Gandharva king and Bhima fought with the other soldiers. The point is that Arjuna defeated the Gandharvas. So, again, Karna was defeated by the Gandharvas and Arjuna was defeated by Arjuna.
So, in Karna 2, sorry, Arjuna 2, Karna 0. Now, the direct fights. Let’s see when all the direct fights happen between them. The first direct fight between them happens in Virat.
At the end of the Pandavas, Agyantavas, Duryodhana has come with his whole army, all the warriors and Karna. Arjuna is alone. And Arjuna single-handedly defeats all the Kaurava warriors.
Duryodhana, Dushyasana, Shakuni, Kripa, Drona, Svatthama, Bhishma and Karna. In fact, Karna is so angry that he fights twice. First, he is repulsed, he gets wounded and he falls unconscious and his charioteer takes him away.
Second time he comes. Second time also he is wounded, he falls unconscious. So, what to speak of Karna being better than Arjuna? Arjuna is better than all the Kaurava warriors combined.
So, Arjuna clearly and squarely defeats Karna. Then, for the first 10 days, Karna doesn’t fight. Because he feels that Bhishma has insulted me.
So, I will not fight as long as Bhishma is the commander. Then on the 11th day, he enters the battle. And, Krishna arranges that there are no direct fights between Karna and Arjuna in the initial stages.
Karna is engaged with other warriors and so Drona is in the command. So, Arjuna’s main fight is with Drona. On the 15th day, Drona falls.
And 16th and 17th days, Karna is the commander. Now, on the 16th day, Karna fights with all the Pandava brothers except Arjuna. And he defeats all of them.
He wounds all of them. He insults them. Actually, this is a different subject.
I will not go into it. There are four fights that happen between Bhima and Karna. Actually, three times Bhima bests Karna.
So, what to speak of Karna being the best archer? As far as the war world is concerned, Bhima turns out to be better than Karna. Coming to Arjuna-Karna fight. So, the main fight between them happens on the 17th day.
And on the 17th day, the normal narrative that is shown on movies and TV is that Karna is fighting very heroically. And while he is fighting, suddenly his chariot starts going into the earth. And his chariot goes into the earth.
At that time, he tells Arjuna, Stop! Please don’t fight. While I am not ready to fight. So, he says, let me get my chariot out and then we will fight.
And then, his office chariot is trying to pull out his chariot. And at that time, Krishna tells Arjuna, shoot Karna. And then, Arjuna kills Karna.
And this seems to be very unfair. This is what is often taught and there are many places also this is depicted. Arjuna is shooting an arrow.
Sometimes temples have architecture. So, this image is depicted. Karna is near his chariot and Arjuna’s arrow cuts off his head.
Now again, if you just take this scene, it will seem unfair. But we have to look at the full context. At the start of the Kurukshetra war, Bhishma is the commander of the Kauravas and Dhristadyumna is the commander of the Pandavas.
So, the two commanders meet. And the Kauravas remind the Pandavas of the codes of war. Now, we should follow these codes.
And Dhristadyumna starts thinking. This is the point. The Kauravas have been so vicious on so many occasions.
Why are they not talking about the codes of war? So, Dhristadyumna says that we will not be the first to violate the codes of war. But if the Kauravas violate the codes of war, then we will not hold ourselves back. So, more or less, during the first 10 days of war, when Bhishma is the commander, at that time, more or less, most codes of war are followed.
But after Dhristadyumna becomes the commander, it’s mayhem. And the most atrocious violation of the codes of war is killing of Abhimanyu. Now here, if you see, Arjuna shooting Karna when he was off his chariot with his he is not equipped to fight.
We could say that is bad. But, what the Kauravas do to Abhimanyu is worse. Because at least between Arjuna and Karna, there was one more warrior fighting.
But Abhimanyu is alone and six warriors attacking. Actually, when Abhimanyu penetrates in Chakravyuha, he is just destroying the Kaurava army from within. And at that time, Karna challenges Abhimanyu.
And Abhimanyu’s arrows send Karna kneeling. He practically faints. And then, Duryodhana says, Duryodhana is alarmed.
