​Was Karna a glorious example of faithful friendship to Duryodhana?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
0 certainly had a sense of honor and faithfulness but unfortunately it was misdirected now Karna he got attached to Duryodhana and that Duryodhana was a vicious person so Karna had a mistaken sense of loyalty and that mistaken sense of loyalty caused his and the Kauravas destruction indeed it caused a war that was destructive for the whole world practically speaking so let’s look at this incident carefully and understand what is happening so yes when Karna was in need at that time Duryodhana befriended him and Duryodhana offered him the kingdom of Anga offered him royal royal honor and that was definitely something which Karna should have been grateful for and Karna was indeed grateful for him to be grateful for what we have got is definitely good it’s virtuous at the same time you know being grateful to someone does not mean blindly following that person doing whatever they want to do and not considering one’s own conscience or one’s own values so to give a provocative example suppose say there is a young boy in Pakistan who is hungry poverty stricken and practically on the verge of death and if some terrorist group at that time offers him food, clothing, shelter, offers him prestige and power now when he is a small child he may not know what this terrorist group is into but as he grows up and as his intelligence and conscience awakens and he realizes that these terrorists are actually brutalizing innocents they are killing so many innocent people at that time what should he do should he at that time in the name of gratitude stay on with this group of terrorists and become a part of their atrocious plans to kill innocent people or should he part ways with them at that time honor requires parting ways there is a life of honor and there is a world of honor he may have said at that time oh when he had been a child and when he had been a young child and he had been provided his needs by the terrorists he may have said oh I give you my word I will be your friend throughout I will always be there for you but later on when he understands that they are themselves living a dishonorable life unconscionable life in fact then he cannot continue with them so Karna’s situation was similar initially he may not have known how atrocious Duryodhana and the Kauravas were but later on he did realize that when Duryodhana came up with a scheme to try to have the Pandavas burned alive when Duryodhana came up with a scheme along with Shakuni to steal away through gambling everything that the Pandavas had acquired now all these were demoniac things to do and yet Karna did that Karna went along with that but not only went along with that actually Karna he instigated them further now he’s a classic but tragic example of how a good person becomes bad because of bad association because he was attached to Duryodhana who was vicious in character Karna also acted in vicious ways so it was Karna who in the in the gambling assembly after the gambling match in the Kuru assembly he suggested that Draupadi be disrobed and he wanted to do this simply because he wanted to humiliate the Pandavas and because that’s what Duryodhana wanted so basically he acted in a very perverse way and this happened because he was also attached to Duryodhana and later on he regretted his actions saying that in the name of pleasing Duryodhana he had done terrible things he admitted that but by that time it was too late he had already done those things and moving further if we look at the overall incident when Krishna came as Shantidut to the Kuru assembly he offered Duryodhana peace in the most accommodating of terms he said just give the Pandavas five villages and Duryodhana insolently refused that saying that I will not even give enough land to stick the tip of a needle through and then Krishna said then war is inevitable now when bloodshed was inevitable Krishna decided to do all he could to minimize the bloodshed and thus the next morning before departing he asked to meet Karna and at that time Krishna made the offer to Karna that you come over to Pandavas side and you will become the leader of the Pandavas you are actually the eldest of the Pandavas being Kunti’s first son so Karna already knew this but Karna refused saying that Duryodhana has helped me and I have promised to be by his side only by by his confidence in my power that he has challenged the Pandavas so now here here Karna knew the consequence of his of his of his siding with the Kauravas you know if Karna had not been there on the Kauravas side Duryodhana may well not have been so insolent and the whole war might well have been avoided so he had Karna he had made a error of judgment when he had suggested that Draupadi be disrobed but now it was he was persisting in that error so to err is human but to persist in error is not human it is demoniac it is unfortunate and to consider such persistence in error as loyalty is actually stupidity so when Krishna offered Karna the opportunity to come over to the Pandavas he was offering him not an opportunity for not defection but for redemption defection redemption means to go over to the enemy side redemption means to come back on the right side once again so if Karna had not got entangled with the vicious Duryodhana Karna would probably have led a life of virtue and Krishna was offering Karna an opportunity to come on the side of virtue now so it was Krishna’s magnanimity and Karna’s opportunity so Karna had to choose here between the world of honor and the life of honor world of honor means he had to promise Duryodhana that I’ll be your friend always that was his world of honor but in the name of that world of honor he had to live a life of dishonor he had to act viciously to fight on the side of vice but instead Krishna offered him the life of honor to live a life of virtue to be on the side of those who are virtuous and unfortunately when Karna rejected that he sealed his own fate so it was not loyalty but misdirected loyalty yes he was he was a great faithful friend of Duryodhana but actually his friendship was an attachment and that attachment made him into a puppet in Duryodhana’s hand and Duryodhana manipulated Karna by by having him by making him also vicious like him by making him a part in his vicious schemes so Karna unfortunately by choosing a world of honor over the life of honor his misdirected loyalty caused his own destruction and that was his exam so he is an example of a good association good person becoming bad by bad association it is not an example of faithful friendship but is a example of the degeneration of character by attachment to bad association thank you