He says, Karna, you said that you will kill Arjuna but you are not able to kill even the son of Arjuna. So, Karna is flogged. He says, you know, I just can’t see any cracks in his defence.
I am trying my best. He says, let us go to Drona. He is our commander and he will find some strategy by which we can deal with him.
And then, when he goes to Drona, Drona is observing Abhimanyu fighting and then Drona turns to Duryodhana and Karna and he says, just see this lad. What expertise he has in fighting. You can’t find any weakness in him.
So, Duryodhana is so angry. He says, if my commander is wasting his time admiring my army, then I am doomed. Then, what happens is, Duryodhana repeatedly casts aspersions on the royalty, on the loyalty of Bhishma and Drona.
You know, he is always accusing them. That’s why you are not fighting wholeheartedly. And although Bhishma is not goaded too much by that, but Drona gets goaded by that.
And Drona says, after all, I am your commander and it is my duty to protect my army, whatever happens. So, he says, in a fair fight, we cannot win. What we will do is, six of us will attack him together.
And then, one of the six is Karna also. So, when he is fighting, and he repulses in one-to-one duel combat, all the Drona warriors, even Drona, even Karna, what has become Duryodhana. But then six of them, Drona, Kripa, Karna, Ashwathama, Duryodhana and Dushasana, all six of them attack.
And one of them destroys his chariot. One of them chariot wins. Another destroys his bow and arrow.
Another destroys his armour. Another kills his charioteer. Another kills his horses.
So, he is chariotless, weaponless, defenceless. Normally, the Kshatriya code is that you should fight against equals. And equals also should fight when they are equipped and they are alert.
So, in such a situation, where the opponent is chariotless, weaponless, defenceless, the opponent should never reluct. But Karna does the same thing, which was done to him. So, in one sense, the Pandavas are simply paying Karna back in his own coin.
Further, if we see, Karna takes part in this scheme to kill Abhimanyu. Then, later on, this happens on 13th day, 14th day, Arjuna takes this formidable vow that tomorrow I will say Jai Dhrith. And then the whole Kaurava army is arranged to protect Jai Dhrith.
And Arjuna penetrates deep into the Kaurava army and he goes in fighting, fighting, fighting. And finally, Krishna tells Arjuna that if such is the ferocity of the fight, that your horses will become exhausted. And he says that they cannot sustain in this place.
So, therefore, they need rest. Now, what does Arjuna do? Arjuna immediately shoots a flurry of arrows and makes a clearing in the war field itself. And then he invokes some mystic weapons and he shoots arrows.
And there, in the war field itself, a lake appears and a river appears. And trees with fruits and shrubs appear. And he tells Krishna, go and take care of the horses.
Krishna says, bravo! Amazing feat of archery, he says. And then Krishna is appreciating that now the important point is here Arjuna is chariot-less. And the Kauravas don’t stop attacking the Kauravas.
In fact, they charge on him from their elephants, from their horses, from their chariots. And Partha, although he is all alone, Arjuna remembers to say, mam saranthavaham arayo rathino tam. He says, mam saranthavaham arayo rathino tam.
He says, mam saranthavaham My horses were tired. And rathino, I was without the ratha. And my opponents were having ratha.
And still, I was predicted. So, the point is that Arjuna was also put in the same situation. Now, Arjuna does not complain.
Hey, remember the laws of war. Don’t attack me now. I don’t have a chariot.
He says, do that. No, it’s a tag. The heat of the battle is there.
And he fights. Whatever deal we get in life, we have to fight with that deal. So, Arjuna doesn’t complain over there.
So, twice, what happens is, the Kauravas do the same thing that the Pandavas are going to do towards Karna in the end, what Arjuna does. Now, thirdly, on the 17th day itself, the same thing Karna does to Arjuna directly. What happens is, when Karna and Arjuna are fighting, there is a snake arrow.
There is a sarpa-astra. There is a snake, Ashwasena, who enters into one of the arrows of Karna. And he says that, he had some vendetta against Arjuna and he wanted to kill Arjuna.
So, he enters into Karna’s arrow and he shoots that. When Karna shoots the arrow, when they are fighting, Arjuna also has a formidable armour. So, normally, they deal with the arrows in three different ways.
One is that, if the opponent’s arrow is there, you counter it by hitting it and stopping it from the path. Second is, you evade it. So, the chariot will be a smoother chariot so that the arrow will not hit the Karna.
And the third is, you let the arrow hit. But the arrow hits the armour and nothing happens. So, in the heat of the fight, Arjuna sees the arrow coming but he does not recognise what that arrow is.
So, he lets the arrow come towards him. He lets the arrow come towards him. So, at that time, Shalya, the charioteer of Karna, he recognises him.
This is Ashwas. He said, Karna, play it safe. Shoot the arrow at Arjuna’s heart.
Because, you know, if you miss the heart, above there is the neck, below there is the stomach. And both are fatal points. So, don’t take chances.
But Karna, you know, he had a flair for the dramatic. If you shoot a warrior and his head gets blocked off and the head flies in the air and falls off, you know, it’s a magnificent win. It’s like a batsman can score one run in a match and he can hit a sixer in a match.
So, Karna wants to hit a sixer. He says, the warrior will I kill Arjuna? I’ll just block off his head. So, as Shalya tells him, shoot at the chest.
Karna does not listen to him and says, I’ll shoot at his neck. And as that arrow is whizzing towards Arjuna, Arjuna does not recognise the arrow but Krishna recognises. And Krishna, he’s on the chariot and suddenly he puts his legs forcefully down on the foot rest of the chariot.
And because he puts his foot forcefully down, so, the whole chariot sinks into the ground. And then, because the chariot sinks into the ground, so the arrow which was meant to be hit Arjuna on his neck, it knocks off his ground. It knocks off his ground.
So, Krishna protects Arjuna. But the point I’ll make for our discussion is that immediately, this arrow, so, Ashwasen is a snake who has entered into that arrow. He immediately goes back to Karna and he tells Karna, I had entered your arrow but you did not recognise me.
So, shoot again now. And you can kill Arjuna right now. So, Karna says, I will never use the same arrow again.
And I will not take anyone else’s help. I’ll shoot and kill myself. And he starts shooting arrows.
But the important point is, at this point, Arjuna’s chariot has gone under the ground. Because Krishna put his foot forcefully. It’s gone underground.
It’s immobilised. And again, Arjuna doesn’t protect. Karna, don’t shoot at me.
My chariot is immobilised. What happens? Krishna gets off the chariot and lifts the whole chariot up. Arjuna is already there.
The chariot is heavy. Arjuna is there also. Krishna lifts the chariot, pulls it out of the hole which has happened in the earth because of that forceful legs and tongue.
And then they keep fighting. So, during the moments when Krishna is off the chariot, Arjuna is in the same situation. But Karna does not stop fighting.
Karna does not stop attacking. So, three instances with Abhimanyu, Karna himself does the same thing. With Arjuna on the 14th day, Kauravas do the same thing.
And with Arjuna, directly, Karna does the same thing. Then, after that, as the war is going on and on and on, at that time, when Karna’s chariot goes under the ground, then he just jumps up and tries to pull the chariot out. He says, pull the chariot out and it doesn’t come out.
Now, Karna starts ranting, how unjust is Providence. You know, I have always tried to live according to Dharma and still I am being betrayed like this. He gets very angry.
He takes out his Bharata Vastra and shoots. Thousands and thousands of soldiers on the Pandava side are killed. Bhima gets very angry.
Bhima says, oh Karna, oh Arjuna, how have you let Karna break such havoc in our forces in your eyes? If you are going soft, then I will kill Karna right now. So, then Arjuna takes out his Brahmastra and he shoots. Karna is overwhelmed by that.
There is havoc in the Kaurava camp because of that. Then, Karna becomes desperate. He is fighting, fighting, but his chariot is shrinking and that’s why he is not able to move.
So, as I said, you evade the arrows, counter the arrows or let the arrows hit. So, he is not able to evade the arrows. Arjuna is attacking with so much force that he cannot counter all the arrows.
So, the arrows start hitting Karna and he starts getting wounded. And by the sustained attack, Karna starts getting wounded. When that happens, Karna tells Arjuna, oh Partha, do not entertain the thoughts entertained by Kauravas.
Remember the codes of virtue and wait till I am ready to fight. Wait till I get my chariot out on the earth. Now, when he speaks this, Arjuna immediately beautifully lowers his bow.
And then, Krishna tells Karna, oh Karna, it is fortunate indeed that today you remember the codes of virtue. What happened to your memory of the codes of virtue when you along with the five Kauravas came to the land of Indra. Was it virtue that made you suggest that Draupadi will disrobe? Was it virtue that made you call Draupadi a prostitute? Was it virtue by which you conspired to have the Pandavas burnt alive in the house of lakh? Was it virtue by which the Pandavas were dispossessed and robbed of their own kingdom in a dice match? Was it virtue all this time, oh Karna? If that was virtue that you used, Arjuna will use the same virtue today.
Arjuna, shoot! And Arjuna shoots the arrow and kills Karna. So, if you see, Krishna could have arranged for Arjuna to kill Karna in a fair match. As I said, if you look at, we lost track of the score, but the score was basically Arjuna 2, Karna 0. Or 3 rather.
He defeated Draupadi, he defeated Gandharvas and directly in the Virat. So, Karjuna 3, Karna 0. So, in a direct face-off match, Arjuna could have defeated Karna. But the problem is, but the point is, Krishna also wants to illustrate some other principle.
That principle is that in Shatrughna, there are three kinds of morality. I’ll conclude this class with this. There is what is called as Brahaspati Niti, there is Shukra Niti and there is Kanaka Niti.
There are many kinds of Nitis, but broadly speaking, Brahaspati is the Guru of the Devas. So, Brahaspati Niti is always fight virtues. No matter how the opponent fights, always fight virtues.
The Shukra Niti is that fight virtuously with the virtuous opponent. But if you are fighting with a vicious opponent and sticking to virtue will lead to your defeat and you have to pay them back in their own way. Shatho Shakti.
Shatho Shakti. And thirdly is Kanaka was one of the advisors of Shakuni. At that time, everybody had their Brahmana advisors.
So, Shakuni also had a Brahmana advisor. But this Brahmana was almost like a pervert. So, when Dhritarashtra had some pangs of conscience, he says, you know, how can I let my nephews be burnt alive? How can I let them, how can I steal all their kingdom? So, at that time, Shakuni gets Kanaka and he says, you know, this Kanaka tells him that actually, the most important code of dharma is to protect your interests.
And for protecting your interests, even if you have to kill your relatives, it doesn’t matter. This is not dharma. This is only Kanaka’s dharma.
So, anyway, Kanaka says that, just protect your interests. Whatever happens, whatever we are going to do, do it. So, Krishna is demonstrating that in general, we should be virtuous.
But if we are pitted against vicious opponents, then at times, we may have to pay them back in the coin. So, Krishna is wanting to illustrate this principle. And that’s why Krishna arranges for, as Chanakya calls it, Shathopshakhyam.
With the cunning, be cunning. Shathopshakhyam. So, Krishna demonstrates this principle.
So, overall, from the Mahabharata, Karna emerges definitely the tragic figure. And his death is tragic. But, the important point is, if we look at the Karna narrative carefully, we see it’s a tragedy which Karna brings upon himself.
Now, Krishna offers you an opportunity to side with virtue. And, Karna refused that opportunity. That was his tragic blunder which he made.
So, yes, injustice happened to him. But as I said, injustice happens to everyone in life. How we respond to it is important.
So, Karna’s mistake is that he, in the Mahabharata itself says that Karna’s mistake was misdirected loyalty. He’s loyal, but to whom are you going to be loyal? To a person who is who is himself a dharmik, to be loyal to such a person, is not really loyalty. For example, there are the suicide bombers, who they say, we are very loyal to our cause, our commander.
We will give up our life and we’ll blow ourselves up. What is that loyalty? You’re causing the death of innocent people and that your leader is a brutal person and to be loyal to such a person is not really loyalty. So, Krishna, despite all the mistakes that Karna had done, all the grievous things that Karna had done, still Krishna offered Karna a chance for redemption.
Krishna offered Karna a chance to redeem himself. Karna, we don’t know how things could have happened alternatively, but Karna was a virtuous person. If his past had never caused Duryodhana, he would probably had led a life of virtue.
But by the assistance of Duryodhana, he was emotionally manipulated and he let himself be manipulated and he acted in self-enrichedness. But in spite of that, Krishna gave an opportunity to Karna to redeem himself. So, Karna’s mistake, if you want to say that, his first mistake was unquestioning loyalty to Duryodhana.
Yes, we have to be loyal, but then we also have to see what caused him loyalty. And unquestioning loyalty can be a dangerous thing. So, his loyalty to Duryodhana, no matter what Duryodhana did, that was wrong.
Initial gratitude is good. And his biggest blunder was when Krishna offered him a chance to redeem himself, he refused. That is, it’s whatever Duryodhana has, Karna may feel grateful to Duryodhana that he gave him the Anga kingdom.
But as I said, the Anga kingdom was not Duryodhana’s to give first of all. Even if we say it was Duryodhana’s, where did Duryodhana get the kingdom from? Ultimately, everything comes from God. So, if God himself is coming and telling him fight on this side, Karna should have accepted that.
So, Karna is a tragic figure, but his tragedy is largely self-inflicted. It’s a self-inflicted tragedy. And the Mahabharata teaches us many principles, but one of the most important principles it teaches us is this that Krishna is the well-wisher of everyone.
And Krishna, although, Arjuna is Krishna’s great devotee, and naturally Krishna wants to take care of Arjuna, but Krishna is ready to even approach Karna. Actually, for a king to go as a peace messenger, normally, suppose there is a conflict between India and Pakistan. Say, the Prime Minister of India may send some foreign secretary or someone like that as a messenger.
The Prime Minister of India will himself not go as a messenger. So, for Krishna to himself go as a peace messenger, that itself is an act of great humility. And further after, his proposal was callously disregarded.
Imagine India-Pakistan some conflict is going on. So, Indian government sends the foreign secretary as a peace messenger. And Pakistan arrests the foreign secretary and imprisons him only.
That would be outrageous. That’s what Duryodhana tried to do. Krishna had gone as a peace messenger, and Krishna and Duryodhana tried to arrest.
And what he did was, again, Karna did not oppose this. And then, in spite of that, Krishna gave Karna a further chance. So, after Duryodhana had been rejected, Krishna gave Karna a chance.
So, Krishna is the well-wisher of everyone. He was the well-wisher even of Karna. But unfortunately, Karna’s loyalty was misdirected.
Not just that, even if Karna did not accept Krishna as God, even if he said, I don’t believe Krishna is God, still, even from the point of view of mundane morality, the Pandavas’ cause was more virtuous than the Kauravas’ cause. And the Pandavas had offered a proposal that was eminently reasonable. Just five villages.
When Duryodhana refuses that, at least at that point, Karna should have chosen the Pandavas. When he did not, he brought the consequences upon himself. So, the Mahabharata has many subtleties, but the point of the subtleties is that there is Krishna who is the well-wisher of everyone.
And even those who are his opponents, he will be the well-wisher. But how those good wishes come out, that will vary depending on how that person reciprocates. So, there is a very nice Bhagavatam commented here.
In the 7th chapter, the Bhagavatam starts with, Is God partial? You know, Narasimha favoured Prahlad and he killed Hiranyakashipu. So, is he partial? The Bhagavatam says, God is not partial. God is reciprocal.
How we approach him, he reciprocates. So, there is one Bhagavatam commented. It is a beautiful commentary.
He says, how is Narasimha their equal? He says, both Prahlad and Hiranyakashipu got the lap of Narasimha. But they got there in different ways. Why? Because their attitudes were different.
So, Krishna is not partial. He is beneficial to everyone. But depending on how people approach him, Krishna reciprocates accordingly.
Thank you very much. Krishna Prabhupada ki Jai. Gaura Bhakt Vrindaki Jai.
Gaura Pranayama ki Jai.